Dear Editor,

This is a letter I sent to Senator Warren Newby on May 14. You should find it interesting.

Dear Mr Warren Newby,

I met you several months ago in your office. After what I thought was a positive meeting, all channels to you and the ministry were shut tight, which reminded me somewhat of the commercial on television of the security firm sealing a private residence with steel plates. I am not sure I understand why the lockdown, but, I am afraid, Mr Newby, as recent events have unfolded, you must realise the enemy is within, and you need to come out for fresh air sometime.

I wish to direct your attention to a suggestion I made to you — the need to have Jamaica’s youth address Parliament. This would be a breath of fresh air for the country were it to be accomplished honestly and executed intelligently.

I will be blunt. To most Jamaicans, the Parliament of Jamaica is a disappointing, corrupt, incompetent venue where both the JLP and the PNP behave and speak to us as if we are all part of the unintelligent, uneducated, garrison criminal cultures that give wind to your political needs. Your civil/public servants often take your lead and abuse the rights of the rest of us.

To elaborate, the prime minister and his colleagues’ recent actions have merely confirmed what most of us know about the JLP. And the actions of the PNP in Parliament, responding to a flawed party and prime minister, are equally nauseating: the pot calling the kettle black. We had 18 years to see how they operate.

By the way, I posit that you are all no different from individuals in the ghettos who, knowing that evil has been committed, refuse to “inform” on the criminals. Don’t tell the Jamaican public that many of you did not know about Manatt and specific instances where your colleagues relate with criminal gangs.

With all due respect, the putrid stench from Jamaica’s Parliament cannot and will not go away easily this time. Allow the youth of Jamaica to speak to JLP and PNP from their hearts and minds. They will have something to say. Maybe their innocence and ideas will save you from one another, for clearly, you are all unable to save yourselves and this country.

Any such youth involvement must not come from your existing politically framed and managed groups such as the Youth Parliament and Students for Transformation, PNPYO and the equivalent JLP groups.

Michael Franklin

michael.franklin1000@yahoo.com