Celebrating Patterson on his 90th birthday

The traditional narrative of P.J. Patterson’s contribution to Jamaica’s development focuses almost exclusively on the major projects conceived and implemented during his tenure, first as Cabinet minister and later as prime minister. What remains under-documented is the early years of his life’s journey which prepared him for his major role in nation-building, as well as the range of programmes he initiated to enrich the lives of the Jamaican people and to make them the centrepiece of the country’s development agenda. These programmes added a critical component to the base of his popular support, enhanced his political leadership and underpinned his public career.

Part 1 – Genes and Environment

P.J. Patterson’s life started in the rural community of Dias in the parish of Hanover. In the two generations which preceded him there were six teachers, including his grandparents, William and Eliza James, who entered the teaching profession as early as 1881. His mother, Ina James, remained in the classroom for over 40 years. Both generations also produced leaders of the Baptist Church. Two were lay preachers, and his maternal grandmother was a celebrated organist in the church. Their Christian walk predictably led to their deep involvement in the life of the community.

Science informs us that genes and environment are the fundamental factors in the shaping of the human personality. On both counts, the young P.J. Patterson was well served. P.J. Patterson was nurtured in a home environment that inculcated Christian values, established the primacy of education, and provided a sterling example of community leadership.

Part 2 – The Emerging Scholar & Leader at Calabar High School and The University of the West Indies

From his years at elementary school, ‘PJ’ showed an insatiable appetite for reading which enhanced his scholarship and resulted in his winning the Purcell Scholarship, which was tenable at Calabar High School.

As a student at Calabar, he confirmed his academic potential. In his final year he was first in the Cambridge Higher Schools Examination. However, as the record shows, he was never narrowly focused on academics. He also demonstrated a capacity for leadership, which was evident in his elevation as a prefect and as the leader of both the scout troop and the school’s debating team. His sixth-form colleagues, from other high schools, also recognised his leadership by electing him president of the Sixth Form Association.

After graduating from Calabar in 1953, PJ enrolled at The University of the West Indies in October 1954. There he combined studies with a range of activities that prepared him for public life. These included covering the 1955 general election for the Institute of Social and Economic Research. The exercise provided him with an invaluable political orientation.

PJ also seized the opportunity for part-time employment as a sports reporter for the Daily Gleaner. Coverage of the major sports competitions brought him into contact with the sports personalities of the day and indulged his passion for sports.

As a university student, Patterson also demonstrated the emerging advocate and intellectual which would underpin his professional life. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), in one of its overseas radio programmes, requested the participation of two undergraduates. P.J. Patterson and Ramsey Blackwood were selected. They answered the questions with such facility that the BBC called from London to protest that the undergraduates had been given the questions in advance and had been allowed to read the answers from a prepared script. It took the intervention of the director of the Extra Mural Department to satisfy the BBC that the students had not been so prepared for the interview.

In 1956, the position of external affairs chairman was added to the Guild Council and P.J. Patterson was elected chairman. In this capacity, he represented the Guild of Undergraduates at the International Students conferences in Ceylon (1956) and Nigeria (1957). He was also invited to serve on the executive of the International Students Conference, and was a member of the team which visited Nicaragua in 1957 to investigate the freedom of students.

Patterson’s next initiative was the establishment of a Political Club, which brought the campus a number of regional political leaders, including Grantley Adams of Barbados, Eric Williams of Trinidad and Tobago, and Forbes Burnham of British Guiana. By 1958, when PJ graduated, he had further demonstrated the breadth of his scholarship and his capacity for leadership. He had also created a regional network of friends and contacts.

Part 3 – Called to the Bar & the People’s National Party

In his final year at The University of the West Indies, Patterson’s standing as a scholar and leader in the university community came to the attention of O.T. Fairclough, a founder of the People’s National Party (PNP). Fairclough made it his mission to recruit the best and the brightest for political service, and introduced PJ to Party President Norman Manley. Both men immediately recognised in the young graduate the talent and commitment that the party needed.

The discussions with Norman Manley led PJ to postpone his law studies to take on the job of party organiser. For the 1959 general election, he was assigned to the parish of St Elizabeth. The PNP won 58 per cent of the popular vote and three of the four seats, losing the fourth by 13 votes. In 1960, he enrolled at the London School of Economics. He broke his studies twice; first in September 1961 to campaign in the Referendum of the West Indies Federation, and again in 1962 to assist the party in the general elections held that year.

He still completed the Bar finals by June 1963, having been awarded the Leverhume Scholarship and the Sir Hughes Parry prize for Excellence in the Law of Contract. The dean of the Law Faculty had assumed that his prize pupil would be proceeding to post-graduate studies and was at a loss to understand why PJ had chosen the uncertainties of political life over a professorship.

Part 4 – The Decisive Decade: 1963-1972

P.J. Patterson returned to Jamaica in 1963, and the next decade would prove decisive in his climb to the top of both the legal profession and the People’s National Party, as he combined a rapidly growing law practice with full-time involvement in politics.

The PNP to which PJ committed himself in 1963 was still recovering from the loss of the 1962 general election. However, there were no prospects of an early recovery, as the party reached an all-time low after losing the 1967 general election.

Patterson’s response to the demoralisation in the PNP was to revive the party spirits, to organise a week-long party. ‘For Days’, the name given to the event, was organised by himself and Tony Spaulding, with whom he shared chambers. It went a long way in reviving the Comrades and brought into activism a wide range of supporters into the re-building of the party islandwide.

At the post-election party conference, PJ took on the challenge of chairing the party’s Appraisal Committee, which was mandated to review and make recommendations for rebuilding the party organisation. His report to the 1968 conference was approved by acclamation and Norman Manley’s response was, “The future of our party is secure and I can now depart with the confidence that our vessel is in good shape for the journey ahead.”

PJ was appointed a senator and then leader of opposition business in that Chamber. In 1970, he succeeded Maxie Carey as the member of parliament for the constituency of S.E. Westmoreland.

In 1969, Norman retired as president of the PNP and at the party conference that year, Patterson, as campaign manager, ensured the election of Michael Manley to succeed N.W. as the president of the PNP. The conference also elected PJ as a vice-president. Percival James Patterson had arrived and was the unanimous choice to lead the party’s campaign for the 1972 general election.

The 1972 Election Campaign

The 1972 election campaign united diverse political and social trends into a national movement which restored hope to a nation on the verge of implosion. The campaign ended in a victory, which is perhaps the most complete expression of national consensus on a common programme to which every social class subscribed. Two initiatives demonstrate the breadth of the campaign that PJ organised.

In October 1969, just one month after the historic conference of that year, PJ and Michael Manley went on a tour of Africa, visiting Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia and Ethiopia. The choice of Africa for their first overseas tour had a special significance in a country where the overwhelming majority traced their roots to Mama Africa. For PJ, it marked the beginning of a special relationship he would build with the National Liberation Movement in Africa during both his tenure as minister of foreign Affairs and prime minister.

‘Bandwagon’

Before 1972, PJ had established organic links with Jamaica’s popular musicians. In 1964, despite the demands of a law practice and political engagement, he made time to offer management services to the Skatalites – the finest array of Jamaican musicians ever assembled.

Against this background, PJ welcomed the introduction of ‘Bandwagon’ to the 1972 campaign. Bandwagon, organised by Buddy Pouyat, Paul FitzRitson and Clancy Eccles, added a critical cultural dimension by bringing together Jamaica’s popular artistes to use popular music as a most effective tool of popular communication. It conveyed to the Jamaican people the slogans and songs that effectively called for the building of a new Jamaica, in which every Jamaican would have the opportunity to join the “march to progress”.

See tomorrow’s Gleaner for Part 5, ‘PJ Patterson’s climb to the top’.