Patterson’s `Challenges of change’
*Book Review: The Challenges of Change. Edited by Delano Franklyn. Ian Randle Publishers. 488 pages
By Rickey Singh
Guyana Chronicle
March 14, 2004
THE VICE-CHANCELLOR of the University of the West Indies, Professor Rex Nettleford, and Delano Franklyn, the lawyer and author who serves the Prime Minister of Jamaica as Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have between them provided insights into P.J. Patterson's leadership skills in budget presentations over a ten-year period that would contrast with the thinking of detractors and opponents of the Jamaican leader.
But it would be a mistake for those really interested in having a better understanding of a Caribbean man who has been actively involved in some four decades of parliamentary politics and governance, not to familiarise themselves with a just-released book by Ian Randle Publishers.
It is a book that spotlights P.J. Patterson's responses to the challenges of change, some at varying times of social, economic and political turbulence at home and abroad, with his interventions, as head of government in annual budget presentations since 1992 - the year he succeeded the late Michael Manley.
No other Jamaica Prime Minister has ever been privileged to make 11 consecutive "budget presentations" to the House of Representatives, Patterson was himself to observe on April 30, 1992 - the last such intervention chronicled in the 489-page `Challenges of Change’, edited by Franklyn.
It is, however, by no means the number of such presentations that underscores the significance of the book. Rather, as noted by the respected Nettleford in the foreword:
"It is useful to look beyond the chronological listing of the speeches, artfully organised by Delano Franklyn, in order to clear up the enigma that he (Patterson) remains to many, and to appreciate the political pedigree of this evolved Jamaican..."
Prime Ministerial budget speeches in post-independence Jamaica, said Nettleford, have long gone beyond totting up GNP and GDP columns of statistics by speaking to the "challenges of freedom, social justice and development strategies..."
And while those within his ruling People's National Party as well as the main opposition Jamaica Labour Party await - for different reasons - the moment when he implements his already signalled decision to demit office during his current fourth term, Nettleford makes clear his admiration for Patterson's sterling contributions to Jamaica and the Caribbean:
Regional commitment
"He deserves to be credited", said the UWI Vice-Chancellor, "for his wisdom in staying the course set by the national party organisation he inherited from both Manleys (Norman and Michael), and for his grasp of the implications of the phenomenon of a newly-globalised world...."
As well as for his "commitment to Caribbean regionalism for which he has come to be regarded as a front-line statesman and authoritative spokesman as were his two predecessors (Norman and Michael Manley)..."
It may not be a book for popular reading, especially for those with no passion for the kind of statistics and analyses associated with budget presentations.
Nor does the author make any pretence of impartiality in his assessment of Patterson in `The Challenges of Change’, which could be categorised as a relevant companion to Franklyn's earlier book, `A Jamaica Voice in Caribbean and World Politics (Selected Speeches of Patterson, 1992-2000)’.
`The Challenges of Change’ is a welcome departure from other publications filled with collection of addresses/presentations by some heads of governments, leaders of political parties and officials of leading public and private sector organisations/institutions within CARICOM.
Credit for this departure has to do with Franklyn's skill in introducing the eleven interventions by Patterson in the budget presentations in a manner that invites critical evaluation - by admirers or detractors of the Jamaican Prime Minister - about the relevance then (1992-2002), and now, of the fiscal and economic policies and strategies pursued by his successive PNP administrations.
From very early in his tenure, as Franklyn recalls, Patterson made it his duty to set out the context in which he would be pursuing politics and programmes on behalf of the Jamaican people, and do so in a non-confrontational style of leadership with a people-focused approach.
The Links
The extent of the success achieved may itself be a good reason for researchers and more than students of post-independence Jamaica politics to go beyond Nettleford's foreword and Franklyn's introduction in examining Patterson's stewardship as reflected in `The Challenge of Change’.
How, for instance, Patterson linked the pursuit of radical changes domestically with an activist foreign policy, one guided by four main principles, as related by the author, namely:
The preservation of Jamaica's sovereignty; the responsibility to pursue a development agenda that affirms the rights of underdeveloped states to equal treatment at the international bargaining table; the mutuality of benefits to be derived from trade and other such inter-state transactions and alignment; plus an "unyielding resolve to "non-alignment and non-domination of small states by big ones".
The reader is directed to the impact of policies on quality of life, values and attitudes, issues of corruption and constitutional reform in the author's bold attempt at fulfilling the objective, as he explained, to...
"Give students of politics, persons who are interested in national development and the general reader, an opportunity to easily access the budget presentations of the person who has been given the responsibility to head the Government and lead our country during the last decade..."
It is as much a challenge now to the reader, as it would have been for the author, to determine the degree of success achieved in what Franklyn set out to do in `The Challenges of Change’.