Dear Editor,

I really find it disingenuous that people – Jamaica Observer, Gleaner or anybody – would venture that the PNP or whoever else “has no moral authority to speak” because of their dismal record of corruption in their government. It is such a senseless and backward phrase.

If they don’t speak out, who is going to do it? Isn’t their job as Opposition to speak out against instances of abuse of power and to make sure that the government is representing the people impartially and spending their money wisely?

So why the silly reference to “no moral authority to speak”? If they say nothing they’ll be accused of complacency, or even tacit approval. What if Peter Phillips had “not spoken” on this issue? You people can really make yourselves look stupid at times, to put it kindly.

If yuh want to seh di ting properly you say; “So, too, has the Opposition People’s National Party, which itself had a dismal record of corruption in its government.” That’s how you should say it, Observer.

I can bet your team — if your team policy has not changed since 2007 — has been kicking itself in the laurels now, after working so assiduously to put the JLP in a good light at the expense of the PNP, helping it get elected through your reader base, then being forced to report on barefaced instances of stupidity and corruption in this same government.

You yourselves have “no moral authority” to make certain pronouncements because you are the ones who helped the JLP into government in the first place.

John Smith

sensiblejamaican@googlemail.com