THE EDITOR, Sir:
BRUCE GOLDING is at it again.
There was a deafening silence from Mr. Golding in the days after the terrorist murder of three police officers and two security guards. After emerging from the darkness, Mr. Golding issued a statement calling on the police to pursue the criminals wherever they were.
He pledged his support and that of the Jamaica Labour Party in doing everything to catch the perpetrators of those heinous crimes. Later in a meeting with the Prime Minister, Mr. Golding committed to a bipartisan approach to fight the scourge of criminality.
Less than two days after that meeting with the Prime Minister, Mr. Golding returns to his style of confrontationalist politics and plays to his garrison constituency of West Kingston.
He belittles and besmirches the name of Deputy Commissioner Mark Shields and the intelligence gathering capability of the police force.
Is Mr. Golding trained in policing methods that he can determine who the killers of SSP McDonald are? Which side of his mouth is he speaking from? Does he genuinely support the work of the police, or is selective only when it suits his partisan agenda?
Many young Jamaicans like myself had great faith and promise in Mr. Golding when he left the JLP in 1995 to form the NDM. He pledged to be new and different and to bring a refreshing style of politics that was so lacking in the country.
I held out great hope that his ascendancy to the leadership of the JLP would signal an end to tribalistic and divisive politics.
Mr. Golding, I am deeply disappointed in you and am led to believe that your posturing of being new and different was simply a ploy to fool the Jamaican people.
I am, etc.,
JAMES W. SMITH
smithjw007@yahoo.com
