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TURN TO GOD TO SECURE NORMAN MANLEY'S LEGACY, SAYS METHODIST MINISTER
BY GARFIELD MYERS, Editor-at-large South/Central Bureau
Monday, July 13, 2009
MANDEVILLE, Manchester - She did not say so in as many words but Dr Hyacinth Boothe, the first female ordained Methodist minister in the Caribbean and the Americas, clearly believes National Hero Norman Washington Manley would be most displeased at today's Jamaica.
Yet she does not believe all is lost. She argues that Manley's ideal of a nation of "high principles, moral rectitude and a literate, rational citizenry" is still possible if God is used as a guide.
"I urge that as nation we first turn to God," Boothe, now 80 years old and a lecturer at the United Theological College told an appreciative audience during last Saturday's annual July 4 celebration of the hero's birthday at Roxborough, where he was born in 1893, located a few miles south of Mandeville.
"Let us call on our leaders, state and church, to lead us in a sincere act of confession and repentance for our transgressions as a people, let us dedicate anew ourselves to the God proclaimed by Jesus Christ.," declared Boothe, who was the guest speaker.
Her appeal followed a stirring summation of Manley's legacy as a highly principled leader who was "for teaching the people, not for fooling them. A man who "was not for anancyism (or) for building a nation on craftiness, hypocrisy and guile...".
Manley, an academic and athletic star on the Jamaican landscape of the early 20th century, evolved to become an outstanding barrister and politician. He co-founded the People's National Party (PNP) in 1938 and led it until a few months before his death in 1969. He was Jamaica's Chief Minister during the pre-independence years of 1955-62, but never headed a government after independence. Yet, he is the man most credited for the moulding of the Jamaican constitution, political system and public institutions.
Boothe argued that Manley gave "heart and soul, mind and strength in facilitating the building of this nation."
Though Manley's vision extended beyond Jamaica to a united English-speaking Caribbean, Boothe said there could be "no doubting that his primary and fundamental quest was that Jamaica become an independent nation.
Nation building demanded the ingredients of high principles, moral rectitude and a literate rational citizenry. A people of understanding, who could debate issues, who could interpret our times, he was not a man for mediocrity. He believed in the ability of our people to rise to the highest in every field of endeavour."
Boothe told of the national hero's disgust when it was suggested to him in the mid-1950s that he should use the symbol of the 'broom' to win votes for his PNP, then in opposition. "You might as well steal votes from the people.," she quoted him as saying.
But, said Boothe, Manley the hero "was also a man."
"He had lost two elections. And a third defeat faced him, his comrades urged him to use the broom, Jamaicans warmed to the idea and it worked. But I firmly believe that deep down this victory was hollow for our hero. Perhaps he felt that he had won an election but tainted his soul. He was a statesman, not a wily politician .," she said.
Manley and others of his generation, many unknown and forgotten, had bequeathed to Jamaicans political independence and proud nationhood. But in recent decades, she suggested, the nation had lost its way, kept afloat only by "pockets of goodness, of wholesomeness, of truth and righteousness."
She fingered alarming degradation of the physical and social environment, corruption in all walks of life, political confusion and economic chaos as evidence of the need to turn to God.
"Thank God that the sky above us can still be blue and that cloud formations still exist, but where are the John Crows so horrible on the ground but so majestic in flight? Our mountains still rise to great heights but our streams are seldom seen and heard meandering down mountain slopes. Our streams are mostly dried up.
"Where are the peenie wallies, the fireflies that on dark nights transformed the darkness into a million scintillating lights? What are we doing about our global warming and what is it doing to us? What kind of Jamaica will we hand over to the future as we continue to rape our environment?
"There are more schools and colleges than ever before, but comparatively little learning. We live in fabulous houses but where is genuine family life? Where do our children learn discipline, courtesy, industry, kindness, sensitivity? Money has become the god of this age. It can buy anything, from football stars to the vote, but where are truth and honesty?
In this post-modern era when anything goes, violence, corruption, sexual immorality of all types, indecency and fraud, stalk the land. Consumerism, hedonism, greed have taken over. Jamaica is in the throes of social and economic chaos, political confusion, environmental hazards, polarisation between the rich and the poor, and it would appear that Nero fiddles while Rome burns. The nation forged .cries out for deliverance..," said Boothe.
BY GARFIELD MYERS, Editor-at-large South/Central Bureau
Monday, July 13, 2009
MANDEVILLE, Manchester - She did not say so in as many words but Dr Hyacinth Boothe, the first female ordained Methodist minister in the Caribbean and the Americas, clearly believes National Hero Norman Washington Manley would be most displeased at today's Jamaica.
Yet she does not believe all is lost. She argues that Manley's ideal of a nation of "high principles, moral rectitude and a literate, rational citizenry" is still possible if God is used as a guide.
"I urge that as nation we first turn to God," Boothe, now 80 years old and a lecturer at the United Theological College told an appreciative audience during last Saturday's annual July 4 celebration of the hero's birthday at Roxborough, where he was born in 1893, located a few miles south of Mandeville.
"Let us call on our leaders, state and church, to lead us in a sincere act of confession and repentance for our transgressions as a people, let us dedicate anew ourselves to the God proclaimed by Jesus Christ.," declared Boothe, who was the guest speaker.
Her appeal followed a stirring summation of Manley's legacy as a highly principled leader who was "for teaching the people, not for fooling them. A man who "was not for anancyism (or) for building a nation on craftiness, hypocrisy and guile...".
Manley, an academic and athletic star on the Jamaican landscape of the early 20th century, evolved to become an outstanding barrister and politician. He co-founded the People's National Party (PNP) in 1938 and led it until a few months before his death in 1969. He was Jamaica's Chief Minister during the pre-independence years of 1955-62, but never headed a government after independence. Yet, he is the man most credited for the moulding of the Jamaican constitution, political system and public institutions.
Boothe argued that Manley gave "heart and soul, mind and strength in facilitating the building of this nation."
Though Manley's vision extended beyond Jamaica to a united English-speaking Caribbean, Boothe said there could be "no doubting that his primary and fundamental quest was that Jamaica become an independent nation.
Nation building demanded the ingredients of high principles, moral rectitude and a literate rational citizenry. A people of understanding, who could debate issues, who could interpret our times, he was not a man for mediocrity. He believed in the ability of our people to rise to the highest in every field of endeavour."
Boothe told of the national hero's disgust when it was suggested to him in the mid-1950s that he should use the symbol of the 'broom' to win votes for his PNP, then in opposition. "You might as well steal votes from the people.," she quoted him as saying.
But, said Boothe, Manley the hero "was also a man."
"He had lost two elections. And a third defeat faced him, his comrades urged him to use the broom, Jamaicans warmed to the idea and it worked. But I firmly believe that deep down this victory was hollow for our hero. Perhaps he felt that he had won an election but tainted his soul. He was a statesman, not a wily politician .," she said.
Manley and others of his generation, many unknown and forgotten, had bequeathed to Jamaicans political independence and proud nationhood. But in recent decades, she suggested, the nation had lost its way, kept afloat only by "pockets of goodness, of wholesomeness, of truth and righteousness."
She fingered alarming degradation of the physical and social environment, corruption in all walks of life, political confusion and economic chaos as evidence of the need to turn to God.
"Thank God that the sky above us can still be blue and that cloud formations still exist, but where are the John Crows so horrible on the ground but so majestic in flight? Our mountains still rise to great heights but our streams are seldom seen and heard meandering down mountain slopes. Our streams are mostly dried up.
"Where are the peenie wallies, the fireflies that on dark nights transformed the darkness into a million scintillating lights? What are we doing about our global warming and what is it doing to us? What kind of Jamaica will we hand over to the future as we continue to rape our environment?
"There are more schools and colleges than ever before, but comparatively little learning. We live in fabulous houses but where is genuine family life? Where do our children learn discipline, courtesy, industry, kindness, sensitivity? Money has become the god of this age. It can buy anything, from football stars to the vote, but where are truth and honesty?
In this post-modern era when anything goes, violence, corruption, sexual immorality of all types, indecency and fraud, stalk the land. Consumerism, hedonism, greed have taken over. Jamaica is in the throes of social and economic chaos, political confusion, environmental hazards, polarisation between the rich and the poor, and it would appear that Nero fiddles while Rome burns. The nation forged .cries out for deliverance..," said Boothe.
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