It's a hard road to travel ...

Former Prime Minister Edward Seaga is all set to launch volume two of his detailed auto-biography on November 8, at an event to be held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in St Andrew.

Anticipation though, is already high, following on the heels of the positive reception which volume one, released in March, was met with. Political enthusiasts across the world grabbed up volume one, which covered the years 1930-1980 and they have eagerly been calling for more.

Edward Seaga - My Life and Leadership: Volume II: Hard Road to Travel 1980-2008 is the answer to that call. This volume will include the statesman's thoughts on the period which included issues relating to the financial meltdown of the mid-1990s, socialism, state corruption and crime.

The autobiography is published by Macmillan Publishers. See a review of the My Life and Leadership volumes below.

• Towards a 'Promised Land'

Ken Jones, Contributor

A whole generation of Jamaicans has grown up without knowing that this country was once the most promising and progressive among small, independent nations of the world. Others, while experiencing the transition, still do not fully understand how we lost the compass and changed course from the reality of post-colonial development to the shadowy promise of something better and easier to achieve. Now, for the enlightenment of all, we have Edward Seaga's first-hand account of these events; and they are well told in two volumes of his biography: My Life and Leadership.

My Life and Leadership recites Seaga's personal upbringing, aspirations, carefully charted career, challenges confronted, creative responses and the numerous positive accomplishments that fruited from his efforts. This makes very interesting reading and is much more than a résumé of distinction. The author's life is inextricably interwoven with almost every major national development in Jamaica since Independence and in the period preparing for nation-building.

A major fault in the Jamaican fabric occurs because most of our people show little respect for their past; do not know or have not been properly told about the value and virtue of their antecedents. Additionally, because many of our great leaders have left us without a first-hand record of their experiences, we often repeat past errors, or mount our initiatives on false or foolish premises. Seaga is the first to give a full accounting, which includes a compelling and revealing review of Jamaica's modern developments. There is hardly anyone more qualified or better able to relate and explain the complex components of this subject.

No peace, prosperity

Puzzled Jamaicans have wondered why peace and sustained prosperity continue to elude the nation despite available resources for success. Singer Mykal Rose opines: "We are too blessed to be so stressed, too anointed to be so disappointed"; Prime Minister Golding declares: "Jamaica is too rich to be so poor ... too able to be so disabled!" Elder statesman Seaga, introducing part two of his biography, endorses the cry: "... endowed with rich natural resources, gifted with people who are keen to learn ... blessed with some of the most creative cultural talent in the world ... Jamaica has no reason to be poor."

To this vexed question, My Life and Leadership provides some answers that include evidence supported by thousands of documents. From this distillation of historic material, readers will gain rare insights and be better able to decide whether the great turning point from promise to despair took place in the '70s. This outpouring of facts and figures makes My Life and Leadership a must-read for everyone, particularly opinion leaders, those active in civil society and others concerned with current affairs. Some will pre-judge the issues before seeing a page of Seaga's books. However, the search for truth must take into account the value of views coming from the proverbial river bottom.

The period of the '70s was perhaps the most traumatic period in the history of independent Jamaica. Change and decay took place at a mind-boggling pace; and the effect of those events, good and bad, still weigh heavily on today's social, cultural and economic conditions. Seaga sees 1976 as "... the pivotal year of Jamaica's post-Independence history" ; and, citing official statistics, he records how government expenditures reached 41.2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), " ... creating a huge budgetary gap, the magnitude of which was not possible to be closed by loans." Net International Reserves had fallen from US$239 million to minus US$74.6 million, investment plunged from 31.22 per cent of GDP to 18.2 per cent and economic growth moved more than 14 per cent downward.

That situation was forecast in 1975, during a national broadcast in which Seaga quoted from what was then described as a "Ministry of Finance document". Now we know that it was a "secret Cabinet submission which came to my hand". The document commented:

"It is most unlikely that we will be able to secure external loans for the rest of this year ... it is probable that the BOJ financing will have to meet the greater part, if not all of the shortfall ... our situation this year is multiplied four times in its misery, when compared with BOJ assistance of $25 million in 1974/75 ... we are already spending way beyond all resources. Only ... abandonment of programmes and projects together with an all-out assault on waste and extravagance will enable us to recover financial stability ... ."

After that revealing broadcast contradicting a rosy-pink picture painted by the government, the police raided RJR and seized the tape. Seaga adds: "The staff of RJR, including journalists whose interest it is to shed light and disclose facts, threatened to go slow if I was allowed to re-broadcast my radio address ... ." Of such were the times!.

Declining economy

After 1976, the economy continued to deteriorate until near-1980 when the National Planning Agency's Economic and Social Survey advised: "... overall output in the economy declined, the crisis in the foreign exchange situation persisted, the rate of inflation ... was still acute ... ; investment in the public sector was reduced while that in the private sector remained depressed, and real wages and the level of living declined further ..."

Power for the people had become sour for the people: severe shortage of consumer goods, closure of factories and mass emigration of productive people. The gloomy economic climate was not the only feature of the turning point. There were other negatives and, in fairness, some important positives. Seaga acknowledges: "... social legislation introduced in the period ... went directly to the correction of social alienation and deprivation of the rights of women and children, settlement of employment disputes, and other social problems experienced in daily life by a considerable number of people ... It was the rhetoric of Michael Manley that raised the bar of self-esteem and racial pride among people of African origin, in continuation of Garvey's mission ... ." Unfortunately, the "excellent package of social legislation, while greatly appreciated by the poor, could not be maintained by an equally poor economy."

No review of this length can adequately cover all the significant issues dealt with in My Life and Leadership. Nor is any reader likely to digest at one sitting, this large and varied serving of food for thought. Happily, the books provide a menu to stimulate the appetite of readers yearning for substance and sustenance. Eat of this, and the mind should be opened to understand the whys and wherefores of present difficulties, including government mismanagement and indebtedness; the scary murder rate; the weakening of the justice system, police abuses, corruption in public life; gang warfare and political terrorism; the politicisation of the media; the general deterioration of social conduct; and the intensification of disunity in our country.

Polarisation

Add to the mix of woes, confusion and divisiveness caused by excessive political polarisation and the untimely flirtations with alien ideologies. Volume two deals with this matter at some length, and reveals reports from a "secret source" that implicate well-known persons who attempted to take Jamaica into the Comintern. Some are still active in public affairs; and Jamaicans will be interested to hear responses from them, as well as others named in numerous scandals affecting public business.

My Life and Leadership is a journal of Jamaica's journey from a sheltered 'Anchorage' to a challenging 'Promised Land'. We changed course, sailing from 'Euphoria' in search of 'Utopia', only to be becalmed in a socialistic 'Sargasso'. It is from this sea of flotsam that we are now struggling to extricate the ship of state; and the task is made more difficult when so few are fully aware of the route travelled. Chances are, Seaga's experiences can help us find an exit - but only if they are made required reading for captain, crew, bewildered passengers and fellow-travellers alike.

' ... Endowed with rich natural resources, gifted with people who are keen to learn ... blessed with some of the most creative cultural talent in the world Jamaica has no reason to be poor.'