Dear Editor,

Forgive me for not jumping on Manatt, Phelps and Phillips. The politicians seem to love that business, but what of the daily killings? Not as important as Manatt? That is what the normal, non-political Jamaican has to be hearing every day for the past months.

It is unbelievable that both parties, especially the Opposition that’s supposed to be helping Jamaica, deem political victory more important than a national crisis. Talking about Manatt every chance you get, going on the airwaves with spin doctors churning out garbage and trying to score political points are not the most pressing matters for the country.

The reality is that there are five or six people fewer every day in Jamaica to hear about Manatt, Phelps and Phillips. Why? Because they are murdered by guys who do it for fun, for pay or because they want to intimidate. Politicians lie. It is one of the known traits of politicians. They make promises or step on people to get to power – we know that as a fact. They cannot help that as they need that to get elected. But when there are things such as crime that they can do something about and they deem it less important, do they have the right to discuss right or wrong?

Why isn’t the same pressure placed on the government over the issue of crime and violence as is being done with Manatt? The people who run Manatt are in their air-conditioned offices and driving their hybrid SUVs back to their gated luxury homes every day. We are facing a Russian roulette existence in Jamaica, and Manatt trumps that?

Please, please, please, any politician who is willing to listen to my plea: Manatt is out in the open and who is ashamed is now ashamed. What about crime? Does it make sense to fight over Manatt and then at the end of it all there’s no one left to govern as Jamaica will by then be the Caribbean’s largest graveyard?

Phillip Gallas

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

USA