Golding's failure, Jamaica the victim

The Editor, Sir:

The front page editorial 'A reckless day in Gordon House', is welcomed. It showed balance and even-handedness and was a departure from the shouting that often passes for analysis.

The Opposition is scared of its own action and judgment, and Bruce Golding's political manoeuvre was also at one, and the same time, bad governance. The prime minister has not done his home work. He failed to rally his troops in the service of the national security agenda. He rallied the troops recently and saved his political neck. But when the votes were required to ensure the Government's crime-fighting strategy remained intact, his ministers were (at least some of them) on a frolic of their own.

The habit of the last couple of years, among the analysts on offer, has been to find and make excuses for the administration whenever things went wrong, as if the Opposition ipso facto has a duty to grandfather the Government. It is true, we need more mature approaches to the practice of politics. This is a lesson available to all democracies.

Hard-ball politics

We admire the USA and their brand of democracy but, to be accurate, in that jurisdiction, hard-ball politics is played by the political opposition and, that, even when their troops are at war. The duty is placed upon the sitting administration to govern in the national interest and to make such compromises, as are necessary, for their policy objectives to be realised.

What I found refreshing about the editorial was that it appeared to me to be a break with past habits of passing the blame for Government failure on the Opposition. It is a step in the right direction. It was the failure by analysts to hold Golding accountable for his actions that facilitated the imbroglio that some call 'Dudusgate'.

The limited state of emergency was the policy measure the current administration intended to use as a part of its major crime-fighting effort. It has the numbers to put it through the Parliament. It ought to have the political experience to negotiate with the Opposition and accept the offer of 15 days, rather than allow itself to be forced to abandon the lynch pin of its crime-fighting strategy. The failure is Golding's failure, but the victim is Jamaica's national security.

I am, etc.,

GARNETT ROPER

Kingston