THE Butch Stewart Initiative (BSI), which galvanised massive national support among the people and revalued the Jamaican dollar in 1992, will be especially remembered for winning over the usually sceptical news media.

In a rare move, The Gleaner newspaper published three editorials in just over four weeks — two of them coming within three days of each other — lauding the initiative, while running scores of letters and columns in a lopsided debate ‘for’ as ‘against’.

Commentators and letter writers ran out of adjectives to describe ‘Butch’ Stewart, the Sandals chairman and architect of the save-the-dollar campaign, with one calling him a modern-day Moses, and several saying only God could have inspired him to undertake what he did.

Stewart announced on April 14, 1992 that he would shock the black market by pumping US$1 million a week into the official foreign exchange market at below prevailing rates to help halt the slide of the jamaican dollar. Not even he could have foreseen the avalanche of support that his initiative would generate.

“It is now about 10 weeks since the Stewart initiative to rescue the value of the local currency from its rapid depreciation on the foreign exchange market, and all the evidence, it seems, is that the initiative has had a welcome effect on checking the devaluation,” The Gleaner wrote in its June 30 editorial headlined ‘Stabilising the dollar’.

“There may be arguments as to whether the resultant strengthening in the value of the dollar is sustainable, and whether the intervention in the market is not a distortion of the free market system. The point, however, is that if the market becomes a drag on economic stability, intervention can be justified, and, in the words of Mr Stewart, the measure has worked. The country feels it,” the editorial trumpeted.

Some of the earliest supportive commentators included Dr Henry Lowe; Sameer Younis; Paul Chen- Young; Andrew Cocking; Edward Ashenheim; Winston Spaulding; Vin Kelly, the ad man; Billy Craig; Vivian Rochester; St Ann Custos O A Tomlinson; Errol Zaidie; Robert Levy, the Jamaica Broilers chairman; Dr Carlton Davis; Mandeville Mayor L G Porter; Howard Hamilton, QC; Peter J C Thwaites and many others too numerous to mention here. From schoolchildren in Christiana to pensioners in Trench Town, the message to ‘Butch’ was the same: “Thank you, Mr Stewart for saving our country.”

Media commentators who hailed or addressed the move included Carl Wint; Terry Smith; C Roy Reynolds; Dawn Ritch; Christine King; Paget deFreitas; the German Vogue magazine; the Western Mirror newspaper; the Travel Week Bulletin; Valerie Ndekhedehe; Caribbean Today; the Jamaica Beat; the Jamaica Pace-Setter Magazine; Fr Richard Holung and Morris Cargill.

“After showing signs of stability at the beginning of the year, the value of the Jamaican dollar against its US counterpart has weakened significantly, a situation with frightening implications for social and economic stability. Hence the Stewart Initiative,” The Gleaner had written in its second editorial, titled ‘The exchange rate’ almost a month before. “The action of a growing list of foreign exchange-earning businesses to supply given amounts of foreign currency to the market at a rate not exceeding J$25.00 to US$1.00 (where Stewart started) reflects a recognition, it seems, that what was happening in the foreign exchange market could, in the long run, be in no one’s best interest.”

The paper’s leading columnist at the time, Dawn Ritch started her July 5, 1992 column thus: “Dis country nuh have nuh elected leader,” the higgler told me. “Is Butch Stewart a run it.” Later in the column she said of Stewart: “Butch Stewart, the man who decided to sell millions of dollars at 25 when they were selling at 30, is the darling of the media and the sidewalks. She wrote that “(Prime Minister P J) Patterson was given a political gift when Butch Stewart stepped in to halt the slide of the dollar”.

Addressing the issue in a review of Jamaican political and economic news in the year 1992, the regional CANA, Caribbean News Agency’s deFreitas said: “Clearly, what became known as the ‘Butch Stewart Initiative’ played a part in the economic stability that helped to underpin the popularity enjoyed by Patterson.”

Also looking back on 1992, Carl Wint wrote that, for him, Stewart and Patterson stood out. “Call it patriotism. Call it self-interest. Call it whatever you want, the fact is that he (Stewart) stepped in, injected foreign exchange at below current market rate to try to halt the slide. There were many who questioned the intervention and who said the initiative could not work. But it did,” said The Gleaner assistant editor.

Writing in the same paper, veteran C Roy Reynolds declared: “It takes a lot of ‘Scroogishness’ to try to dampen all this (excitement about the initiative). Even a slave to the economic textbooks must realise that a people’s dynamism and hopefulness is one of the greatest tools to advancement. So why the wet blanket? Nothing else has held the prospect for success as what has been initiated by Mr Stewart. So, instead of trying to ridicule him, we should encourage the now snowballing movement. At least it has the potential of delaying the day of wrath, a la Los Angeles.”

Ashenheim, who headed the Jamaica Employers’ Federation, said: “Mr Stewart’s move is worthy of emulation by others and we do hope his efforts will receive the support of the small businessman by faithful application of the benefits flowing from the gesture.”

Dr Henry Lowe, at the time president and CEO of Blue Cross, wrote to Stewart saying: “I write to offer sincere congratulations to you for the tremendous initiative (The Butch Stewart Initiative), which has done so much, not only for the strengthening of our currency, but moreso, for the new feeling of hope and positive outlook which is now being experienced by all of us as Jamaicans.”

Custos Tomlinson sent a telegram to Stewart describing him as not only “a great son of the garden parish (St Ann), but also our beautiful country… You are the greatest.”

According to Hamilton, later the public defender: “…From the standpoint of the vast majority of Jamaicans who are feeling the full and frightening impact of the daily slide of dollar, the Butch Stewart Initiative could not have come at a better time.”

Disagreeing with the majority sentiment, general secretary of the Jamaica Vendors, Higglers and Market Association, Dunstan Whittingham commented: “Our position is not that we wouldn’t support the initiative in some way. But, in another way, we would not want to support it because it should have been introduced long ago… Paul Bogle would get up and walk if he knew that the two-dollar bill which carries his face couldn’t even buy a box drink for a young student.”

Writing on behalf of the students of the Christiana Moravian Primary School in Manchester, young Kadie Sinclair told Stewart: “We would like to thank you and also congratulate you for being successful in stabilising the Jamaican dollar. This is very beneficial to us Jamaicans as we can pay for certain items. The prices may not have dropped drastically, but at least it has made things easier on our parents…”.