As National Heroes’ Day approaches we turn our minds to our national heroes for whom it was not enough to live an ordinary existence, but, instead — by their courageous quest for freedom and selfless nationalism — left a legacy.

From the first celebration of a national holiday in their honour on October 20, 1969 controversy has surrounded the question: Who, from among those who have come after, should be so recognised and awarded?

Sunday Observer‘s Editor-at-Large H G Helps, in his Sunday Brew column, raised the vexing issue of awarding additional people the nation’s highest honour. In the July 12, 2021 edition he made a plea for former prime ministers to be added to the current list of national heroes comprising Alexander Bustamante, Norman Manley, Marcus Garvey, George William Gordon, Sam Sharpe, Nanny of the Maroons, and Paul Bogle.

“It seems as if the leaders of the land are afraid to reward some people with what they truly deserve. It is time that former prime ministers Michael Manley, Edward Seaga, and P J Patterson be so recognised, for they, despite shortcomings, have represented Jamaica with distinction and have done for this country more than what leaders before them and after have. So why is there this major delay in arriving at the inevitable?”

If one is to go by public opinion, enrolling prime ministers in the Order of National Hero is anything but inevitable, and the plea by H G Helps is sure to fall on deaf ears. This is not a matter of conjecture or debate. The Jamaican people have spoken.

A Bill Johnson poll was conducted in which he asked the following question: Since Jamaica became independent, 55 years ago, who do you think has done the most to build and develop the country? The result, published in the August 1, 2017 edition of The Gleaner, was summarised as follows: “For those who opted to name someone who has done the most to build and develop Jamaica since Independence, former prime ministers Michael Manley, P J Patterson, Edward Seaga, Portia Simpson Miller, and Bruce Golding, plus the man in the seat at this time, Andrew Holness, all received mentions, but none were able to reach 10 per cent of support. According to political analyst Kevin O’Brien Chang, this is not surprising, as Jamaica has not had a really outstanding prime minister.”

That same poll sought to determine who Jamaicans recognised as a great nation-builder by including the following question: Is there anyone else you think should be named a national hero of Jamaica? Of the 45 per cent who responded “yes” to the question, 17 per cent identified Bob Marley and 16 per cent Usain Bolt. The politician getting the highest support was Michael Manley, with two per cent. Portia Simpson Miller, Edward Seaga, and Andrew Holness each got one per cent.

On the issue of trust, respondents to the Bill Johnson poll ranked politicians dead last below artistes and entertainers, business leaders, and even the police. Only six per cent said they can trust politicians, 88 per cent said they cannot trust politicians, and six per cent said that they don’t know.

Would Jamaica be better off today if it had remained a colony of Great Britain? As shocking as the answers to this question on the poll were, and as much as one might want to forget the economic and social circumstances in which the country finds itself, it requires serious non-partisan reflection on the findings that would probably be the same or worse were the poll conducted today. Only 27 per cent strongly disagreed or disagreed with the statement that Jamaica would have been better off had it remained a British colony. A majority 73 per cent said they strongly agreed, agreed, or didn’t know.

In his last public address to an annual conference of the People’s National Party (PNP), in September 1968, national hero and former Premier Norman Washington Manley bequeathed to the generation of politicians that came after him a yardstick by which to measure the progress of the nation following the attainment of Independence. His words and wise counsel are worth repeating having two months ago celebrated our 59th anniversary as an independent nation, and as we approach yet another National Heroes’ Day in a time of great adversity and uncertainty.

“I say that the mission of my generation was to win self-government for Jamaica, to win political power, which is the final power for the black masses of my country from which I spring. I am proud to stand here today and say to you, who fought that fight with me, say it with gladness and pride, mission accomplished for my generation. And what is the mission of this generation? It is reconstructing the social and economic society and life of Jamaica?”

While there are good people and strong individual performers in politics, politics as a national endeavour has, in the opinion of most citizens, failed to do for Jamaica what Norman Manley envisioned. Although our political leaders must lift the heavy end of the load, this is not a job for them alone. Every Jamaican at home and abroad must recommit to nation-building, especially in this time of unprecedented challenges posed by the spiralling murder rate and the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The hope must be that what we do abroad in athletics, music, and many other fields, we will one day do a ‘yaad’ in nation-building, “so that Jamaica may, under God, increase in beauty, fellowship, and prosperity, and play her part in advancing the welfare of the whole human race”.

hmorgan@cwjamaica.com