THE EDITOR, Sir:
I RECALL hearing someone on talk radio mention that in the 1970s when there was a bit of an oil boom in Trinidad, the people knew that the politicians were enriching themselves from the public purse. But nobody minded too much because they were doing a good job and the economy and by extension the majority of Trinidadians, flourished.
This principle of making the pie bigger so that one can get more for oneself seems to be severely lacking in the minds of Jamaican politicians.
A good example of this is the Jamaica Labour Party. Compara-tively little of the pie is available to an MP who is not a part of the ruling party. So one would think that the aim would be to focus on getting into power so as to have more of the pie. That does not seem to be the case.
I once heard radio commentator Bobby Fray say of a former West Indies cricket captain, it is better to leave when people are asking "Why? than when they're asking "Why not?".
People had been increasingly asking why not after Mr. Seaga's electoral losses. Last year's Local Government election showed that the electorate was willing to give the JLP another chance at running the affairs of the country. Thereafter would have been an excellent opportunity for Mr. Seaga to resign in a blaze of glory. It would have been the last chance he would have had when people would have asked why? Again he didn't.
The JLP is so close to regaining power: a quiet transition to a new leader and the next election would be in the bag. But being quiet is not something the Labour Party does very well. And so, the slip between the cup and the lip threatens to expand into a chasm given the latest bantering between Mr. Seaga and Mr. Golding so close and yet so far.
I am, etc.,
BRUCE MCKNIGHT
bruce_mcknight@
hotmail.com Toronto
