THE ghost of Michael Manley should haunt the legacy of leadership he left the PNP in at least one respect. In retirement he came to regret as his biggest error of judgement in attending the "gun salute" funeral of the infamous "Burry Boy".This snippet of tribal history is recounted in a letter in our Sunday Voices feature of how some of our Prime Ministers dealt with community dons.
P.J. Patterson has not spoken, despite the controversial presence of three of his Ministers at the "Haggart" rites. He was more demonstrative in gratitude to "Zekes" in the aftermath of the 1999 gas riots. Edward Seaga, in his term as P.M., is said to have lionised "Jim Brown" as a community protector.
A new angle on such funeral rites is offered by the Reverend Ernle Gordon elsewhere in this issue. Discounting the notion of indigenous roots, the learned cleric says funeral ostentation originated in other cultures, some African and others Oriental.
The current reality is that the territory of the dons is now subject to open debate. The more nefarious aspects must be made to conform with the norms of law and order.
