News - Dr Peter Phillips Delivers Sixth Annual Michael Manley Lecture

Dr Peter Phillips, MP, Vice President of the People’s National Party (PNP) and Leader of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives, delivered the sixth annual Michael Manley Lecture at the Inter-Faculty Lecture Theatre, University of the West Indies (UWI) on December 10, 2007. His subject was: “Preserving the Michael Manley legacy towards a positive political agenda in the current period”.

It was a thought-provoking lecture, in which Dr Phillips asserted that “Michael Manley reflected the general philosophical inheritance of the PNP which had been earlier enunciated by his father, and which was premised primarily on the mission of creating a society of greater equality and democracy through organised activism both at the level of the political party and in government.”

He continued that Michael Manley extended this philosophical inheritance to some degree, particularly in respect of his doctrine of self-reliance and in his explicit delineation of the “politics of participation”. Recounting some negative developments in Jamaican politics in recent years, Dr Phillips reminded his audience that Michael Manley was able to motivate a whole generation to commitment and sacrifice because, “to paraphrase the Guyanese poet, he came not to dream, but he dreamed to change the world. And Jamaica did change. Now we need once more to summon the inspiration from his life to do it again, and to meet the challenges which history now imposes upon us.”

A lively discussion followed Dr Phillips’ lecture. Participants in the discussion included such notables as Dr Omar Davies, MP; Dr D.K. Duncan, MP; Mr Michael Burke; Revd Canon Ernle Gordon and Mrs Beverley Manley. The Chairman of the Michael Manley Foundation, Mr Danny Roberts, presided over the proceedings and the Most Hon. Mrs Michael Manley made a presentation to Dr Phillips. The Lecture was preceded by an Invocation by the Revd Ronald Thwaites, MP