LEFT: Three prime ministers converse from left: Hugh Shearer, Michael Manley and P.J. Patterson.
RIGHT: On the 2002 campaign P.J. Patterson tells party supporters 'we are going for the fourth term'.
"Wednesday, March 30 marks the 13th anniversary of the swearing in of P.J. Patterson as the country's sixth prime minister. Today we present the third in a four-part series reviewing the Prime Minister's performance and his rise to political prominence as he heads into retirement."
After completing 13 years as Prime Minister - the longest continuous period served by anyone in the office P.J. Patterson is going into retirement this year, he says, to pamper his grandchildren Breanna, Gabrielle and Nikos.
The road he had travelled to this office was long and winding and full of political boulders and pot holes. It was similar to the obstacles on the narrow unpaved road which wound its way through the villages of Kendal and Somerton where he spent his early years.
He was born at 13 Rousseau Road, Cross Roads, St. Andrew, to Ina James, a school teacher at the Churchill Primary School near Green Island, Hanover. His father was Henry Patterson, a small farmer, owner of a small property at Mt. Pleasant in the parish.
From early, at the age of nine, when the first general elections under Universal Adult Suffrage were held, he signalled his lifelong interest in competitive politics when he was nominated in "mock elections" as a candidate for the People's National Party in his Elementary School and defeated a student from a Jamaica Labour Party family in a campaign during recess.
Early Debater
In subsequent years, that early political/debating success was repeated with mixed results. He won the Purcell Scholarship tenable at Calabar High School where he discovered that in the school's hierarchy junior boys could be seen but never heard. So that when as a first former, he sought to intervene and speak from the floor during a fifth form debate, he was chased out of the classroom.
At Calabar he became the leader of the Scout troop and later a member of the school debating team. He was subsequently voted President of the Sixth Form Association of students of the secondary boys and girls schools in the Corporate Area.
At age 19, he graduated from Calabar and entered the working world as a Master at Cornwall College in Montego Bay. His students there included Terry Gillette and Arthur Nelson, subsequent Members of Parliament. At Cornwall he taught English and Spanish; his knowledge of Spanish has served him well today in his meetings with the leaders of Latin American countries, a factor which has endeared him to them.
UWI Years
His stint at Cornwall was short-lived. He was selected among a small group of Caribbean nationals to enter the fledgling University of the West Indies (UWI) with its then 302 students, 130 of which were from Jamaica. There, he met a bright, sparkling and strikingly pretty young woman, Shirley Field-Ridley of British Guiana, who later became his wife. Other students on the campus included the present Minister of Information, Burchell Whiteman.
Patterson is the first of the present Heads of Caribbean Governments to have been trained at the Mona campus of the regional University. Before him, Forbes Burnham of Guiana and Errol Barrow of Barbados along with Michael Manley, spent their student years together in London. There they were members of the West Indies Students Union, watched Test cricket between the West Indies and England, and discussed and debated world affairs and regional concerns.
Patterson not only attended UWI but was also the last of the Caribbean leaders to study in London. He, therefore, had an affinity with Burnham and Barrow, but also with the subsequent Caribbean leaders trained at Mona, such as Kenny Anthony of St. Lucia, Denzil Douglas of St. Kitts, Keith Mitchell of Grenada, Ralph Gonzales of St. Vincent, Patrick Manning of Trinidad and Tobago, and Erskine Sandiford and Owen Arthur of Barbados.
At the UWI, Patterson became very involved in national politics. Dr. Roy Augier of the Institute for Social and Economic Research employed and assigned him to cover for analysis, the election campaign of 1955 islandwide. This assignment enabled him to meet with the leaders and candidates of both political parties, attend political meetings in the nooks and crannies of villages and towns, and assess the programmes they offered to the people. The assignment reinforced his belief in the People's National Party.
He also enjoyed a summer job as a sports reporter with the Daily Gleaner where his wide interest in sports led him to covering major sports competitions and meeting sportsmen and women and administrators. In subsequent years, he tried to attend table tennis tournaments, football and cricket matches, especially Test Matches.
While he was at Mona, the position of external affairs chairman of the Guild of Undergraduates was created. In the elections for this office, his campaign manager was poet Mervyn Morris. He was successful. In this capacity he represented the Guild at International Student's Confe-rences in Ceylon and Nigeria, served on the Executive of the International Students' Conference and was a member of the team of students which visited Nicaragua in 1957 to investigate the freedom of students in that country.
Serum of Politics
The serum of politics had by then spread through his being and it was, therefore, not surprising that he started and was elected President of a Political Club on the campus. This Club of youngsters attracted the attention of the leaders of Caribbean, and those who accepted invitations to address the students on the campus included Sir Grantley Adams, then Prime Minister of the West Indies Federation, Eric Williams, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Forbes Burnham, Deputy Leader of British Guiana, and Michael Manley, seen by the executive of the club as a future leader in Jamaica. One of the most successful projects of this Club was a debate promoted among undergraduates from Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad, about which of their respective islands should be the site of the capital of the Federation of the West Indies. The vote taken among undergraduates gave Trinidad 26, Barbados 9 and Jamaica 2, which was similar to the result of the decision by the political leaders of the Caribbean countries, subsequently.
It was expected that on graduation he would have left Jamaica for London to read for the Bar. Politics, however, beckoned him. He was influenced by PNP President Norman Manley, who saw in him the potential for leadership, to join the staff of the Party.
He was assigned as a field organiser for the parish of St. Elizabeth. Evidence of his organising skills became evident when the PNP won 58.08 per cent of the votes cast in St. Elizabeth in the 1959 General Elections, winning three of the four seats and losing the fourth, South West
St. Elizabeth, by a mere 6 votes.
The following year, 1960, he went to London to pursue his law studies. Shortly after arriving there, he persuaded Shirley Field-Ridley to say "I do". The union produced two children, Richard and Sharon. One year later, Norman Manley called for a Referendum on whether or not Jamaica should remain in the Federation of the West Indies. Patterson was on the first plane home to help in the campaign to stay with the Federation. Sadly, for him, the
electorate voted to end Jamaica's political relationship with the other British Caribbean countries.
He returned to London to continue his studies. Once again, however, Manley called General Elections to ask the people who they wished to lead Jamaica into Independence. Patterson came back home to campaign for his Party and again, the electorate voted in favour of the Jamaica Labour Party.
Sad Years
These were therefore two sad years for the 27-year old young man. However, he shrugged off his disappointment, returned to London, passed the Bar finals and returned to Jamaica to practice as a Barrister-at-law.
He set up Chambers with his friend Anthony Spaulding. By day they appeared before Judges and Juries defending their clients. At nights and on week ends they toured the island helping to organise party groups and addressing political meetings in towns and villages along with their friend, trade unionist Hopeton Caven. Once again, he met with disappointment when the PNP lost the 1967 General Elections.
Later that year, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and PNP Member of Parliament for South East St. Elizabeth, B.B. Coke, died. The comrades of St. Elizabeth remembered the excellence of his organising work in the Parish nine years earlier and expected him to be the candidate. This, however, was not to be. The Party's choice was Vivian Blake, who won. Another disappointment for Patterson. Almost as a consolation, he was appointed a Senator.
Meanwhile, Norman Manley announced his intention to resign. The two candidates who sought to succeed him were Michael Manley and Blake. Manley asked Patterson to be his Campaign Manager, but before accepting the invitation he felt it his duty as a legal colleague, to inform Blake of his decision. He did at a private lunch.
Youngest PNP VP
The result was a massive victory for Manley at the Party's Conference on February 16, 1969. Patterson also won his bid for election as a Vice President of the Party at the same Conference, becoming at 33, the youngest ever VP of the PNP. Once again, Patterson believed he would be offered Manley's St. Andrew constituency seat, only to be disappointed when Dr. Kenneth McNeill was selected.
His turn had to come, and it did when Max Carey, the PNP Member for South East Westmoreland died in 1970. He won the by-election. This became the constituency he would represent subsequently, except for the period 1980 to 1989. Its name has since been changed to Eastern Westmoreland.
For his first election in 1969, he commissioned a firm, Public Relations Associates, to develop and implement his communications programme. One of the elements in that campaign was the use of the colour orange as the campaign theme image. The other was the use of Nina Simone's hit song, "Young Gifted and Black" as his campaign song. It was a time of an upsurge of Black Nationalism and it resonated through the constituency.
With Manley's ascension to the leadership of the PNP, the Party began to prepare itself for the next General elections due in 1972. Manley selected Patterson as the Party's Campaign Manager. The Party adopted the colour orange, which he had introduced successfully in his constituency. Patterson had also been the Manager of the Satellites, a group of Jamaica's leading musicians which included the great Don Drummond, Tommy McCook, Roland Alphonso and Jackie Mittoo. He was Drummond's Attorney when he was tried for the murder of his girl friend, Marguerita.
At Mona he was seen as "the music man" of Chancellor Hall, attracting students who were interested in jazz. After he began practising as an Attorney, his home in Oaklawn Park became the venue of some of the great social parties of the 1960s organised in association with his friends Hopeton Caven, Milton "Scully" Scott, Tony Spaulding and Wes Wainwright and this writer. Ask him today about the "eight-day-eight-night" party they held at one of the cottages at Port Henderson, and his eyes will light-up remembering when if their friends took the same girl as their date on two succeeding days to this continuously swinging fete, it was at the peril of being serenaded with "Here comes the bride!".
A proposal to Manley by Producer Buddy Pouyatt and Attorney Paul Fitzritson to produce a Bandwagon show of Jamaican entertainers including Clancey Eccles, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Alton Ellis, Judy Mowatt, Derrick Morgan, Hopeton Lewis and Max Romeo was incorporated in the election campaign programme by Patterson. The song, "Better Must Come" by Delroy Wilson became the campaign theme song as a counterpoint to the overall motivational theme that "A Change is Coming".
Patterson also recruited a group of Jamaica's leading advertising and public relations communicators to carry out the Party's election public affairs programme. They included Dwight Whylie, Ralston Smith, Gerry Grindley, Desmond Henry and Pat Cooper.
The result was a dramatic victory for the PNP.
In preparing for this campaign, Patterson founded a support group for his constituency under the name "Friends of South East Westmoreland". This group provided outside help to Ralph Anglin, the Secretary, Executive Member Noel Monteith and other executives in raising funds to maintain the organisation, publishing its annual report and providing logistics support in election campaigns. These included Caven and Wainwright, civil engineer Milton Weise, transport businessman Lance Johnson, Life Underwriter Ruddy Lawson, water engineer Ralph Fisher, businessman Eddie Knight, surveyor Roosevelt Thompson, businessmen Noel Sloley, Roy Hutchinson and Eddie Knight, and economist Nathan Richards. In later years, this writer also became associated with this group.
During the first term of office by the PNP under Michael Manley, Patterson who had been Shadow Minister for Youth and Community Development was appointed Minister of Trade and Industry, and subsequently Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.
In this period when there was a spate of unexplained murders and incidents of violence, when innocent children went to their untimely deaths when they were thrown into fires by arsonists, Patterson grieved at the hatred and anger, which divided the nation. He also mourned the loss of many personal friends such as Paul Fitzritson and Leo Henry.
Shot At
Came 1980. The former peaceful constituency of South East Westmoreland suffered as elsewhere from political violence. He himself was shot at along with friends touring his constituency on Nomination Day. He lost his seat.
He retreated to plan the next stages of his future. He decided not to accept the Manley's invitation to return to the Senate, believing instead that he should return to the grass roots of the Party. Two years later he also decided not to contest the Vice-Presidency of the Party, spending the next year organising groups throughout the country. He was also tempted to accept an invitation from the executive of the North West constituency of St. Catherine to seek to represent them in Parliament. It was one-hour's drive from Kingston, unlike South East Westmoreland which was a three-hour journey. He had given his word to his former constituents, remembering his quoted promise from Ruth of the Old Testament, "not to leave you.....for whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge".
Along with Carl and Alfred Rattray, he founded the legal firm Rattray Patterson Rattray, recruiting a number of junior associates such as Clark Cousins and Brenda Warren. He also founded an international consulting firm, InterConsults, to which he invited former Cabinet colleagues who had lost their seats and former public officials whose appointments had been terminated by the new Government.
He returned to the executive of the Party in 1983 as Chairman, and for the next six years was the architect of the programme to re-energize the organisation. His guiding hand could be felt in projects such as the monthly Political Forums which were used as a mini-Parliament to announce policies and criticised the Seaga Government, and the all-night protest vigils at National Heroes Park and the Halfway Tree Square which saw countless thousands of party supporters and friends spending the nights "reasoning" and marching next morning on the Bank of Jamaica and on Jamaica House, respectively.
Patterson was as meticulous in planning the political strategy to capture Local Government from the Jamaica Labour Party in 1986 as he did for the campaign to elect Michael Manley as President in 1969 and to win the general elections of 1972. The PNP routed the Seaga-led Labour Party in these municipal elections, and it was only inevitable that Seaga would be removed from Jamaica House in the 1989 elections.
In the 1980s, too, he went through another sad period when his former wife and mother of his children, died suddenly in 1983. Despite their divorce and separation, and her subsequent re-marriage, they still remained friends. Three years later he was a proud father when Richard graduated from the University of Los Angeles with a degree in Geophysics, while Sharon graduated subsequently from the George Washington University in Psychology.
Resigned From Cabinet
Then his career was almost shattered. A controversy over his decision to grant a waiver to a petroleum company, led to his resignation from the Cabinet and the death of his mother, all within days. Giving him support at that time, as he had done for years, was former Prime Minister Hugh Shearer.
Patterson is a creature of habit. The lady who has trimmed him since the 1960s is one of his friends. She still does so today, giving his hair special attention. She also does the same for the close group of friends.
Those friends of yesterday are his friends of today. Since 1980 when four of these friends, Weise, Caven, Lance Johnson and this writer shared Christmas lunch with him, they have done so every year except when any are out of town or abroad. - with the group growing larger each year. His friends share his passion for jazz and Jamaican music, art and craft, theatre and sports, interests that have had to be placed on the back burner during his years as Prime Minister. Other friends of years include Violet Neilson, Terry Gillette, Simon Clarke, Burchell Whiteman, and even though many of these and other friends only meet with him infrequently, it is as though they last met the day before.
Friends of long ago are often surprised when he calls them on the telephone "to touch base", or to congratulate them on an achievement or to commiserate about a loss.
He confessed once, that a regret in being Prime Minister is that it has distanced the people he has loved. "I would like to be able to drop into your home, without notice, as I used to do, and know that I am welcomed," he said.
Breakfast on Saturday mornings at "Uhuru', his freedom home of 35 years in Shortwood, St. Andrew, includes yam, bananas and plantain, the "brukfus" of his childhood years.
And playing in the background are songs by Beres Hammond, Cynthia Schloss and Roberta Flack.
Coming tomorrow: 'Carrying the weight of the job' and 'P.J.'s economic report card'.
