Raymond Pryce, ContributorTHE ANNOUNCEMENT of his timetable to demit office by the Most Honourable Prime Minister on Sunday January 22, has resulted in a permanent marker within the nation's consciousness.
It certainly is, for Jamaica, the first time an accomplished and healthy Prime Minister has decided on his own departure timetable, having publicised that his resignation was imminent on the night of the General Elections of 2002.
Just hours after the polls had closed, the votes were counted and the Electoral Office of Jamaica confirmed that Prime Minister Patterson had successfully led the People's National Party to a fourth successive victory at the polls.
Times like this also usher discussions about legacies. The focus has remained centred upon a listing of inventory and physical infrastructure. Those are significant accomplishments, but they are but the tools of development. The legacy of the Patterson years is to be seen in the people.
On a personal note, I was a student at St. George's College when I first met Prime Minister Patterson. I attended a scheduled debate at the then Wyndham Hotel, during the transition process after the Most Honourable Michael Manley had announced his retirement. It was then that I learnt about the 'Young Gifted and Black' programme that was engineered by P.J. Patterson.
Since then, I have had the honour to have spoken with him about those times and about that programme and I am able to measure his legacy accordingly. In those times there were only few young Jamaican success stories. The realities of those times did not allow for more than but a handful.
Today in 2006 after Patterson an indigenous entrepreneurial class of young, confident and enterprising Jamaicans, bubbling with potential and energised by our abundant innovation and creativity are busy working to finally accomplish the sustainable development described by Garvey that is within our grasp.
NOTHING SINISTER
Certain questions have started to arise revolving around the mechanism through which the next Prime Minister of Jamaica will be appointed. Many have tried to question the constitutional validity of fewer than 4,000 Jamaicans deciding on the next individual who will be the Prime Minister.
I will attempt to allay the fears of my generation.
This process is not a sinister invention of the People's National Party. The Jamaican Constitution is as resilient as the people themselves have proven to be. Any country where a ruling leader dies in office and the country does not disintegrate into chaos is a country with sophisticated institutions and the capacity to administer transitions successfully.
The customary way for prime
ministers to be appointed in a Westminster Government is through national elections. Since 1962, we have had ten such general elections. In the corresponding time, we have had seven different men serving as prime ministers. The decade of the 1960s was very interesting in this regard as we had three prime ministers, Sir Alexander Bustamante, Sir Donald Sangster and the Most Honourable Hugh Shearer.
More interestingly, there were three different prime ministers in the administrative term of 1962-1967. Sir Alexander Bustamante retired due to ill health, and was replaced (without general elections) by Sir Donald Sangster, who died within weeks of his inauguration and who spent most of that time in a coma and who was then replaced by the Most Honourable Hugh Shearer (without general elections). Yet the constitutional arrangements within the Jamaica Labour Party survived and allowed for seamless transition.
NO CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS
More recently, in 1992, the PNP displayed that its internal mechanisms to elect a new leader within an administrative term (without general elections) are sufficient. Since that time, the mechanisms have been modernised to reflect the current dispensation. There is no constitutional threat!
It is usually the case at times like this one, in the development cycle of nations, that the young of the population those born after 1975 locate themselves within the future path of their country, as, it is our age group that at every other time of critical importance in our own history has come forward and determined the next chapter of our future. The Rt. Excellent Marcus Garvey was not yet 35 years of age when he began to articulate a vision that inspired countless people, key world leaders among them.
The Honourable Bob Marley was in his 20s when he engineered reggae. In both cases, these icons of the Jamaican people began their journeys in times typified by significant challenges and transition. An opportunity may then be missed if we fail properly to calibrate the task environment within which Jamaica's development proceeds and enliven a 'Positive Vibration' in the souls of our young people, so that they may come forward and get involved in the future.
Raymond Pryce is chairman of The Patriots, the young professional arm of the People's National Party.
