THE EDITOR, Sir:
AS A Jamaican who recently migrated, I unequivocally disagree with the position regarding the prospects of Jamaican emigrates exercising their franchise. Whatever the logistical problems are, solve them!
I cannot believe that in an age of technical wizardry and high political sophistication, absentee ballots should prove to be anything of an intellectual challenge to a party that wants to solve even more riddling economic conundrums and to deliver the people to the highway of prosperity in the 21st century.
In today's age of international inter-digitation, when the territorialised and de-territorialised Jamaican populace are woven together through intense economic relations, mediated by powerful remittances among other conduits of exchange, there can be no plausible reason for remonstrating against greater involvement from overseas Jamaicans, except self-interest. It is totally ironic at a time when individuals are calling en masse for Jamaicans of the diaspora to invest in the island and provide a template for regeneration, moral and otherwise, that we would deny political space to those who have an interest in such things.
Let us not be bogged down in things that can be solved where the will is present. Let us seek to intensify and aggressively promote the involvement of all those who still believe that Jamaica has a part to play in the advancement of the entire human race.
I am, etc.,
RYAN ONEAL PALMER
roppalmer@hotmail.com
Godstone, Surrey
England
Via Go-Jamaica
