The ruling Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) proposed naming of the north-south link of Highway 2000 after Edward Seaga has created controversy. The Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) obviously had Portia Simpson Miller in mind for this honour — simple arithmetic for them, as they already had major roadways christened after P J Patterson, Michael Manley and Sir Florizel Glasspole.

Since it’s a competition to see which party can claim the most named edifices or roads, the PNP is way out in front and, in this case, they do believe they should have been given free passage. But they also have the Howard Cooke Highway, Winston Jones Highway, and the A G R Byfield Highway already in the mix. Poor JLP can only so far come up with Bustamante Highway and several Bustamante bridges, including a bridge named after Gladys Longbridge somewhere on the Barbican Road and spotted only if you stop long enough in a traffic jam.

Governments with the longest stay in power get the chance to name these institutions in favour of their own kind, and the PNP has been in power much longer than the JLP. That explains the preponderance of their party name attachments to our streets and thoroughfares. So it all boils down to who is in power at the appointed time, and the JLP can now seize the opportunity to do a little naming of its own.

The prime minister is rubbing it in — you build it, we’ll name it. But remember one thing — and the PNP would do well to remind them in return — no matter which JLP hero you name the road after, you still have to drive on the left.

This proposal to name it the Seaga Highway, however, has surprised many of us. It’s a sort of Nicodemus move and makes you wonder why the Government is in such a hurry to start lionising Seaga.

Just last month they unveiled the Seaga Petrojam Building, and we also have the Edward Seaga HEART Trust/NTA Building, and another named after the statesman at Hope Gardens in honour of his advancement of computer technology education.

Indeed, there are many other institutions that could be named after this brilliant leader. Seaga is credited with the building of the financial and planning infrastructure of Jamaica following Independence. In his book, Jones Town Trench Town: The Journey Back, Paul Buchanan opines that, “Seaga stands above all others in the creation of some of the most significant financial institutions in the modern Jamaican economic firmament: Urban Development Corporation (1968); Jamaica Stock Exchange (1969); Jamaica Unit Trust (1970); Jamaica Mortgage Bank (1973); Jamaica National Investment Promotion Ltd, now JAMPRO (Jamaica Invest) (1988); National Development Bank and the Agriculture Credit Bank (1981), both now fused to form the Development Bank of Jamaica; Ex-Im Bank (1986); and Self Start Fund (1983).

“In our recent economic history of unending out-turns of negative growth we often forget that his policies led to increases in growth rates of four per cent in 1987 and 1989, despite the ravages of Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.

“He should also be recognised as a visionary who fully understood that sustainable development required companion educational institutions and strategies. This is why he engineered and established the Human Employment And Resource Training Trust (HEART) and the Learning for Earning Activity Programme (LEAP).

“Being fully cognisant of the educational and other social challenges of West Kingston, his early initiatives as Member of Parliament led to the transformation of the degrading slums of Back-A-Wall, into the functioning community of Tivoli Gardens, offering high-rise apartments and social amenities.”

Seaga is credited with having built more institutions and initiated more far-reaching policies than any other political leader in the growth and development of Jamaica.

So, again we wonder, why the recent hurry?

I regret the proposed naming of the road after him. It’s not fair to Seaga that his name should be mixed up with a politically divisive issue at this stage of his life. I am surprised that he accepted the honour. We have not had the opening ceremony yet and already there are bitter divisions surfacing.

Will the PNP boycott the opening? From their utterances, they have little choice. But they too are ending up on the wrong side of history by bringing their beloved leader Portia Simpson Miller into the brouhaha.

The Government should reverse this decision. The question arises: Are they seeking to make up for the neglect of party honours for this man who was one of their most dynamic leaders? He was the JLP Leader from 1974 to 2005. But so far, to the best of my knowledge, no JLP retirement dinner, no honours, no official recognition. From what we know of him, renaming the Tivoli School after him would be the greatest honour as far as he is concerned. And making him an honorary past student would be the icing on the cake.

Seaga really doesn’t need this controversial highway name. There are many and much better monuments to commemorate his contribution to Jamaica. A PNP satirist and wishful thinking leader-to-be suggested that the Leader of the Opposition’s Office be named after him because “he spent so many years in that chair”. The writer would not have known that even in the political wilderness Seaga led the most vibrant Opposition ever in the history of Jamaica. It was he who nicknamed the first budget exercise of the new PNP Government, elected on February 29, 1972, as “the austerity budget”. Later, with announcements from the Government of price freeze proposals and wide measures of increased taxation that year, he turned around and charged them with the memorable lines that, “This Government is on a collision course with bankruptcy.”

In 1974, when David Coore opened the budget debate with the announcement that additional earnings would be garnered from the recently legislated bauxite levy, the figures didn’t add up for the Opposition and Seaga, critical of the inflation rate, labelled the economic situation as ‘stagflation’.

The Opposition was small in numbers, 16 seats to the PNP’s 37, but they were tallawah and went toe to toe with the Government at a time when they and the country could have been overrun by the Government’s social policies.

Then there was the year 1975 when Seaga announced that that he would be making his budget presentation outside of the House. This was unprecedented and excited the imagination of the country. The Opposition Leader decided on that route in objection to Speaker Ripton McPherson’s ruling to change the order of speeches by putting him to speak before, instead of after, the prime minister. The Jamaica Pegasus hotel was the chosen venue, and the date selected was June 6. More than 500 people were present as Seaga warned again that the Government was on a “collision course”, highlighting what he described as a dangerous balance of payments situation and an extraordinarily high level of government deficit expenditure.

These were interesting times, and the budget debates of the 1970s were undoubtedly the most colourful in our history, with Michael Manley and Edward Seaga playing the starring roles.

Fast-forward to 1978 when Parliament was officially opened by Governor General Sir Florizel Glasspole on May 16. All protocol was observed, but there was little time for the customary formalities. A special sitting had been called that same evening to debate the proposed new International Monetary Fund agreement. The debate was vigorous and the Opposition pulled no punches, calling on the Government to renegotiate or resign. Hugh Shearer weighed in on the wage guidelines; “Unbearable,” he said. Manley made an impassioned plea to the unions to support the measure. Seaga’s alternatives included recommendations for stimulating growth and tightening expenditure. In was in that context that he made the first call for the establishment of a contractor general to ensure greater accountability.

Finally, there is another side to Seaga, his sense of humour and his famous witticisms, which make him one of a kind. Hark back to the decimalisation of our currency, which he piloted in 1968, and recall that pungent columnist Morris Cargill hoping that “the Government will not name the new currency after any politician, because there is nothing I would hate more than having to carry a Seaga or a Manley around in my pocket”. Seaga immediately responded with a proposal to stage a ‘Name The Currency’ competition and, as his submission, proposed that “we name the lowest denomination, the one cent coin, a Cargill, because that would mean having a Cargill would be next to having no cents at all”.

And his question to the Speaker after listing the dramatic increases in motor vehicle prices and taxes introduced by the PNP Government in 1972: “Is that, Mr Speaker, what they mean when they say that the Government is putting this country back on its feet?”

Nothing, however, can beat his opening remarks at his swearing-in ceremony as prime minister after defeating the Michael Manley-led Government in 1980. Before a crowd of thousands on the King’s House law and, in reference to a problem that had developed with the microphone system as he got up to speak, Seaga. with a straight face said, “Your Excellency, we seem to be having a problem with a malfunctioning mic. But that, Your Excellency, is a problem which we have had to put up with for the past eight years.”

Lance Neita is a public relations writer and consultant. Send comments to the Observer or lanceneita@hotmail.com.