THE EDITOR, Sir:HEATHER ROBINSON'S contribution in the Gleaner of Friday January 21 has once again proven that leopards don't change their spots. Coming on the heels of the contributions from her senior party colleagues in Parliament on Tuesday, January 18 her contribution smacks of petulance, pettiness and sheer jealousy.
It is clear from the tone of her article that she is so disappointed that her colleagues tried to put aside tribalism even for a day. Miss Robinson speaks of perceived injustice meted out to her during the Seaga administra-tion of the 1980s and somehow seeks to ascribe responsibility to Edward Seaga for this.
I cannot speak to any political hirings and firings during the Seaga administration as I am not in a position to acknowledge or deny that there might have been. What I can say though is that there was no Pickersgill Accreditation Committee during this period. Has Heather Robinson forgotten that it was the Michael Manley Government of the 1970s that established the Pickersgill Accreditation Committee to ensure that all Government workers were certified socialist before they were employed?
She complains about scars from baking and cooking but I am certain that the relatives of Ted O'Gilvie would be happy if all they had to do was to treat his burns with cocoa butter. Sadly his fate had finality to it. May I remind her that if her objective is to perpetuate tribalism then there is a lot many of us could say about the practices in both the 1970s and since 1989. My hope is that Miss Robinson will mature and assist in the process of detribalising the nation.
I am, etc.,
DR. MARJORIE VASSELL
St. Catherine
