PRIME Minister P J Patterson was Tuesday night praised as a visionary leader during the launch of a book containing his most memorable speeches.

More than 400 people attended the ceremony at the University of the West Indies, Mona for the launch of A Jamaican Voice in Caribbean and World Politics: P J Patterson Selected Speeches 1992-2000.

University Chancellor Shridath Ramphal, the event’s guest speaker, said Patterson — Jamaica’s longest continually serving prime minister — has offered a “vision ahead of his time” during his years in office.

“He is indeed the doyen of the heads” of Caribbean leaders, said Ramphal, who wrote the book’s foreword.

The collection of speeches, Ramphal said, showed a “political craftsman at the height of his power, offering a “vision ahead” of his time.

The speeches, delivered to local, regional and international audiences, cover issues of trade, foreign affairs and finance, with an eye toward “justice and equality for the developing world”, Ramphal said.

Patterson, fondly recalling his student days at the Mona campus, repeated his warning that the Caribbean region must stand up for itself to ensure that it benefits from an “increasingly hostile global environment”.

And, in an apparent reference to an issue raised during an academic conference on the Mona campus last weekend — that the university’s research was overly focused on Jamaica’s heritage of colonialism and slavery, and not looking enough into the future — Patterson mentioned a comment that the university’s vice-chancellor, Rex Nettleford, once made to him: “You can’t drive safely without a rear-view mirror.”

The university’s Department of Government co-sponsored the book’s publication. However, this does not represent any political endorsement of the book, said Professor Stephen Vascianne, acting head of the department, who was one of the evening’s speakers.

Patterson’s chief advisor, Delano Franklyn, who edited the book, said one of the reasons he produced it was to give people an idea of some of the things that Patterson had achieved at the international level, given that Patterson was not someone who sings his own praises.

Other guest speakers were Maxine Henry-Wilson, general-secretary of the People’s National Party and Senator Ossie Harding.