ROBERT PICKERSGILL, chairman of the People's National Party, has defended Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, saying he was not meddling in Jamaica's affairs when he urged Jamaicans last week to re-elect the P.J. Patterson-led government.
Mr. Pickersgill was responding to an editorial in Monday's Gleaner which chided Dr. Gonsalves for comments made at a PNP rally in Bog Walk, St. Catherine last week.
Dr. Gonsalves said then that Jamaicans should not squander the opportunities they had, should not go backward, but should go for change. He described P.J. Patterson as "the greatest political leader in the Caribbean".
The editorial described the comments by Dr. Gonsalves as "an egregious gaffe" and urged him to apologise. The editorial noted that Jamaicans had been electing governments since 1944 and did not need "gratuitous advice from outsiders" on how they should arrange their political affairs.
According to the PNP chairman, Dr. Gonsalves was giving his personal views on the leadership qualities of the president of the People's National Party and was not "meddling".
He said political parties in the Caribbean had their sister parties and it was also the case that the JLP and the PNP had such sister parties not only in the Caribbean but in the United Kingdom and the United States. From time to time, persons holding high political offices had addressed party conferences here without any criticism from the populace, Mr. Pickersgill said.
He also said that at least one Prime Minister in the region had criticised government policy at a function at the University of the West Indies, where he was a guest and at that time there were no howls and the government did not make any accusation of outside interference.
"Within the Caribbean Com-munity comments are going to be made which will reflect views related to individual country leaders and country policies," Mr. Pickersgill said.
"Prime Minister Patterson has held the office of chairman of CARICOM and is now chairman of the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on External Negotia-tions, therefore his leadership is scrutinised by his colleagues and within that context I would have thought that they are free to endorse or criticise," he said.
