Dear Editor,

Prime Minister Andrew Holness created a recent media firestorm when he stated, inter alia, that we had a flirtation with ideologies that were foreign to us and did not serve us well. If we had stayed the economic course, he said, Jamaica would be a better place today.

This was a direct reference to Michael Manley and his leadership of Jamaica in the 70s when he declared that he would walk hand in hand to the mountaintop with the then Fidel Castro of communist Cuba. The result was that Jamaica experienced a period of traumatic economic and political turmoil, which resulted in a record 800 Jamaican citizens dead from political infighting and the historic landslide defeat of the People’s National Party (PNP) on October 31, 1980 by the Edward Seaga-led Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

Delano Franklyn has since mounted a robust defence of Manley and laid out many of the achievements of that era. He listed, among others, black consciousness, free education, Cuban-built schools, and Jamaican Movement for the Advancement of Literacy (JAMAL). He stated, in particular, “The Cuban Government also provided a scholarship programme, which resulted in hundreds of Jamaicans being able to pursue higher education in areas such as medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry, agriculture, and technical studies.

Franklyn’s defence was skilfully and carefully worded as he meandered through the raindrops without getting wet. He was so convincing. However, he deliberately forgot, or omitted to tell us about the notorious Brigadista Programme in which hundreds of Jamaicans went to Cuba, where they participated in Government-run camps that trained them in paramilitary strategies. Even today many such ex-brigadistas are tight-lipped about what transpired, unlike author Colin Dennis in his book The road not taken: Memoirs of a reluctant guerilla. Dennis, in an interview with the media, stated that some of his brigadista “classmates” included hardened criminals. He believes the programme contributed to political violence in Jamaica through the 1970s and gave birth to unwavering criminality that currently affects the country. “It facilitated the gun culture; the Government was helping to arm poor people,” Dennis said.

Franklyn ought to have known better than to try the stunt of pulling the wool over the eyes of many Jamaicans who are students of history and who had to live through this period when the Comrades controlled the “commanding heights” of this country. He should talk to political historians and authors like Richard Small, Garfield Higgins of the Jamaica Observer, or Pearnel Charles Senior, who could relate his experience in detention at “Red fence” in Up Park Camp, to learn the truth about Michael Manley’s legacy.

Stephen Reid

Ocho Rios, St. Ann

stephenbreid40@yahoo.com