Former Jamaican PM retires as Privy Council member

SOURCE: Jamaica Gleaner: Former Prime Minister PJ Patterson has walked away from Her Majesty’s Privy Council.

The council serves as an advisory body to the Queen.

Patterson said he was moved to retire from the body as a show of support for Jamaica moving towards becoming a republic.

“There now exists in Jamaica a national consensus that we should effect during our own Diamond Jubilee of Independence the process of appointing a citizen of our own country as Head of State. In view of my strong support for this significant change and my determination to that end, I regard it as prudent and timely to retire from the Privy Council with immediate effect,” he wrote in a letter dated March 30.

In a reply on April 14, the Privy Council confirmed an acceptance of his request

Patterson has been among voices supporting calls for republic status for Jamaica.

Last December, he issued an impassioned plea to Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Opposition Leader Mark Golding to transcend partisan borders and capture a historic landmark by relinquishing the monarchy and establishing a republic.

In a letter to Holness and Golding dated December 2, Patterson said it would be repulsive to contemplate the 60th anniversary of Independence where Jamaica’s Constitution rests on an Order in Council dating back to July 23, 1962.

He also bemoaned still having a head of state “who does not reflect our own image and enables every Jamaican to aspire in reaching the highest position within our native land”.( JAMAICA GLEANER)