Dawn RitchP. J. Patterson is a total failure as Prime Minister. He succeeded at elections, but failed in the conduct of his prime ministerial duties in ways too numerous to count.
Over the last 14 years, he won elections not by dint of political genius, but for want of a better alternative. Throughout the unfolding disaster, this country has not been prepared to take a chance on Her Majesty's loyal Opposition at any time. It remains to be seen if the electorate can change its mind before 2007.
In the meantime, we have two more years of slaughter by the daily dozen, more people out of work and more struggle. The struggle is of course only ours, because they live high on the hog, ignoring probity, wasting money and fighting over contracts.
Patterson has a sly expression, and none more sly than when he addressed his final PNP conference recently. He gloated about his electoral victories, and announced he wanted to sign a whole heap of "goodies" before demiting office.
He who never saw even the law as a shackle, wants to shackle his own successor by signing a raft of new public sector deals before departing some time next year.
The most honourable also spoke of the new prime minister leading the PNP "troops" to Parliament. It was an extraordinary metaphor to use in this climate of slaughter and public corruption. An unfortunate slip of the tongue, it betrayed the fact that Patterson had never mastered governance, nor cared to learn about it. It was all a game of toy soldiers to him. He never made the parliamentary transition. For all his talk of being non-confrontational, his legacy is smoke and mirrors.
no change of policies
Dr. Omar Davies is the country's long-serving Finance Minister and ought soon to be putting the finishing touches to next year's budget. So whoever takes over in March next year is going to be listening to Dr. Davies' budget. A new prime minister could hardly ask him to tear up that one and craft another within 48 hours. So Patterson's planned date of departure effectively guarantees that there can be no change of policies.
Not only does he propose to hang deals like millstones about our necks, but failed public policies in perpetuity must hang there too.
The most honourable is finding it just as hard taking his leave of us, as Edward Seaga did as Leader of the Opposition. It's as though Patterson has not been fully convinced that long drawn-out departures split parties right down the middle. Moreover, since barely about 2,000 PNP delegates elected him, I don't really see why the next president of the PNP has to be elected by 5,000 or any variation thereof. Safety in numbers may prove equally illusory. But that's what the most honourable wants, and that's what he gets.
Patterson is binding his successor hand and foot with faits accomplis in another round of deals, and public policies without hope of change and amelioration. Not content with that, he said at the PNP conference that the new prime minister must come on an islandwide "farewell caravan" with him, and he'll be personally making "... the introductions to international world leaders." Is he quite mad?
Several people have asked me what is motivating his odd behaviour. Is it that he expects Mrs. Portia Simpson Miller to win, and thinks she has to be introduced? Or is it that he's trying to ensure that she can't possibly either succeed him, much less make any changes? It's a mystery to me of the most inexplicable kind, and the most odd behaviour from someone who thinks of himself as a political genius.
Perhaps Mr. Patterson would like to choose Mrs. Simpson Miller's Cabinet as well. Could that be at the bottom of all this? It is a false hope because the lady has been preparing all her life for this moment. It is unlikely that she'll want to sit at a table with stale hardough bread and thin soup.
free hand
Upon accession to office of an individual under the Westminster model, the entire Cabinet promptly hands in their written resignations to ensure that the new prime minister has a free hand. Nor do outgoing prime ministers under this system go busily about the place signing deals before hand. Demitting office immediately before a national budget is presented by a sitting political party is also frowned upon. Patterson's is therefore a display of the most putrid behaviour possible.
longer time to promise
What he's doing is giving each of Portia's opponents a longer time to promise each of the Cabinet posts at least five times over, in return for delegate votes at the Special Conference. And if that isn't a recipe for madness and festering political ill will I don't know what is. In this, he may do as much harm to the PNP as Seaga did to the JLP. That is a legacy nobody should be proud of.
Patterson is the same man who was trying to ram through the PNP conference that his successor must not just win the presidency by a majority of votes, but get over 51% of them. This is from someone who was never held to that standard, and who in public office, held himself to no visible standards at all. It was a piece of cheek really, and deservedly not considered. The more candidates running for the office is the less chance of 51%, but even with a crowded field, I expect Mrs. Simpson Miller's results to put paid to the argument.
In the meantime, Jamaica will continue to suffer from a surfeit of leadership on either side of the House which finds it impossible to sublimate their egos and do the right thing. Small wonder the public apathy towards them.
