OK Melhado, a key member of the campaign team that helped make Michael Manley prime minister of Jamaica in 1972, says his controversial policies made him the perfect leader for the country at that time.

Melhado, 83, spoke to the Jamaica Observer days before the 50th anniversary of Manley’s historic victory in which he led the People’s National Party (PNP) to a 37-16 win over the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) on February 29, 1972.

“Absolutely. Absolutely,” said Melhado, when asked if Manley made a difference in his first term as prime minister. “The 70s did two things for me. For all the difficulties, of everlasting importance some legislation was passed which to this day is still there…equal pay for women, maternity leave, the Industrial Court, the bastard Act. These are profound pieces of legislation.”

The bastard Act was the popular name coined for the Status of Children Act passed in 1976, which made all children equal before the law and thus eliminated from our vocabulary the stigmatised word “bastard” formerly used in reference to children born out of wedlock.

Melhado also addressed the middle-class flight that took place midway Manley’s first term. Many influential Jamaicans, fearing the country was going communist because of Manley’s close ties to Fidel Castro and Cuba, moved to the United States and Canada.

But the respected businessman believes even that resulted in some positives.

“There was much crying about the brain drain, and I’m sure brain drains do hurt. But on the other hand, a whole new entrepreneurial class took its place and people who never saw any opportunities in business for themselves, people who had difficulty getting loans from banks, talking to the right people, became empowered. And that also exists today,” he said.

Melhado, who first met Manley at a cricket match at Sabina Park in 1968, became the charismatic politician’s special assistant when he assumed office in March 1972. He said during their initial discussion, they spoke about cricket and matters affecting Jamaica which was governed by the JLP since gaining Independence from Britain in August 1962.

In 1969, Manley defeated Vivian Blake to assume leadership of the PNP, succeeding his father Norman Manley. He was highly critical of the JLP Government, then led by Prime Minister Hugh Shearer, for upholding colonial-type policies that were not beneficial to black Jamaicans.

“It seemed to me, regardless of my politics, that we were doing all the things that had gone before and we were not really saying, ‘We are independent, and it’s time for us to form a more equitable society’,” said Melhado.

Born in Kingston, Owen Karl Melhado was raised in middle-class Jamaica. He attended Munro College and worked in the private sector at the time he met Manley, a graduate of London School of Economics, who made his name on his return to Jamaica in the labour movement with the National Workers’ Union.

Manley appointed Melhado his campaign manager for the Kingston Central constituency which he successfully contested against the JLP’s Errol Anderson.

Melhado recalls the PNP running a “brilliant campaign”, guided by Vice-President PJ Patterson, and energetic firebrands like DK Duncan, Arnold Bertram, Desmond Henry, Ralston Smith, and Paul Fitz-Ritson.

“Michael was a mesmerising speaker. His language and imagery reached out to the people, and was a serious statement for change,” said Melhado. “He was able to keep the broad spectrum over the election. He never really placed it under a dogma; he never presented it as socialism.”

As for their chances in the election, Melhado remembers great optimism in the camp. Internal polls and that of Carl Stone at The University of the West Indies projected a big win for the PNP.

That victory came on the birthday of Edna Manley, Manley’s mother, and widow of his father who died in 1969.

Melhado stayed with the PNP Administration when it was returned to power in 1976, and when the party lost power four years later to the JLP. When Manley returned to power in 1989, he was appointed chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board.

Michael Manley died on March 6, 1997 at age 72.