..........After four decades as an independent nation, Jamaica is still a country in pain. It has failed to gain because of a pattern of shuffling forward and backward from decade to decade, leaving the country little better off today than 40 years ago at Independence.

 ...This pattern must now come to an end in the first decade of this new century. We must not only recover lost ground and advance, but lock in the advances we make in such a manner that we will never see Jamaica switch into reverse again. Never!

 The critical levers which can ensure an uninterrupted forward movement are not only economic but also political, social and cultural. These levers are critically important.

 ......We must never allow the Jamaican dollar to be severely weakened again as it has been in the past. We must mandate in law, as a critical economic lever, a mechanism to maintain the strength of the dollar by guaranteeing its full convertibility in order to sustain the strength of the economy for the future.

 ......We must break the past tradition of polarisation of Jamaica politically, socially and culturally into warring tribes, social segments and cultural cliques, setting downtown apart from uptown, urban areas above rural areas, and acceptable against “unacceptable” cultural forms.

......We are a nation rich in diversity of people, ideas and action. But within this diversity and the creative strength it brings, we must fashion an integrated order of one people and one nation.

  ...This integration must begin at the top in the appointment of a truly national symbol of unity in a Head of State selected in a non-partisan manner as a lever of political unity. From this strength of unity, many political policies and divisive practices will melt away or will no longer be possible.

 ......As a people, we do not truly know each other, our country or our past. Our relationships are defined by social classes which are perpetually intolerant of each other. This great social divide is reinforced by social ignorance of historic traditions and a failure to understand the cultural adaptations to modes of living of the diverse segments of the society.

 ......There is no reason why the range of our knowledge of ourselves should not be expanded to encompass the history of Jamaica and its leaders throughout the centuries, in all its glory and infamy. There is no reason to hide the enlightened thinking of Marcus Garvey under a barrel of darkness.

 ......As Jamaicans we must know our past without blotting out centuries and skipping events which do not appeal to present thinking. We must teach it all in our schools.

The lever of deeper understanding to bring us all to a common social and cultural denomination is the development of a grand National Museum of Jamaica in the historic buildings of the Spanish Town Emancipation Square. Here, we will come together, children and adults, uptown and downtown, urban and rural, to meet and know each other as one people, one Jamaica.

Let us proceed, therefore, to set our sights not only on pieces of the picture, but on the painting as a whole. It is time now to set our course on the right path and relentlessly pursue our goals to build a nation in full and not in part, using these three levers to:

When this is done, we will not only be one people but one nation, unleashing all our energies together to build a brighter future and a better Jamaica.

Rt. Hon. Edward Seaga, P.C. M.P.

Former Leader, Jamaica Labour Party

August 2002