(MENAFN- Caribbean News Now) By Caribbean News Now contributor\n
KINGSTON, Jamaica \u2013 Within hours after news of the passing away of Jamaica's former prime minister, Edward Seaga was announced on Twitter by Jamaica's current Prime Minister Andrew Holness, tributes and speeches started streaming in. Caribbean leaders sent through their condolences to Seaga's family and the people of Jamaica.\n
Bahamian Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis expressed his sincere condolences on behalf of the government and people of The Bahamas, to the Jamaican government, people of Jamaica and the family of Edward Seaga:\n id=\"mNCC\" language=\"javascript\">medianet_width='468';medianet_height= '60';medianet_crid='637422217'; id=\"mNSC\" src=\"http:\/\/contextual.media.net\/nmedianet.js?cid=8CUVV6306\" language=\"javascript\"> \n\n
\u201cSeaga will be remembered for many contributions to the country that he served. He was the longest-serving parliamentarian in Jamaica and played a significant role in shaping that country\u2019s constitution when Jamaica gained its independence from Britain in 1962,\u201d said Minnis.\n
The statement from the government here reads, \u201cPrime Minister Gaston Browne has asked that the sympathies of the people and government of Antigua and Barbuda be conveyed to the wife and family of former Prime Minister Seaga and the people and government of Jamaica, on their loss of a very significant leader in the continuous evolution of Jamaica." The statement also proclaimed, "The Caribbean has lost a son. The people of Jamaica have lost a servant.\u201d\n
Prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley proclaimed that "Jamaica and the Caribbean have lost a true son and statesman with the passing of Edward Seaga… on his 89th birthday and on behalf of the government and people of Barbados, I extend sincere condolences to his family and all Jamaica." Mottley also added, "Mr Seaga, through his love for, and devotion to, Jamaica and his commitment to regional integration has certainly left us all in the Caribbean a legacy of service that by far outweighed his almost nine decades on this earth."\n
The government of Saint Lucia also extended condolences, \u201cIt is with great sadness that the Caribbean region received the news about the most honourable Edward Seaga and on behalf of the government and people of Saint Lucia, I express our sincere condolences to Jamaica\u2019s Prime Minister Andrew Holness, the entire government and the people of Jamaica,\u201d noted Saint Lucia\u2019s Prime Minister Allen Chastanet. \u201cMany old enough will recall that Seaga was a leader in what was considered to be one of the more difficult times in the region\u2019s development, he helped to shape a post-independence Jamaica and we are grateful for the contribution he made to Jamaica and the wider Caribbean.\u201d\n
Timothy Harris, prime minister of St Kitts and Nevis reflected, \u201cMy colleague heads of government and I will always carry Edward Seaga\u2019s hopeful message in our hearts as we strive to maintain the standing of our [Caribbean] region as a zone of peace and stability buttressed by respect for human rights and democracy. These are guiding principles from which we shall never depart, and we will long remember the crucial role that Edward Seaga played in establishing them.\u201d\n
Seaga has shaped Jamaica\u2019s post-independence politics and cultural life. He was Jamaica\u2019s prime minister from 1980 until 1989 and was the sole remaining politician of the generation of leaders who drafted Jamaica's constitution when the Caribbean island gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1962.\n
Seaga's political career blossomed in the late 1950's and he was elected into parliament in 1962. His success in politics is historic, having held a parliamentary seat longer than anyone in Jamaica\u2019s history as West Kingston\u2019s representative for 40 consecutive years.\n
Born in Massachusetts to Jamaican-Lebanese parents May 28, 1930, Seaga relinquished his American citizenship at a tender age to demonstrate his allegiance to Jamaica.\n
Before getting involved in politics, Seaga studied anthropology at Harvard University and was also a major record producer who ran the West Indies Record Ltd distribution company and played a part in introducing ska to the world. Alexander Bustamante, Jamaica\u2019s first prime minister and Labor Party founder, appointed Seaga at the age of 29 to Jamaica\u2019s upper legislative house.\n
Seaga, as opposition leader in the 1970's, protested against the socialist plan of then-Prime Minister Michael Manley, saying it disabled Jamaica\u2019s fragile economy. In 1980, Seaga\u2019s Labor Party won the general election ousting the incumbent Manley and the People\u2019s National Party\u2019s \u201cdemocratic socialist\u201d regime. Seaga reported the landslide triumph as a \u201cdeclaration against communism in Jamaica.\u201d\n
As Jamaica\u2019s prime minister, Seaga initiated a pro-American, free-market economy, which many consider Jamaica\u2019s most flourishing era. He was American president Ronald Reagan\u2019s most trusted Caribbean ally and was able to boost a struggling economy that was walloped by soaring inflation and extensive joblessness. However, national debt skyrocketed.\n
The lead up to the elections of 1980 that sprang Seaga to power was very violent. Approximately 800 people were killed in conflicts between opposing partisans. For some older Jamaicans, Seaga is permanently connected with the 1970's state-sponsored political violence, when Jamaica\u2019s two main political parties used gun-toting criminals to coerce voters.\n
Seaga attained fame in the 1960's for bulldozing a nefarious slum and developing Tivoli Gardens, Jamaica\u2019s first public housing project, which he permeated with advocates of the Labor Party. The politicised area became a hotbed of what Jamaica terms \u201cgarrison politics,\u201d where vote-rich slums become stable power bases for one party.\n
After a fatal 1978 military ambush of gangsters aligned to Seaga\u2019s Labor Party, Jamaica\u2019s leading reggae musicians took the stage at a Kingston concert to promote peace. The highlight moment of the show that is immortalised in Jamaican consciousness is Reggae icon Bob Marley getting Manley and Seaga to clasp hands over his head and promised to end the violence. It was unsuccessful; the conflict only got more violent.\n
In 1989, Seaga\u2019s party lost the general election to Manley after he transformed into a centrist. However, Seaga remained Labor\u2019s leader for many years afterwards and he built national institutions such as the annual festival celebrations, the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission and the HEART National Training Agency, among other institutions.\n
Holness is a Seaga protege and Jamaica's current prime minister from the Labor Party. At the age of 25, Holness was elected to parliament in 1997. He was a special assistant to Seaga, who was chief of the Labor Party until Bruce Golding took over in 2005.\n
Seaga was married from 1965 to 1996 to the former Marie Constantine, who had been Miss Jamaica 1964. They had three children together \u2014 Anabella, Andrew and Christopher \u2014 before divorcing. He remarried in 1997 to Carla Vendryes, 30 years younger. The couple had a daughter, Gabrielle, in 2002, when he was 72.
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