Dear Editor,

While Jamaica is a nation filled with great contradictions, the current furore over the PM and the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips issue has me surprised despite what I know of my fellow Jamaicans.

To briefly define the current state of Jamaica on negative terms goes as follows: Crime is a ravenous monster, crushing and overwhelming everything in its path; Unemployment is a roaring lion, devouring those who escape the onslaught of Crime; Illiteracy is a cancer, sickening and weakening its victims in preparation for Crime and Unemployment; Bad roads, poor health care and welfare are grievous wolves, snapping and biting at the ragged remnants left behind by Crime, Unemployment and Illiteracy.

It’s too depressing to describe further the perils against surviving in this country except to mention one little puppy called the Coke Extradition/Manatt affair that’s now yapping at our heels.

Politics aside, which danger should we pay attention to the most? Why aren’t we as vociferously militant against Crime and Unemployment as we are against this puppy?

I’d also like to ask whether in clamouring for the PM’s resignation, do we actually see a viable alternative for leadership of this country at this time? Aside from this puppy, hasn’t the PM displayed able leadership qualities up to now?

I would be interested to see a comparison of the achievements of Manley, Seaga, Patterson, Simpson Miller, and Golding in the first two years of their leadership. I think we’d get a surprise to discover our current Government is the most capable and effective of them.

Dreadful and discouraging as I find it, this Manatt fiasco hasn’t made me lose confidence or trust in this Government. The present alternatives to this JLP Government are far more dreadful and disastrous.

Brian Roy

Bridgemount

Kingston 8