New Jamaica Chief Wants Good U.S. Ties : Manley, an Ex-Castro Ally, Also Pledges to Honor $4-Billion Debt

Prime Minister-designate Michael Manley, an America-bashing socialist firebrand in the 1970s but now a moderate social democrat, set good relations with Washington as his first priority Friday and vowed that economically troubled Jamaica will honor its $4-billion foreign debt.

The one-time ally of Cuba’s Fidel Castro was swept back into power in a landslide election Thursday that gave his People’s National Party at least 44 seats in the 60-member Parliament, ousting longtime Washington ally Edward Seaga, whose Jamaica Labor Party previously held all 60 seats.

“We wish to establish . . . on the widest and most constructive possible basis, a relationship with the new Administration of President George Bush,” said Manley. “I’ve already begun to have discussions with the U.S. ambassador to Jamaica about a visit to Washington.”

He said he also was anxious to meet with key congressional figures and with the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, with whom he hopes to cooperate closely in the war against narcotics smugglers and dealers.

As if to underline his sober new approach to international relations, the once flamboyant Manley, who favored a modified Mao suit and bush jackets when he was prime minister from 1972 to 1980, wore banker’s pin-stripes and a paisley necktie to his press conference in Kingston on Friday.

Although he has pledged to restore normal diplomatic relations with Cuba “in due course,” Manley said it is not a matter of high priority and he does not believe the move will upset Washington as it did a decade ago.

“We dealt with that a long time ago,” said Manley, who has held a series of informal meetings with U.S. officials, including former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, over the past two years to convince them that he has abandoned his radical positions of the past. “That’s not at the top of the agenda.”

Also on the Washington visit, which he hopes will be soon, Manley’s next priority will be to mend relations with the international financial institutions which he provoked and ultimately rejected in the 1970s, plunging Jamaica into a grave economic crisis from which it is only now emerging.

“It is very important for us and for me personally to establish direct personal contacts with the heads of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank,” he said.

Manley has called for fresh approaches to the foreign debts of Third World countries, but he hastened to reassure the banking community that he does not favor radical solutions such as unilateral suspension of debt service payments.

“We absolutely respect our obligations over debt,” said the new leader of a Connecticut-sized country, whose per capita debt burden is among the world’s heaviest. “We will not in any circumstances walk away from our debt.”

Quest for Bipartisanship

Manley made an earnest plea for national unity as an essential step in solving Jamaica’s domestic problems and increasing productivity, particularly in the vital tourist industry which is the nation’s top earner. He said he would meet soon with the defeated Seaga in an attempt to forge a bipartisan approach to solving problems in the fields of health, education, security against crime and the war against drugs.

As a symbolic gesture, the prime minister-designate asked Gov. Gen. Florizel Glasspole, who represents the British crown in this Commonwealth country, to postpone his swearing-in ceremony until Monday so that Jamaican churches can celebrate an ecumenical day of peace and unity Sunday.