Edward Seaga

Edward Seaga (1981)

Edward Philip George Seaga ON (born May 28, 1930 in Boston , Massachusetts - † May 28, 2019 in Miami , Florida ) was a Jamaican politician . From November 1980 to February 1989 he was Prime Minister of his country for the economically liberal - conservative Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) . From 1974 to 1980 and again from 1989 to 2005 he was opposition leader in the Jamaican House of Representatives .

Life

Edward Seaga was the son of Jamaican parents whose families were Lebanese on his father's side and Scottish on his mother's side . When he was three months old, his parents moved to Jamaica from his birthplace in Boston. He attended school in Kingston and studied social sciences at Harvard University . After graduation, he taught at the University of the West Indies .

His political career began when he was elected to the Legislative Council in 1959 , a preliminary stage to what would later become Parliament. After independence in 1962 he became Minister for Development. His main interest was in Kingston's slums , whose infrastructure he had massively expanded by the end of the 1960s, thereby greatly improving the living conditions of the residents. After his party's victory in 1967, he became Minister of Finance under Prime Minister Hugh Shearer , from whom he took over the party leadership in 1974.

Due to major economic problems that arose during the tenure of People's National Party Prime Minister Michael Norman Manley , the JLP won 51 of the 60 parliamentary seats in the 1980 elections. Seaga became prime minister. He ended Manley's experiment in democratic socialism and distanced himself from Cuba . These measures attracted foreign investors to the island and restarted the economic aid that had been suspended in the 1970s.

A participation in the US invasion of Grenada in 1983, which was rejected by the population, impaired Seaga's reputation, as did another economic crisis in the late 1980s. In 1987 and 1988 there were violent demonstrations and strikes, mainly due to increased poverty. In 1988 the government was unable to adequately respond to the damage caused by Hurricane Gilbert . Despite an extensive campaign, the JLP lost the election in 1989 and Manley was again prime minister. Seaga became the leader of the opposition until he resigned in 2005 on health grounds. Until his retirement he was one of the longest serving politicians in the country.

Seaga was in the music business in the 1960s; he ran the record label West Indies Records Limited .

In 2002 he was awarded the Order of the Nation, the second highest honor in the Jamaican state.

He was a second married and had three children. Edward Seaga died in Miami on May 28, 2019 at the age of 89.

literature

• Edward Seaga , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 31/1989 of July 24, 1989, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

Commons : Edward Seaga  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• BBC report from 2002 (Engl.)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ PMs accept national honor with humility ( memento of the original from January 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Jamaica Observer, December 5, 2002. Retrieved May 7, 2011.  

predecessor	Office	successor
Michael Manley	Prime Minister of Jamaica November 1, 1980-10. February 1989	Michael Manley