Dear Editor,

Former People’s National Party (PNP) member of Parliament, Dr D K Duncan, says that the National Housing Trust’s (NHT) original mandate was not to serve the poor, but rather to meet the housing needs of contributing workers.

I do not believe, like some commentaries I have read and heard, that Duncan is working to discredit Michael Manley’s legacy but may be attempting to be objective by going where the facts lead.

If he chose to say Michael was a good socialist lyricist who admired socialists/socialism from a distance no nearer than 90 miles from Jamaica, would not be far from the truth and perhaps right. No problem.

While some people were running scared away from a socialist ghost, a Warren Buffett would have advised to run towards Jamaica, “buy it, hold it and prosper” many did and today are reaping the sweets.

A Professor Trevor Munroe or a Fidel Castro would be competent to answer the question, “was Michael Manley a socialist, democratic or otherwise?”

It would be interesting to also hear a DK’s response. The so called 21 families stood firm because they knew, according to Karl Marx, “he who has economic power has real political power.”

That is relevant even today that they have become and are becoming wealthier and more powerful by the minute.

Fundamentally the social and economic relations remained intact under Jamaica’s lyrical socialist era. Today the sweet syrup of capitalism is being enjoyed locally and globally by even those who spouted socialist ideals, with many staunch countries and leaders joining the capitalist production train.

Locally, many have moved from Ladas to Benz, BMW and Audi, and living in the hills away from the masses, once seen as symbols of capitalist oppressors. Now we all aspire for those Babylon things even living above our means hanging our baskets where we cannot reach it as the capitalism sweetener has become irresistible.

What Jamaica now needs is to champion, a deepening and mobilization of the economic processes to make the rural and urban poor participate meaningfully in nation’s wealth creation with the greatest emphasises on the neglected rural poor. Therein lay the secret to solving our many problems, crime being one of them.

Michael Spence