JAMAICA AND the Eastern Caribbean state of St. Vincent and the Grenadines are both sovereign nations. One of the basic tenets of international relations is that states do not interfere in each other's internal affairs. Breaches of that principle have led to strained relations between states and in the most extreme cases to war.
Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, was guilty of a most reckless breach of that international principle when he allowed himself to be paraded on a People's National Party election platform on Thursday night, clenched fist and all, to deliver a ringing endorsement for the re-election of the Patterson administration.
Dr. Gonsalves studied and worked here for a number of years and no doubt has many close friends in Jamaica particularly among the present Government and likely holds strong views on Jamaican politics. We have no quarrel with the admiration Dr. Gonsalves holds for Mr. Patterson and with the respect that he has for his abilities. But Dr. Gonsalves is now the Prime Minister of a sovereign state and he has no business coming here to tell Jamaicans how to vote.
Dr. Gonsalves' academic discipline is, we understand, political science, and his studies if nothing else should have constrained him from committing a most egregious gaffe. Certainly he must be aware of the damage that his actions and remarks can do to the relations between our two countries if the Jamaica Labour Party wins the upcoming elections and the strain that this can place on the efforts to fashion a Caribbean unity.
The People's National Party who were Dr. Gonsalves' hosts are not without blame. Mr. Patterson is no neophyte in international relations having served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, undergone a long apprenticeship in state craft and has been Prime Minister for ten years. He knows that what he allowed Dr. Gonsalves to do is wrong and we would hate to think that the quest for a fourth term has so blinded his judgement that he allowed this insult to the Jamaican people.
Jamaicans have been electing Governments since 1944 and are in no need of gratuitous advice from outsiders, 58 years later, on how we ought to arrange our internal political affairs.
Dr. Gonsalves should use the earliest possible opportunity to apologise to the people of Jamaica through the proper diplomatic channels.
