Dear Editor,

It is disconcerting that Peter Phillips is alleged to have said what has been quoted in a US diplomatic cable leaked by Wikileaks. To say that “it is an astonishing possibility that the PNP, after running the country into the ground for the last 18 years, could possibly come back to power” must be a truth that Dr Phillips would certainly have hoped would never have gone into the public domain.

Dr Phillips is also quoted as saying that Jamaica would have gone the route of the crisis-plagued Haiti with a Portia Simpson Miller-led PNP being brought to power. He also is said to have labelled Simpson Miller as a “disaster”.

As a PNP supporter for over 30 years, I am in full agreement with Dr Peter Phillips. He was spot on, and there is no doubt in my mind that he has the best interest of Jamaica at heart, albeit the obviously hypocritical and unfortunate cicumstances. It is time for the PNP to be true to itself and admit the obvious. The PNP’s 18 1/2-year run from 1989 to 2007 was an unmitigated disaster. Sadly too, the 1970s were no better. We have been so wrapped up in our own sense of superiority that we have forgotten the fact we did indeed run the country into the ground.

While Peter Phillips’s faux pas is highly embarrassing to the PNP, it offers a marvellous opportunity for real introspection. Norman Manley would be thoroughly disappointed at what both his PNP and Jamaica have become. There is still time to rescue our party!

We need some young and talented people to come forward. The JLP has a literal line of succession running from Bobby Montague, Daryl Vaz, Dr Christopher Tufton, Andrew Holness, Aundre Franklyn and Warren Newby to the very young Delano Seiveright.

Other than being wrapped up in scandal or just not making the cut, where is the shining PNP frontline of young smarts ready to challenge the JLP’s smarts and take this country forward?

Torell Reid

Kingston