MR Michael Manley, who led Jamaica down the road of socialism as prime minister in the 1970s, has died after a long battle with prostate cancer. He was 72.
Mr Manley returned to head a more moderate government in 1989, only to resign after becoming seriously ill in 1992. He was described by the Prime Minister, Mr P.J. Patterson, as a "colossal figure" on the Jamaican political scene.
Born in 1924, Mr Manley was greatly influenced by his father, an Oxford-trained lawyer and former prime minister who founded the People's National Party which now governs Jamaica.
Michael Manley served as a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force and studied at the London School of Economics on an RCAF demobilisation scholarship where he made friends with Guyana's then future president, Mr Forbes Burnham.
He rose to power in 1972 on a popular wave of support for the poor, and declared himself a democratic socialist, causing an ideological split and helping to fuel a class war in Jamaica that led to the worst political violence in the island.
More than 800 people were killed in 1980 when Mr Manley lost to the conservative, Mr Edward Seaga. Mr Manley was blamed for wrecking the economy in the wake of the oil crisis of the 1970s.
Mr Manley blamed rising crime and unemployment, a worsening trade balance and a burgeoning external debt on the remedies prescribed by the International Monetary Fund.
He introduced an Act eliminating the stigma of being born out of wedlock, a national minimum wage, equal pay for equal work, a modern labour law and a maternity leave law.
His courting of Dr Fidel Castro of Cuba led to bitter relations with the US, which withdrew its aid and supported the opposition, anti-communist Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).
After he was swept out of power in 1980, Mr Manley rethought his socialist philosophy and embraced capitalism, while maintaining unswerving commitment to improving the lot of the poor.
In 1990, he was voted back into office and set about liberalising the Jamaican economy. Under his watch, Jamaica liberalised its foreign exchange system and opened the way for the private sector to take the lead in the development of the economy.