Edward Seaga

Edward Philip George Seaga ON ( born May 28, 1930 in Boston, United States) is a Jamaican politician. For the JLP he was from November 1980 to February 1989 Prime Minister of his country. From 1974 to 1980 and again from 1989 to 2005 he was leader of the opposition in the Jamaican House of Representatives. Until his retirement, he was one of the most senior politician in the country.

Seaga is the child of Lebanese and Scottish immigrants, he was born in 1930 in Boston, moved with his parents but soon to Jamaica. He attended school in Kingston, and studied at Harvard University. After graduating, he taught at the University of the West Indies.

His political career began when he was in 1959 in the Legislative Council, a precursor of the later Parliament elected. After independence in 1962, he was Minister of Development. His main interest was the slums of Kingston, whose infrastructure he had to massively expand until the end of the 1960s, and so the lives of the residents improved greatly. After the electoral victory of his party in 1967 he was Finance Minister under Prime Minister Hugh Shearer, from whom he took over the party leadership in 1974.

Due to major economic problems that had arisen during the tenure of the People's National Party Prime Minister Michael Norman Manley, the JLP won in the 1980 elections 51 of the 60 parliamentary seats. Seaga became Prime Minister. He finished Manley's experiment of Democratic Socialism and distanced himself from Cuba. This measure attracted foreign investors to the island and left the set in the 1970s Wirtschaftshifen start up again. One rejected by the population involvement in the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983 affects the reputation Seagas, as well as a renewed economic crisis in the late 1980s. 1987 and 1988 there were, mainly due to the increase in poverty, violent demonstrations and strikes. In 1988, the government was unable to respond adequately to the damage done by Hurricane Gilbert damage. Despite an extensive campaign the JLP lost the 1989 election clearly and Manley was prime minister again. Seaga was leader of the opposition, until he resigned for health reasons in 2005.

Seaga was active in the 1960s in the music business; he headed the record label West Indies Records Limited. He is married to his second wife and three children.

In 2002 he was given the second highest honor of the Jamaican government with the award of Order of the nation.