The Culture, Health, Art, Sport and Education (CHASE) Fund added another chapter to Jamaica’s political history last Tuesday with the launch of a video documentary on the leadership of former Prime Minister Percival Noel James Patterson.

Entitled PJ Patterson: Fulfilling a Legacy of Leadership, the documentary spans Patterson’s political career from the 1970s when he entered politics to its climax in February 2006 when he retired and handed over the reins to current Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

The one-hour 13-minute documentary features comments from political leaders and thinkers in Jamaica and throughout the region, among them former education minister Burchell Whiteman; former leader of the Jamaica Labour Party and prime minister Edward Seaga; noted scholar Professor Rex Nettleford; president of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo; Caricom secretary general Edwin Carrington and ailing Cuban president Fidel Castro.

Comments from as far as the African continent are also included in the documentary through Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The men generally agree that Patterson was a visionary and that he had mastered the art

of politics.

But some persons present at the launch criticised the documentary for not having told the whole story. Patterson, however, offered the following counter: “Clearly, it is not possible for one documentary, just over an hour long, to detail my life and the long road that led me to where I am today. We all know that life is more about the journey than the destination, and this documentary makes an attempt to encapsulate my journey.

“It is generally acknowledged that we need to know where we are coming from so that we can better chart our future without repeating our mistakes. This makes the recording of a nation’s history a critical responsibility for every society. I have found it an interesting exercise and a fairly good rehearsal for my written autobiography, which is still a work in progress.”

Chairman of CHASE, Dr Carlton Davis, told the Observer after the launch that the staging of the event during Black History Month was purely coincidental and had nothing at all to do with the annual celebrations.

“In fact, I didn’t even think about that,” said Davis. “It’s a remarkable coincidence. (The real reason) is that we didn’t want to get caught up in the cricket event with Cricket World Cup, so we decided to do it now. We want to record our history, not only in books, but also on film. It is important that our people know from where we are coming because that is a very important determining factor in where we will go. We document too little in this country and this was our effort to do that.”

The documentary was written by journalist Deborah Hickling and produced and directed by Kirk Buchanan of the Creative Production and Training Centre.