The Editor, Sir:

The recent revelation that Ambassador Seymour Mullings was being paid $4 million annually as a consultant has been described by PNP members as an attack on Mr. Mullings' character.

I ascribe no blame to Ambassador Mullings because as the report showed it wasn't he who wrote to the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission ordering them to pay him a salary.

The ordinary civil servant retires at 60/65 years and has to survive on the pension paid plus whatever other method they have devised to support themselves. Ambassador Mullings served as minister for several years in different ministries, and served as an ambassador. Doesn't he get a pension like everyone else? Why is it that what is good for the goose is not good for the gander? Aren't politicians required to be prudent and save for a rainy day like all of us?

I am not discrediting the contribution made by politicians to this country and I think they should retire with the knowledge that they can pay their bills and "eat a food" like everyone else. But why can't the rules be consistent?

My second point has to do with the presence of politicians in communities when there is violence. Up to July of this year there were hundreds murdered. These were 'ordinary' Jamaicans. As soon as Mrs. Simpson Miller "fly di gate" every person who was murdered was either a JLP supporter or a PNP supporter. Politicians filled our television screens posturing about their supporter being murdered. They were in every community.

A week or two after September 3, the murdered were normal people again. The politicians disappeared. What about the hundreds murdered since then? I was reminded of this when I saw Mrs. Henry Wilson on the news in her constituency one night last week after a shooting and initially thought that the tide was changing. Then I remembered. Local government elections had been set for December 5 and I thought - "Here we go again!"

Stop trying to pull wool over our eyes. We can think for ourselves and we are seeing right through the hypocrisy and the posturing.

I am, etc.,

FED UP

Kingston