Map of Jamaica

The Most Honourable Portia Simpson Miller was sworn in as Prime Minister of Jamaica on January 5, 2012. Previously she had been Prime Minister from March 2006 to September 2007, when she became the first Jamaican woman to serve in that capacity. Mrs. Simpson Miller’s appointment as Head of Government in 2006 came after seventeen years as a senior Cabinet Minister. She was Minister of Labour, Welfare and Sport; Minister of Tourism and Sport; and Minister of Local Government, Community Development and Sport.

During her tenure as a Minister of Government and before becoming Prime Minister of Jamaica, Portia Simpson Miller presided over the most significant expansion of the Jamaican Overseas Work Program and the unprecedented increase in the National Insurance Fund. Mrs. Simpson Miller transformed the National Insurance Scheme into a major component of the Government’s social welfare system.

Her love of sports and Jamaica’s athletes is well-known. As Sports Minister from 1989 to 2007, she used her tremendous influence to motivate the Jamaican sporting community and promoted sports as a social unifying force. Mrs. Simpson Miller was instrumental in creating partnerships between government agencies and the private sector, to support sports development in Jamaica. She was instrumental in the establishment of the Sports Development Foundation (SDF), which was designed to provide financial assistance to national sporting associations, as well as emergency financial assistance to national and international-level athletes.

As Minister of Tourism, Portia Simpson Miller was the leading architect of Jamaica’s Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development. The plan sets the strategic policy framework for the expansion of the country’s tourism sector. Her work in deepening community participation and involving communities in policy decision, led to fundamental reforms in local government and the subsequent establishment of the Portmore Municipality, with the election of the first and only directly elected Mayor in Jamaica and the English-speaking Caribbean.

As Parliamentary representative for the urban constituency of South Western St. Andrew, Portia Simpson Miller has been a vigorous campaigner on behalf of the poor. She is a consistent advocate for urban renewal and community development.

Education

Portia Simpson Miller pursued her education up to the secondary level in Jamaica, before reading for her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Public Administration at the Union Institute and University in the United States of America, which later awarded her an Honorary Doctorate. She completed the Executive Program for Leaders in Development at the prestigious John Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Political Career

Portia Simpson Miller’s career in representational politics began in Local Government in 1974 as a Councillor of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC). She made the transition to the House of Representatives when she was elected Member of Parliament for South Western St. Andrew in 1976. She was appointed a Parliamentary Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister in 1977.

Portia Simpson Miller has the distinction of serving as the first female Vice-President of the People’s National Party, a position she held between 1978 and 2006. She was President of the People’s National Party Women’s Movement from 1983 to 2006. In February 2006, Portia Simpson Miller became the first woman to be elected as head of the People’s National Party. She took the Oath of Office as Prime Minister on March 30, 2006.

International Experience

The Most Hon. Portia Simpson Miller has had a distinguished record of service at the regional and international level. She was Vice President of the Organization of American States’ High-Level Inter-American Network on Decentralization, Local Government and Citizen Participation (RIAD). She was also the Chairperson of the Caribbean Forum of Ministers responsible for Decentralization, Local Government, Community Development and Citizen Participation and is a Board Member of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) and CIFAL Atlanta. As Jamaican Prime Minister, she served as Chairman of the CARICOM Prime Ministerial Sub-committee on External Negotiations.

In 2011, Andrew Michael Holness became the youngest Prime Minister to date in Jamaica and the first to be born after Independence.

He was the Minister of Education from 2007 to 2011, and the Minister with responsibility for Electoral Matters and the Leader of Government Business in the House of Parliament since 2008.  Mr. Holness was first elected to represent the constituency of West Central St. Andrew in 1997 at the age of 25.  He is currently in his third consecutive term as Member of Parliament of this constituency.

Prior to entering representational politics, Mr. Holness worked as the Executive Director of one of Jamaica’s oldest NGOs, the Voluntary Organization for Uplifting Children (VOUCH) and in that capacity, led extensive social work in several innercity communities of Kingston.  In 1995, he was invited by the then Leader of the Opposition, the Most Hon. Edward Seaga, to assume duties as personal assistant in his office and was assigned the responsibility of developing poverty reduction and social investment policies for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

Soon thereafter representational politics beckoned in 1997.  During his years in the Opposition he shadowed several portfolios in the areas of social welfare, community development and housing.  In 2005, he was asked by the new leader of the JLP, Bruce Golding, to take on the topical issue of education.  It is in this area that Mr. Holness found his passion and distinguished himself both as the Opposition Spokesperson on Education and in the Cabinet as Minister of Education.

He brought national attention and focus to literacy and instituted several programmes to place Jamaica on the path to universal literacy at the primary level.  Under his watch, Jamaica has seen the introduction of the Career Advancement Programme (CAP), designed as a post-secondary technical and vocational programme for otherwise unattached youth.  However, some of his fundamental reforms to the education system, lie in the establishment of institutions such as the Jamaica Teaching Council, the National Education Trust, the National College for Education Leadership, the Centres of Excellence Programme and the Alternative Secondary Transition Education Programme (ASTEP) designed to support students falling behind in general education.

Andrew Holness was born to working class parents on July 22, 1972 in Spanish Town.  He is married to Juliet, a chartered accountant and businesswoman, and they have two sons, Adam and Matthew.  He enjoys chess, jogging, cycling and a round of table tennis when he can find players.

Bruce Golding took office as Jamaica’s eighth Prime Minister on September 11, 2007, following victory by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) at the September 3 General Elections.

Buoyed by a rich political tradition and defined by a steely resolve to improve the fortunes of the Jamaican people, he immediately abolished tuition fees in all public secondary schools.

He used the opportunity of his inaugural speech to declare himself the “Chief Servant” of the people and set about building bridges with the Opposition.

With steadfast belief in his vision of a Jamaica where “everyone might not be rich, but no one has to be poor”,  Bruce Golding  has demonstrated strong leadership in making changes to improve people’s lives.

In his first year, his administration made the bold move to debate and pass legislation that removed user fees at all public health facilities.

The national minimum wage was significantly increased and more benefits were put under the social safety net programs; an immediate benefit for lower income earners.

Bruce Golding’s appointment to the Office of Prime Minister represented a significant milestone in a journey that began in 1972. At age 24 he became the youngest person to be elected to Gordon House, Jamaica’s House of Representatives.

Shortly after graduating with a Degree in Economics from the University of the West Indies, he was elected Vice Chairman of the JLP Constituency Executive for West St. Catherine. His early political career saw him serving the JLP as General Secretary from 1974-1984 and as Chairman from 1984-1985.

He was Member of Parliament for 19 years for the West St. Catherine and Central St. Catherine constituencies and a Senator for nine years. In 1980, he was appointed Minister of Construction, and between 1989 and 1995, he served as Opposition Minister on Finance and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. In 1995 Bruce Golding helped to form Jamaica’s third political party, the National Democratic Movement.

Married for 35 years to businesswoman Lorna  Golding, they have a son, two daughters and a grandchild.

A product of the dialectic sensibility of rural Jamaica, with its tradition of consciousness of its exploited past and a determination to develop for his country a self–respecting future, P.J. Patterson was committed to a socio-economic and psycho-cultural change to transform the majority of the people into creators of their own destiny as first-class citizens in their homeland.

He, like others of his generation, grew up with modern Jamaica from the time of the colonial system, on through self-government to Independence.

His political mentor, the late Norman Washington Manley, leader of Jamaica’s self-government movement, early identified him as having all the qualities of a future leader of the People’s National Party (PNP) and the nation.

Although he was later to become a leading barrister with a thriving private practice, he never hesitated to subordinate his legal career to his passionate commitment to political service to his country.

It was at the University College of the West Indies- UCWI – (now the UWI) where P.J. Patterson earned his Bachelors degree that, as Chairman of the University’s External Affairs Commission, he was first exposed to world leaders and to international political thought through his attendance at a number of international student fora.

It was also at the UCWI that Patterson developed his unquestioned commitment to Caribbean regionalism as well as the causes of the countries of the developing world for which he is now the acknowledged elder statesman, and authoritative front-line spokesman throughout the world.

His time as a Law student in the metropolitan environment of the London School of Economics (LSE) consolidated the foundation in international politics that the UCWI experience had provided.

This was also the time of national movements in the former colonies and it was during his enrolment at the Inns of Court (Middle Temple) that Patterson once again came in contact with a number of the future leaders of the countries of the developing world who were fellow students in England.

When in 1969 his predecessor as Prime Minister of Jamaica, Michael Manley, launched his campaign for the Presidency of the PNP, it was to P.J. Patterson, the youngest of the highest-ranking segment of the party executive that Manley turned to lead his campaign. This was the beginning of a partnership, which lasted over the next thirty years, and allowed for an exchange of political ideas and perspectives that proved beneficial to both.

Patterson was Campaign Manager for the People’s National Party’s bid for power in the General Elections of 1972. His exceptional skill as a political organizer is credited for the Party’s victory at the polls that year. That made possible his first appointment to the Jamaican Cabinet. Although only in his thirties, he already had a comprehensive grasp of complex and stubborn geopolitical realities.

Over the years, as his political career advanced, P.J. Patterson held diverse portfolio responsibilities for subjects as varied as trade and industry, tourism and foreign affairs.

At the height of his leadership, P.J. Patterson was the doyen of the Caribbean Heads of Government – a status achieved not merely by the seniority derived from time. It derives from the range and depth of the quality of his regional and international service. He played a seminal role in the political process that marked the transition from the first steps in integration – the founding of CARIFTA – to CARICOM, to the realization of the creation of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

As Prime Minister, P.J. Patterson consolidated his position as a leading advocate for the causes of the peoples of the developing world and he made his presence felt in the corridors of power. In the early days, during his tenure as Jamaica’s Foreign Minister, he served as President of the ACP/EU Ministerial Council and led negotiations for the ACP group of countries with the European Community, which resulted in the first Lome Convention. He was a passionate opponent of apartheid and an ardent proponent of the liberation struggle.

Whether in the struggle for a New International Economic Order; in the councils of UNCTAD; in the Non-Aligned Movement; in the UN Security Council; as President of the GATT ACP/ EU Ministerial Council; in negotiations with international financial institutions during his tenure as Minister of Finance, Planning and Development, he displayed his considerable intellectual qualities and enlightened internationalism as P.J. Patterson articulated the need for justice and equity for Jamaica and the countries of the developing world.

P.J. Patterson enjoyed the high regard of his peers in the wide variety of international and hemispheric groupings, including the OAS, the United Nations, in the Group of 77 and China – of which he is currently Chairman, the select G15 Group, and in the councils of the Commonwealth. The cordial and mutually respectful relationships which he has developed with a number of world leaders over the years make him a force to be reckoned with in international politics.

As Prime Minister of Jamaica, P.J. Patterson led the transformation from an inherited economy that was based on protectionism, state incentives and export industry encouragement, to a modern democratic state and economy that is open, globally competitive, inclusive and socially cohesive. His massive investments in modernizing Jamaica’s infrastructure development serve as both drivers and complementary forces in the acceleration of economic growth.

These investments, as well as the re-structuring of Jamaica’s financial sector returned huge dividends as Jamaica enjoyed its greatest period of investment in tourism, mining, ICT, and energy since the 1960s. P.J. Patterson enhanced and strengthened the social protection and security system of Jamaica – a critical element of his economic and social policy agenda to mitigate, reduce and, in the long run, eliminate poverty and deprivation.

P.J. Patterson’s commitment to education was evident with the introduction of a program of radical transformation of the island’s entire education system aimed at development of quality human capital, equipped to function and succeed in the competitive global environment.

P.J. Patterson is acknowledged as a brilliant political strategist both at home and in the Jamaican Diaspora, where he enjoyed widespread approval for his considerable accomplishments in creating political, economic and social stability in the island.

He has also achieved a rare feat in politics – an extremely high level of respect and admiration from both supporters and political opponents alike for the courtesy, unfailing civility, non-confrontational attitude and constant search for consensus with which he has approached all national issues throughout his years as leader of his Party and country.

In July 2009, Mr Patterson was honoured with the Order of the Caricom Community (OCC).

After high school he attended the Harvard University where he graduated in 1952 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences. Seaga went on to become one of the most successful music producers and record company owner before diverting his attention to focus on his political career.

At the age of 29, Seaga became the youngest member in the history of the Legislative Council to be nominated to serve in the Upper House of the Jamaica Legislature (later the Senate). Following his election to the House of Representatives in 1962 as Member of Parliament for Western Kingston, Edward Seaga held the positions of Minister of Welfare and Development (1962-67), and Finance Minister (1967-72). He also held the portfolio for Information and Culture. He became leader of the JLP in 1974, a position he held until his retirement from representational politics in 2005.

In the 1980 elections, the JLP under Seaga’s leadership won 51 out of 60 seats in the House of Representatives and Seaga was appointed Prime Minister of Jamaica. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Jamaica Festival which featured an annual showcase of Jamaica’s music and culture. Seaga was also responsible for numerous successful anti-poverty urban development and educational aid programmes that have helped some of the poorest in his constituency, his home district and Jamaica at large. He also served on the board of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and was one of the architects of the Caribbean Basin Initiative sponsored by then US President, Ronald Reagan.

Seaga served as Jamaica’s Prime Minister from 1980 – 1989 when his party lost the general elections to the PNP. Following his retirement from representational politics, Edward Seaga assumed the position of Senior Research Fellow at the University of the West Indies. He is also a lecturer at the University of Technology.

In 1965 Seaga married Marie (“Mitsy”) Constantine, the former Miss Jamaica 1964. The union produced three children, Anabelle, Andrew and Christopher. After thirty years of marriage the couple divorced in 1996. He went on to marry Carla Vendryes in 1997. They have a daughter, Gabrielle.

Manley volunteered for service in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1943, during World War II. At the end of the war he attended the London School of Economics where he studied politics, philosophy and economics. Upon graduation, Michael Manley returned to Jamaica where he served as an editor and columnist for the ‘Public Opinion’ newspaper.

In 1962, Manley accepted an appointment to the Senate as a member of the People’s National Party. He won an election to the House of Representatives in 1967 and in 1969 became the leader of the PNP, following the retirement of his father, Norman Manley. He served in the capacity as opposition leader and Member of Parliament for Central Kingston constituency until 1972 when the PNP won the general elections.

Manley sought to restructure the politics and economy of Jamaica through far-reaching legislation. He had several achievements such as the building of over 40,000 new housing units, free education which was made available to all students, and the construction of new hospitals which impacted on the infant mortality rate that was cut in half.

His pioneering programme of legislative social reforms in the 1970s and his role in the formation of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and later the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), guaranteed him a prominent place in modern Caribbean history.

His advocacy of a New International Economic Order (NIEO) and his defense of sovereignty for ex-colonial countries made him an international figure of enormous consequence for world politics during the decade of the 1970s. In all of this, Michael Manley was driven by a passionate concern for human equality. Although he was from an elite family, Manley was able to maintain a close relationship with the country’s poor and black majority because of his successful trade union background and his dynamic personality.

In his second term as Prime Minister, Michael Manley placed greater emphasis on the small business sector and increased government spending on education. On March 16 1992, Michael Manley announced his retirement as Prime for health reasons. He died on March 6th 1997 in Kingston. He is survived by his wife Glynn and five children, Rachel, Joseph, Sarah, Natasha and David Manley.

While in politics, Hugh Shearer held several positions before becoming Prime Minister of Jamaica. He was elected to the House of Representatives as Member of Parliament for Western Kingston in 1955, an office he retained for the next four years until he was defeated in the 1959 elections. From 1962-1967, Shearer was a member of the Senate, while at the same time filling the role of Jamaica’s chief spokesman on foreign affairs as Deputy Chief of Mission to the United Nations. After the death of Donald Sangster in 1967, Shearer was elected Member of Parliament for Southern Clarendon amd became Prime Minister.

Mr Shearer’s term as Prime Minister was successful and featured the construction of three alumina refineries and three large tourist resorts that formed the basis of Jamaica’s mining and tourism industry- two biggest foreign exchange earners for the country. There was also an upswing in secondary school enrollment after an intense education campaign that he spearheaded.

The Shearer led JLP was defeated by the People’s National Party (PNP) in the 1972 elections in which Michael Manley became Prime Minister. When the JLP was returned to power in 1980, under the leadership pf Edward Seaga, Shearer was appointed deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and served until 1989.

He died at his home in Kingston on July 5, 2004 at the age of 81. He is survived by his wife, the Most Honourable Dr. Denise Eldemire Shearer, three sons Corey Alexander, Howard and Lance and daughters Hope, Hillary, Mischka Garel, Heather and Ana Margaret Sanchez.

Sir Alexander Bustamante attended elementary school in rural Hanover. He traveled extensively as a young man, returning to Jamaica in 1932 and began to lead the struggle against colonial rule. He first came to the public’s attention as a writer of letters to the Daily Gleaner newspaper. Bustamante became treasurer of the Jamaica Workers Union (JWU) in 1937 which was founded by labour activist, Allan G.S. Coombs. He was identified as the spokesman for workers during the 1938 labour rebellion. The Jamaica Workers Union later became the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) and Bustamante was dubbed,”The Chief”.

A Jamaican labour leader, Bustamante’s Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won 22 of 32 seats in the first House of Representatives which made him the unofficial leader and Minister for Communication until the position of Chief Minister was created in 1953. He held this position until the JLP was defeated in 1955. He became Jamaica’s first Prime Minister in 1962 and served until 1967. Bustamante also held the position of Mayor of Kingston in 1947 and 1948. In 1969 Sir Alexander Bustamante was given the distinguished title of “National Hero of Jamaica”. Sir Alexander died in 1977 at the age of 93.