Michael wouldn’t want to share $2,000 note with Seaga – Beverley Manley-Duncan

Some of the children of late former Prime Minister and People’s National Party (PNP) President Michael Norman Manley are fuming over what they said was no consultation with them about the plan to use his image and that of former Prime Minister and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader Edward Seaga on the new $2,000 note.

Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke made the announcement during his Budget presentation two weeks ago. He told Parliament that “family approval” was received.

At least one of Manley’s five children, daughter Sarah Manley - who is demonstrably unafraid of controversy – has hit out against the plan in a Facebook (FB) post, in which she said it was on behalf of herself and her sister Natasha.

Natasha is the daughter Michael Manley shared with his then wife Beverley.

FAMILY APPROVAL

The post reads: “I consider it disingenuous to the extreme to announce to the Jamaican public a change in the look of the currency, and the introduction of a new note with the phrase “family approval” when in fact: 1) Some members of the families they refer to had no idea at all, and 2) Other notional stakeholders, like one whole political party, also had no idea ... .” Miss Manley said.

In explaining, she said, she used the term ‘notional stakeholders’ because the phrase ‘family approval’ implies that the families have some say in the process, “which they do not”, as the images are not copyrighted and belong in the public domain. She also said, as has been demonstrated, the political parties have no say in what the central bank decides to do with the look of the money.

“For the record, I did not know they had cooked up this plan, but erroneously thought they has done their due diligence (silly me) and, at the very least, had informed the notional stakeholders (like they had informed me and my family) under the guise of requesting consent. It did not once occur to me that they had done such a thing. I personally and my sister Natasha would not act, without the PNP knowing, on something happening nationally with dad’s image ... .” she said in the FB post.

“Not only because that was where he committed his life’s work and that is who holds his legacy close, but also because that action is so evocative of a difficult time in Jamaica. So yeah, I was shocked (real triggered down into anxiety) to hear Mark J. Golding (PNP president) who, it’s no secret, I have tremendous respect for, so blindsided by this action with our money. And shocked to know that other significant notional stakeholders didn’t know. It’s called due diligence, BOJ ( Bank of Jamaica). And it matters that you get it right,” her post ended.

Opposition Leader Golding told T he Gleaner that he heard about the plan like everyone else.

“I first heard it when the finance minister put on his show in Parliament,” was his response when reached by The Gleaner.

Golding, in his presentation in Parliament, told the prime minister to put Seaga on the $2,000 bill and leave Michael on the $1,000 note.

Now, Beverley Manley-Duncan, his fourth wife who was by his side in the turbulent years, especially between 1976-1980, said the man she knew, loved and married would never approve.

“The Michael Manley I knew ... I don’t know what he was like in his fifth marriage, I can only speak for my marriage to him, would not have liked it. The one I know would have seen it as hypocritical and inauthentic, those are the two words that come to mind. I feel as strongly about it as I think he would have felt about it,” Manley-Duncan told The Gleaner a week ago. She gave her reasons.

“Here is it you have what is tantamount to a civil war in the 1970s. Ideologically, Manley and Seaga could not have been further apart. But what a lot of people don’t know, [is] that even at the personal level they didn’t talk to each other,” Manley-Duncan said.

The vexing issue, she said, came as a result of Seaga’s broken promise that no elections would be called on the voters’ list which was used at the 1980 general election. Individuals who became 18 years old after October 1980 and between December 1983 - when the snap election was held following the Grenada invasion - could not vote as their names were not on the voters’ list.

According to Manley-Duncan, the promise was not kept.

“I don’t think they ever spoke at all. My memory of it is that he spoke to Seaga, when Seaga was prime minister, through Hugh Shearer (late former JLP leader and prime minister). If he wanted to say anything to Seaga, he would say it to Shearer to take it to Seaga. And Shearer was fine with that role, and that is how they ‘communicated’,” she said.

Manley-Duncan said that she did not expect that her opinion to be sought, but that his adult children are all alive, and courtesy should have been extended to them.

“The short answer to your questions is, I think he would have been nauseated by it. I am nauseated by it, because if you are really authentic about unity, you don’t just put the two men on a currency note ... .” she explained.

“I am all for putting Eddie Seaga on any bill. Any bill, the Government has that right. They can put him on a $50,000 bill. Any bill. But Michael is already on the $1,000 bill, leave that. Maybe later on, depending on how we decide to heal as a nation, they can come together. It’s not a bother, but the lack of consultancy, just picking up a phone and saying to Mark Golding, ‘We planning this, can you come back to us?’ so he could consult his people about it.” she bemoaned.

NO ONE IS LISTENING

For her, a consensus on the matter should have started at the grass-roots levels, beginning with truth and reconciliation, and after some time, as persons listen to each other, a way forward is determined. She said it was crucial for listening and talking to take place, as no one is listening to the other.

According to her, unity efforts was tried with Bob Marley’s One Love Peace Concert. Marley was shot hours before the concert, which was held to try and heal the political divide at the time.

Describing the time of the concert as “tension, plus excitement, plus exhilaration,” she said a reluctant Manley joined in.

“I’d be interested to know how Mitzie (Seaga) and her children feel about it. For although we were on opposing camps, we had a relationship. I haven’t spoken to her. But Sarah and Natasha have put a statement on Facebook, so I will leave it there,” she said.

Having been ‘called everything’, she said that for the sake of the children, all adults, she would say less.

She described as “just a pity that the BOJ should have been dragged into it, or it’s the other way round; maybe it’s their idea, I don’t know. It’s an independent bank”.

Comrades, too, who view both Michael and his father N.W. Manley as their ideological fathers, say the party they both served for decades was disrespected in the process. While Manley was a public figure, they still feel disrespected.

The Comrades believe that the ‘family approval’ claimed by the finance minister would have been provided by Manley’s widow, Glynne.

Commenting on the $500 note which will now be shared by Nanny and Sam Sharpe - previously bearing only Nanny - she said Nanny’s stature as a national heroine is not diminished.

Nanny of the Maroons is the only female among the country’s national heroes.

Manley-Duncan said Nanny’s presence among the heroes has been well-researched by Jamaican ambassador, public servant, author and diplomat, the late Dr Lucille Mathurin Mair, and Nanny’s role in history is cemented.

erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com