Dear Editor,

I congratulate Milton Samuda, president of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce and my former law partner, on his strong statement appearing in last Wednesday’s Business Observer.

He is one of the few business leaders in many, many years to have the courage to state facts about garrison politics and the sickness that afflicts our political system.

For some time now I have been discussing with friends and trying to come up with a formula that would exclude any representative of a garrison constituency becoming Prime Minister of Jamaica or even becoming a Minister. Such a formula would slow the growth of garrison constituencies by disqualifying many, including the hypocritical members of Parliament who have so much to say about the discomfiture of the Prime Minister and others in the “Dudus” affair.

The degradation of our constituencies is a matter of grave concern to me and all the friends with whom I discuss the matter. In 1972, we had probably six garrison constituencies and today we have closer to 15 and the plague continues to spread.

Any citizen who does not find this frightening has lost the ability to think for themselves. We must dismantle these constituencies or we will never get on top of the crime situation and our politicians from these garrisons will forever shower us with platitudes and ineffective strategies for crime-fighting with no successful result.

Mr Samuda has taken the lead and many of us should take up the challenge.

Patrick Rousseau

Patrick.Rousseau@mfg.com.jm