Monday, December 10 marks the 88th anniversary of the birth of Michael Norman Manley, former Prime Minister of Jamaica.
Mr. Manley, son of Norman Washington Manley, himself a former Chief Minister and Premier of Jamaica, served as prime minister from 1972 to 1980 and again from 1989 to 1992 when he retired from public life due to ill health.
He had succeeded his father as President of the People’s National Party after defeating Vivian Blake, a prominent attorney, in a special delegates’ conference of the PNP held on February 9, 1969.
In an electrifying speech on that occasion, the new political leader gave an early indication of the zealousness with which he would approach some of the nation’s pressing social and economic problems when he eventually came to power three years later.
“I believe” he said “that a time can come when if a country is to be saved a man must be prepared to lay his body on the line of history because I believe that it is only when a country produces men who will make ultimate and tremendous sacrifices that a country is entitled to live and walk in greatness.”