PRIME MINISTER Patterson is coming closer to the end of his tenure. He has presided over the affairs of this country for a longer continuous period than any of his predecessors. The historians will no doubt make their own judgment of his merits and demerits. From our present perspective, despite the many severe problems the country continues to face, one thing can be said in Mr. Patterson's favour: he has been more of a uniter not a divider.
In a country with the history of divisiveness such as Jamaica, this is no small achievement. After the turbulent 1970s and the contentious 1980s, he can take much satisfaction in the fact that he has tried hard and with some success, to bring back civility, moderation and bi-partisanship into the conduct of our national affairs. A consultative style, a willingness to seek compromise are among his best qualities.
At the same time, Mr. Patterson's strengths have been the chief source of his weaknesses. As his revealing interview in this newspaper this week showed, he entered Jamaican politics when the world was a completely different place. Then the solutions to the problems of Jamaican society seemed relatively straightforward. Import substitution economic policies, nationalism and regional integration, combined with orthodox social welfare programmes, were the received wisdom. There was no deregulated global economy and little sense of urgency that the economy and society had to meet demanding international standards. There was no international drug trade and no immense domestic and foreign debt.
Today, both Jamaica and the world are vastly different places. We now live in an increasingly urban society threatened by an alienated youth population sections of which are addicted to violence, intimidation and crime. Corruption has got worse in all sectors of social life. Our economy is still struggling to find a niche in an inhospitable world.
Mr. Patterson's period of governance has had to deal with these harsh transitional realities with which Jamaica has been confronted. Honesty compels us to state that the record here is not impressive despite important positive signs of growth in the economy for which his government can certainly take some credit.
However, our progress could have been so much more if decisive and consistent action had been taken earlier to reduce the budget deficit and if some of the current measures to address crime had been adopted right from the very beginning. Sadly, Mr. Patterson's government suffered from complacency, lacking a deep understanding of the profoundly new nature of these challenges on the global economic, security and social fronts. This is particularly apparent in the soothing words uttered on the critical area of education in his Gleaner interview. As usual, much more robust and far-reaching approaches are needed than what he seems to envisage.
One person's moderation is another's indecisiveness and there are those who will certainly see Mr. Patterson's tenure in a wholly negative light. Despite the lack of vision and tendency to relish electoral manoeuvres before all, we believe that, on the whole, his period in office has been beneficial. We wish him well as he struggles to manage his party succession contest and prepares to leave office. Huge challenges await his successor.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
