Bartlett hits out against newspaper's 'gang' labelling
Published:Wednesday | May 11, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Christopher Thomas, Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
EDMUND BARTLETT, member of parliament (MP) for East Central St James, has weighed in on the recent editorials by The Gleaner that have labelled parliamentarians 'gangs of Gordon House'.
"They call us gangs, and they curse us off and call us all kinds of names. They say we're rich, and we're poor. They say we have plenty of money, and we have none; they say we have all kinds of houses and lands, and we're still living in people's houses; they say all kinds of things about us," said Bartlett.
However, the MP declared that he is motivated to do the work he does for his constituency when he meets individuals who have been positively affected by the various programmes instituted over the years, and are now in good employment and able to make something of themselves.
"So, if that is the gang I am in, I love it. I want you to canonise me as a good gang member because it's plenty scholarships we've given to poor people's children over the years, and it's a lot of housing support we have given to many," he said during the East Central St James Education and Welfare Council's annual teachers' awards ceremony at The Ritz-Carlton, St James, Sunday night.
parliamentarians to blame
The Gleaner has recently come under fire for its editorials, which have compared the attitudes of both sides of the House of Parliament to gang-like behaviour.
Several persons, including Professor Hopeton Dunn and Justice Seymour Panton, have chided the newspaper for its series of editorials.
But Portia Simpson Miller, leader of the Opposition People's National Party, declared during the Budget Debate on May 5 that the parliamentarians are to blame for the 'gang' label.
"We are the ones who allow ourselves to be called gangs because of how we treat each other, the disrespect for each other ... what we say on the platforms, and we only say good things about each other when the person cannot hear one word that we are saying," Simpson Miller had said.