The Editor, Sir:

I must applaud Dawn Ritch for her column, 'Butch's tentacles everywhere', which appeared in the Sunday Gleaner on October 28. Columnists in the media rarely have the temerity to take on powerful financial and political interests in Jamaica. It is refreshing that she will not allow herself to be muzzled.

For too long there has been an incestuous relationship between government and the private sector in Jamaica. At the lowest rungs of the corruption ladder are the no-bid gully cleaning and pothole filling contracts awarded to relatives and friends of politicians who set up dummy corporations to hide these deals from public scrutiny.

At the higher and more sophisticated rungs, we see the transfer of public utilities, public lands and resources to private interests in league with politicians and their cronies and detrimental to the interest of the Jamaican people. Now these private interests are being invited into the halls of government to make decisions and determine government policy. Let the chickens beware.

I am, etc.,

R.OSCAR LOFTERS

lofters1@aol.com

Kingston 8

Via Go-Jamaica