P.J. Patterson wants large countries to stop imposing their views of ‘democracy’ on small nation states, Africa
BALTIMORE, Maryland:
In an address reminiscent of his days as president of the People’s National Party (PNP), former Prime Minister PJ Patterson has pushed back at the concept of democracy practised by the Western world, calling it “the self-serving prism …” where their democratic litmus test is whether a leader, chosen in free and fair elections, is acceptable to Western eyes.
Delivering the keynote address at the opening of the four-day State of the Black World conference at the Baltimore Convention centre in Baltimore, Maryland, the former Jamaican prime minister said the Western scorecard has allowed the perpetrators of the most reprehensible atrocities “to colt the game rather than permit a full examination of the past to be used in creating a realistic understanding of the obstacles which Africans, the Caribbean and Latin Americans must remove to exercise full sovereignty in the only planet, which all mankind must share”.
In a wide-ranging address, Patterson told delegates from Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, Canada and the United States, that sound judgement is based on what you practise, and not by what is preached.
Patterson referenced the assassinations of deceased leaders murdered by forces funded by countries that believe that to be an accepted leader one must embrace capitalism of the West.
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“Where is the firm commitment to democracy by the powers that proclaim it, when Patrice Lumumba in the Congo or Salvador Allende in Chile, freely elected by their citizens, is assassinated by covert intelligence and replaced by brutal dictators who immediately gain endorsement and material support from the metropolitan powers? Patterson balked.
He said global Africa cannot remain silent or indifferent whenever there is a threat to the democratic process for its children or any impediment to their full development no matter where they reside – on the Continent, in the Caribbean Islands, the United States or Brazil.
‘ARROGANT SERMONS’
He said the 54 countries which comprise the African Union and the 14 nations in Caricom have had their fill of the “arrogant sermons that others know better what is good for us”.
“Global Africa must entail the full inclusion of the diaspora and evoke the call of Marcus Garvey in 1920 to organise as one for the anti-colonial and civil rights struggles we face, no matter where we reside. That is what this conference is all about,” he said reminding the conference that as the late Peter Tosh reminded us, “Anywhere you come from, if you are a black man, you are an African.”
In a clear reference to the efforts by Republican-controlled legislatures in the United States to disfranchise black voters, Patterson said that the political gerrymandering was putrid.
“We find it incompatible with the assertion that in a true democracy every vote should have equal weight when legislatures in the Southern States of the USA, which still control their separate electoral systems, distort the popular will by the delineation of boundaries and the configuration of the voting process to effectively disenfranchise or disempower huge swathes of the population based on race, colour and class,” he stated.
Addressing the issue of police brutality against people of colour he said, police brutality and murders can never be justified, but it was a seismic shock to read that Jamaica’s rating was being reviewed “because of the numerous reports of arbitrary and unlawful killings and complaints of abuse by the police”.
“So what of the United States?” Patterson questioned.
Noting that he was deeply perturbed at this, he said instead of pontifications, the United States should instead help prevent gun violence. Gun violence is now a public health crisis which breeds gangs and organised crime that threaten the security of the nation.
He made it clear that “Democracy cannot thrive where the rule of law does not exist.”
Patterson, an internationally respected senior Counsel at the Bar, said that the USA was sending baffling signals on what the rule of law means.
Patterson, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, US Congresswomen Sheila Jackson Lee and Barbara Lee, as well as Jamaican-born former state senator from Maryland Shirley Nathan Pulliam, are among nine persons who will receive the organisation’s Legacy Award on Saturday.
