He was the last serving politician to have entered public life before independence in 1962, as he was appointed to the Legislative Council (now the Senate) in 1959.

Phillip Seaga had moved to the US seeking to take advantage of the prosperity of the Roaring Twenties, but the Wall Street crash of 1929 scotched those dreams.

[7] Seaga's political career began in 1959 when Alexander Bustamante, founder of the JLP, nominated him to serve in the Upper House of the Jamaican Parliament, the Legislative Council (later the Senate).

He held that seat for 43 consecutive years, until he retired, making him the longest-serving Member of Parliament in the history of Jamaica and the Caribbean region.

He initiated the redevelopment of Back O'Wall, a notorious large slum in West Kingston, and its replacement by housing, schools and community amenities, which was named Tivoli Gardens.

However, four years later, Seaga was a part of the Cabinet of prime minister Hugh Shearer that banned Walter Rodney from Jamaica for allegedly stirring up racial hatred.

[citation needed] In the 1972 Jamaican general election, the PNP led by Michael Manley won 37 seats to the JLP's 16, and Shearer and Seaga were swept out of power.

This allegedly started in 1975, after Henry Kissinger failed in his attempts to get Manley to stop his support for Cuba and Angola, and their fight against the armies of apartheid South Africa.

[12] The 1980 Jamaican general election featured considerable violence including running gun-battles, and would be won by the JLP in a landslide.

"It is a barometer of the lasting contentiousness and potential divisiveness of any appraisal of Papa Eddie", Thwaites said, arguing that the only other figure in Jamaican political history who could possibly be as controversial as Seaga would be his nemesis, the late former Prime Minister Michael Manley.

In a region with such a complicated, intertwined history meshed with various world superpowers, the act of making decisions that can irrevocably effect the country is handled with care.

Understanding the threat associated with communism, Seaga reversed the hands of friendship extended by Manley to Cuba and Grenada, two countries that had adopted strong anti-American stances during the Russo-American political standoff of the 70s and 80s.

In an attempt to steer his country into the clear, he was forced into adopting an alliance with world leaders such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

[citation needed] In doing so, Seaga is credited with preventing the eradication of Jamaica economically and saving the country from a path leading to shackling sanctions like Cuba or a foreign invasion to eliminate communism as seen in Grenada.

In the 1980s, the Seaga administration became embroiled in accusations of a dark circle of narco-banking involving the contras of Nicaragua, the CIA and the Israeli money-launderer Eli Tisona.

Seaga's Agro 21 programme was accused of involvement in cocaine trafficking from Colombia, and its Spring Plains project employed Shower Posse's Lester Coke, a.k.a.

The JLP was defeated in a landslide by Manley's PNP in the 1989 Jamaican general election, by a margin of 45 seats to 15, and Seaga returned to a long spell as Leader of Opposition.

During this period of time, he suffered leadership challenges from a number of his colleagues, such as the "Gang of Five" of Errol Anderson, Edmund Bartlett, Karl Samuda, Douglas Vaz, and Pearnel Charles.

With a Masters in Public Administration, Vendryes Seaga has a special interest in sociological research and the development of Jamaican handicraft.

As an athlete, Seaga played on several college and school teams: field hockey, cricket, football, rifle, tennis and swimming (diving).

[citation needed] On 20 January 2005, Edward Seaga retired as Leader of the Jamaica Labour Party, a position he had held for 30 years.