DR Percy Broderick, a jovial and wise-cracking politician with a healthy laugh and the ability to maintain friendships across the party-divide, died yesterday after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 67.

Broderick was immediately hailed by his own Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), for which he served as agriculture minister from 1980-89, and the ruling People’s National Party, as a warm man who held deep convictions.

“The JLP has lost one of its stalwarts and one of its most colourful personalities,” the party’s chairman, Bruce Golding, said in a statement. “. Broderick will long be remembered for the warmth of his personality, his passionate advocacy on behalf of farmers and rural communities and his deep commitment to his country.”

Said Prime Minister P J Patterson: “He was a man of strong convictions who also had a fine sense of humour. The passing of Broderick brings to a close the distinguished career of an outstanding Jamaican who has served his country well in the fields of politics, agriculture and dental medicine.”

Broderick is survived by his wife Maria as well as two sons and two daughters. He was also the brother of lawyer and JLP politician, Laurie Broderick..

At the time of his death at the Tony Thwaites Wing at the University Hospital of the West Indies, Broderick, a dentist by training and a farmer by inclination, was deputy chairman of the JLP.

He has also served as general secretary of the party, as a deputy leader, a senator and for 17 years, up to 1989, as Member of Parliament for North Central Clarendon.

“Broderick was a respected voice in the JLP and served influential positions,” said outgoing JLP leader Edward Seaga, in whose 1980s administration Broderick served and with whom he also quarrelled.

“He will be remembered for his strength of presence at all party functions and in the Cabinet where his forceful articulate reasoning was always [respected] and carried great influence,” Seaga added.

But it was for his championing of agriculture and the interest of farmers that Broderick will likely to be most widely remembered.

Yesterday, Seaga credited Broderick with leading a recovery of the banana and sugar industries in the 1980s “after (they) reached their lowest points in the previous decade”.

Current agriculture minister, Roger Clarke, a political opponent but close friend of Broderick, described him “an unusual politician (who was) controversial at times”.

“I will remember him for his flamboyance, his down-to-earth approach and his development of (agriculture) as minister,” said Clarke. “He had a passion for small farmers.”

Clarke said he often had discussions with Broderick on the agricultural issues of the day and was “guided sometimes by the advice he gave”.

Norman Grant, the president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), the farm sector lobby, remembered Broderick’s efforts on behalf of farmers and for “the stringent measure he proposed for dealing with praedial thieves”.

“The JAS and the farmers recognise his sterling contribution to the development of agriculture and also (his) involvement in the process of national development.”