Today, we continue our observance of the 25th anniversary of the Jamaica Observer by reflecting on one of the big events covered by this newspaper since its first publication on March 7, 1993. The reflection will continue on Sunday.

The death of former Jamaica Prime Minister and Caribbean statesman Michael Manley on March 6, 1997 at age 72 warranted use of the well-worn cliché, end of an era.

Declining health had forced Manley to retire from politics in 1992, midway his second tenure as prime minister. He died six days after another former Caribbean firebrand, Guyana’s Cheddi Jagan, passed away in that country.

The tributes rolled in for Manley, who became Jamaica’s fourth prime minister in 1972. His socialist policies and grassroots programmes made him a hero of the working class, but made him a pariah among the Jamaican establishment who blamed him for middle-class flight and a battered economy during the 1970s.

Hundreds of admirers, including Cuban President Fidel Castro, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and singer/activist Harry Belafonte attended a State funeral for Manley on March 16. The service took place at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kingston, followed by his interment at National Heroes’ Park.

Castro, who shared a close friendship with Manley since the early 1970s, received a rousing welcome from the moment he stepped out of his vehicle on North Street outside the cathedral through to his entry into the famous church.

Both men shared similar views on Caribbean and Latin American integration, and steadfastly supported the anti-colonial movement in Africa.

Manley’s bond with Communist Cuba was a sore point for the United States Administration at a time when the Cold War was at its most frigid. It may have led to the loss suffered by Manley’s People’s National Party (PNP) to the conservative Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in the October 30, 1980 General Election.

Sir Shridath Ramphal, former secretary-general of the Commonwealth and pro vice-chancellor at the University of the West Indies, also attended the State funeral. He hailed Manley as an outstanding Caribbean figure.

“He will have a substantive place in history,” said Ramphal.

United States Congressman Charles Rangel, another attendee, described Manley as “a great man from a small country”.

But Manley also had many detractors, including commentators Morris Cargill and Wilmot Perkins who were among his staunchest critics in the 1970s. In a 1998 interview with the Jamaica Observer, Cargill likened Manley to a fallen matinee idol who led Jamaicans down a path of ruin.

Pearnel Charles of the JLP had an indifferent relationship with Manley. Charles was detained for over one year at Up Park Camp during the State of Emergency which Manley ordered in 1976 to stem out-of-control crime.

Charles told the Observer that he and Manley gradually resolved their differences through meetings initiated by Howard Aris, a Manley confidante.

“I went to see him when he was sick and we spoke of all the things that had gone on between us. At the end of it, we shook hands and agreed to forget the past,” said Charles, who attended Manley’s funeral.

Michael Manley succeeded his father Norman Manley as PNP president in 1969. Three years later, he led the party to state power for the first time, promising a new day for Jamaica’s black majority.

Within two years, Manley declared democratic socialism as his Administration’s mantra, a move that fired up hardliners but irked some of his mainstream supporters. His achievements include the National Housing Trust, which provides loans to middle-income Jamaicans to purchase houses, and maternity leave and benefits for working women.

But the Jamaican economy had tanked by 1979 and the PNP were trounced in national polls one year later by the JLP.

However, in 1989, Manley returned to power as a moderate.

In the 21 years since his death, Manley’s legacy has been examined in several books. Perhaps the most definitive is Delano Franklyn’s Michael Manley: The Politics of Equality, a compilation of his budget presentations from 1969 to 1972. In many of Manley’s parliamentary speeches he projected a level playing field for the Jamaican worker. It is something on which he and his old adversary Pearnel Charles shared common ground.

“His radical socialist policies were opposite to my beliefs, but his concerns and passion for the working class were attractive to me,” said Charles.