P. J. Patterson
Encyclopedia : P : PJ : PJP : P. J. Patterson
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| Term: | March 30, 1992–March 30,2006 | |
| Predecessor: | Michael Manley | |
| Successor: | Portia Simpson-Miller | |
| Date of Birth: | April 10, 1935 | |
| Place of Birth: | Westmoreland, Jamaica | |
| Political Party: | People's National Party | |
The Most Honourable Percival Noel James Patterson QC O.N (born April 10, 1935) was the Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1992 to 2006. Until February 2006 he was the leader of the Jamaican People's National Party. The new PNP leader, Portia Simpson-Miller, took over as Prime Minister on March 30, 2006.
Patterson was Jamaica's longest-serving Prime Minister. He first entered politics in 1969, winning a by-election to a seat in western Jamaica, campaigning with the slogan "Young, gifted, and black".
Patterson served in a variety of cabinet posts under Prime Minister Michael Manley, both in the 1970s, and during Manley's second prime ministership at the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s. He became Prime Minister and leader of the People's National Party himself when Manley resigned in 1992. He then led the party to victory in the three successive elections, an unprecedented record in Jamaican electoral history.
Patterson is said to have been Jamaica's first black Prime Minister (but see Hugh Shearer), and campaigned on a message of returning the country to the hands of its racial majority. Most of Jamaica's past Prime Ministers have been from mixed racial backgrounds, and one, Edward Seaga, was a Levantine Arab.
He made headlines in 2004 when it was announced that Jamaica (as well as Saint Kitts and Nevis and Venezuela) would not recognize the internationally-installed government of Gérard Latortue in Haiti following the alleged resignation of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Patterson was instrumental in arranging for Aristide to take up temporary residence in Jamaica during Aristide's lawsuit against the United States and France accusing the countries of kidnapping him.
Following Hurricane Katrina Patterson offered 30 trips for two, all expenses paid, to Jamaica for victims of the hurricane.
Patterson is a graduate of the University of the West Indies Mona Campus, and the London School of Economics.
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