We had very good reasons for writing last week’s editorial “When the trumpet sounds or the bell rings…” (Tuesday, August 9) as well as the editorial titled “Celebrating our 50th anniversary in an election year” (Friday, August 12).

It was written out of fear that this country had nowhere going until we can exorcise the politically partisan ghost that haunts our every dream of progressing as a nation.

We refer readers to the news report in yesterday’s edition of the Observer in which People’s National Party (PNP) vice president, Mrs Angella Brown Burke accused the Government of playing politics with the issuance of tickets for the recent Grand Gala celebrations.

Shamelessly acknowledging the use of even Grand Gala tickets for political spoils, Mrs Brown Burke complained that only two PNP members of parliament were given such tickets, unlike her party’s practice of widely distributing tickets “across both camps when the PNP was in power”.

“The JLP gave their MPs thousands and thousands of tickets to give to Labourites,” Brown Burke told a Central Kingston constituency meeting.

Insisting that she was not raising the matter to be political, Councillor Brown Burke said that this incident would “not be allowed to slip by as the party did not intend to see a repeat when Jamaica celebrates its 50th anniversary of Independence next year”.

Mrs Brown Burke has signalled the very thing we fretted about, that partisan politics would mar next year’s commemoration of the national milestone, our 50th anniversary of Independence. This is especially so because a general election is constitutionally due next year as well.

Her clear words to the party faithful were: “I raise it so no one plays politics with the tickets, to ensure that it does not happen next year so they don’t use it as spoils. If dem tink dem bad, try it again.”

Now, the PNP vice president could have a point. If the Ministry of Culture – which is responsible for the Grand Gala tickets, through the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) – distributed the tickets on the basis of party politics, that would be a desperate and despicable act. It would only be further proof of the depth of our partisan divide and an indication of the mountain we have to climb in order to extricate ourselves from this political cesspool in which we have existed for so long.

What we would have loved to see is Mrs Brown Burke – instead of indicating that the battle is joined – chastising the Government for its folly, yes, but also distancing her party from political distribution of Grand Gala tickets.

But perhaps, Mrs Brown Burke was speaking for herself and not her party, in which case she should tell us so.