Justice Panton chides The Gleaner

A HIGH-RANKING member of the judiciary has weighed in on the widening debate over the labelling of parliamentarians as the 'Gangs of Gordon House', charging that this approach is counterproductive.

President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Seymour Panton, became the latest public figure to slam The Gleaner for its series of editorials.

He asserted that The Gleaner's approach would not lead to meaningful changes in the habits and attitudes of parliamentarians.

Instead, Panton, a well-respected jurist who has served at various levels of the judiciary, argued that this would lead to resentment of legislators and drive decent persons away from the parliamentary process.

"Change will not come about by abusing them," Panton warned during the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Kingston at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in St Andrew yesterday.

"To secure the change that may be desired in the habits or attitudes of our parliamentarians, the approach that is necessary is one of education and persuasion," he added.

This newspaper, through its editorial, has labelled parliamentarians gangs of Gordon House owing to the parties' perceived appetite for promoting narrow partisan interests over national priorities.

However, Panton rejected this reasoning, contending that The Gleaner cannot define gangs "to suit itself as the newspaper is not reading itself".

Pointing to the Oxford Dictionary's definition of gangs as a band of persons acting together especially for criminal purposes, he said this is the definition most well-thinking Jamaicans would apply to the word.

Information Minister Daryl Vaz, former parliamentarian John Junor, and Professor Hopeton Dunn have also come out against the characterisation of parliamentarians as the "Gangs of Gordon House."