When race becomes an issue
Garwin Davis, Assistant News Editor

Prime Minister P.J. Patterson greets Opposition Leader, Edward Seaga, prior to the start of the Jamaica National Debate 2002 last Thursday.

PRIME Minister P. J. Patterson last year at a political meeting in Westmoreland was adamant that the so-called "race card" would not be an issue in the general election campaign which, at the time, was still some way off.

According to Mr. Patterson, contrary to the widely-held view that his party has been using Opposition Leader Edward Seaga's race as a convenient weapon, "I have not and would never" subscribe to the practice.

And he didn't stop there. Realising the comment was in stark contrast to earlier utterances, he then went about clarifying what probably has to be one of the more controversial remarks coming from a man who has never been known for excesses.

Mr. Patterson said when he spoke during the '97' election campaign that he could easily leave from the platform of a stage to mingle with an audience without being a standout, it was not a case of him playing the race card.

"I never intended it as a racist statement," he explained. "It had nothing to do with race but only to show how easy it is for me to relate to people. Even the children in my constituency, they don't refer to me as Prime Minister or Mr. Patterson. For them, it's just P. J."

A year later, what should we make of the Prime Minister's comments?

Is race truly an issue in the annals of local politics or is it more of a myth as Mr. Patterson seemed to have been saying? Has the race card been used to telling effect against Eddie Seaga and the JLP?

"Of course it has," explained Mitzie Seaga, former wife of the Opposition Leader. "It is very sad how the PNP has used race over the years as a campaign tool against Mr. Seaga...and for what...for the sake of holding on to state power. He doesn't talk about it much but I know it hurts him deeply."

Any bearing on election?

Mrs. Seaga, a former Miss Jamaica World and whose marriage to Mr. Seaga spanned over 20 years and resulting in three children said the racial abuse and "demonisation" of her former husband have been particularly hard on their children, noting "we have all been hurt by this constant abuse."

"They have seen their father sacrifice family to serve his country only to be treated like this," she said. "It's so ironic that the other day when Mr. Seaga was celebrating 40 years all these glowing tributes came in from the PNP side of the aisle. Now with the campaign on in earnest he has been transformed again into this evil man."

But is there anything to suggest that the race card has any bearing on the electorate? Does it weigh on the minds of voters when they go into the voting booth?

Analysts appear mixed in their views.

Social commentator John Maxwell doesn't believe race has ever decided the outcome of an election.

In an earlier interview, he said, "I don't believe a person's race has ever determined the outcome of an election but I can tell you that it has always been a factor in the Prime Minister's life. When he first entered politics in 1969, the theme of his campaign was the song, Young, Gifted and Black.

He explained that past victories at the polls by white candidates, dating back to Roy Lindo in 1944, Morris Cargill in the federal elections in 1958, the Gallimore dynasty in South Western St. Ann, starting from 1944, to Danny Melville and Ronald Thwaites in 1997, only serves to dispel the notion that race has ever been a factor in deciding elections.

Political analyst Dr. D.K. Duncan thinks the race card is alive and well and, according to him, does have a subliminal kind of impact.

"It was there even when you had Michael Manley who, ironically, had some of the same features as Mr. Seaga," Dr. Duncan said."When you got the black Patterson that was when it really worked. What's very unfortunate though is when things are taken out of context to make Mr. Seaga look bad...things like the black scandal bag...the John Crow beads...the way things have been spun out of control have been very sad."

PNP officials, however, are of the view that Mr. Seaga "has been his own worst enemy" and has been a victim of "his own utterances" rather than race.

"It has never been about his race...its more Seaga the person," one senior PNP official said yesterday. "Would you deny that the things that are written about Mr. Seaga are of his own doing? The PNP didn't put words in his mouth."

And how does Mr. Seaga feel?

"The only time I allow these things to bother me is when I know a lie has been told," he said in an interview on Friday. "I am more black than many of them that are talking...they haven't been in the communities I have been in...eat the food I have had or slept in the beds I have slept in...I have been among the people all my life...I have seen the struggles and have lived the struggles."