The Editor, Sir:

I love my country, my Government and my Prime Minister. I say this unequivocally without fear of recriminations, for I am bound to love them.

I am also one of those fanatics who believe that God had a hand in leaning the hearts of the delegates toward Portia Simpson Miller as president of the PNP and subsequent Prime Minister of Jamaica. I do not question my dear Prime Minister's commitment to God; neither will I question anyone who prophesies her victory in the coming election. Why should I? Time will tell.

However, I do examine meticulously the fruit of God's anointed - pastor, preacher or politician - who finds himself or herself in a questionable posture and chooses to prevaricate rather than to apologise.

I cannot and will not implicate my Prime Minister in any personal transgression where the ill-fated Trafigura contribution is concerned, but the reality is, it smacks of inappropriateness and it happened under her watch, thus making her accountable. I had expected her, as the chief public servant and a woman of God to have said, 'I am sorry', especially to those who have so much confidence in her commitment to God and her sincerity towards the Jamaican people.

I believe that the Devil presents testing situations for those who come in the name of the Lord. The Trafigura incident might have been one of those Job-like tests from which the Prime Minister has not come forth as pure gold because she didn't bring herself to say, 'My Government made a mistake. As the leader, I take responsibility and as a child of God, I am sorry. It won't happen again under my watch'.

That to me would have elevated her to an even higher plane than I have already placed her. That to me would have had me saying, 'Truly this woman is the daughter of God'. God does not demand perfection of us; He demands a broken and a contrite heart; He demands honesty; He demands that when we sin and are exposed, we do not attempt to use political rhetoric, glittering generalities and nice-sounding clichs to extricate or absolve ourselves from responsibility; He demands that we sincerely say, 'I am sorry', to those against whom we have sinned.

To have said, 'I am sorry', would have also neutralised the Opposition who would now be perceived as ungracious and flogging a dead horse. Any reference to God as the captain of her lady's ship would have assumed greater significance to me. That ability to say, 'I am sorry', which sadly ostensibly eludes those who bear the mantle of leadership, was what made the adulterous David a man after God's own heart.

I am, etc.,

DORRETT R. CAMPBELL

dcomrade@yahoo.com

Georgetown, Guyana