The Editor, Sir:

Desmond Richards, head of the Press Association of Jamaica, has highlighted the issue of the bank breach in the Trafigura case, and rightly so. The people who are culpable should be punished and I have not heard or seen any evidence that they are fighting the issue, or rejecting the punishment that will be meted out to them.

If an individual acknowledges his wrong and accepts the ensuing punishment, then I see that as normal. The person or persons who committed the breach, though, find themselves in a dilemma quite like the one our esteemed former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson found himself in, when he declared a public holiday after the Reggae Boyz qualification to World Cup '98.

These bank staffers have tried to work themselves out of a similar dilemma by adopting a bit from the former PM's precedent. The real substance of the issue, though, is to facilitate the greater good and in this case, the bank breach's catabolic potential, is minuscule by comparison to the damage to an entire country due to political corruption.

In some sort or other, what this appears to be about is the setting of a sprat to catch a whale, Mr. Richards.

I am, etc.,

DERRICK SIMON

Box 2542

Kingston 8