Dear Editor,

The prime minister no doubt has the best interest of the nation at heart. She has said so often enough, and up until now I see no overriding reason to question her patriotism. However, I question some of the ways in which she expresses her concerns.

If nothing else, it is a big mistake in judgement and timing to announce the acquisition of so many high-end vehicles for government ministers. This smacks of entitlements gone wild, given the current economic climate, and just saying “they deserve it” is an inept response.

She no doubt feels vindicated where some things are concerned. We recall that during the JLP’s tenure, money was spent on “mere” house remodelling and office furnishing. But that’s not the point in current public perception.

Mrs Simpson Miller seems to be the one who has been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, as it were, on the eve of going to Jamaicans to ask for more sacrifices as a result of crushing conditionalities to be imposed by the IMF. It is the worst possible time to allow herself to be goaded by parliamentary rivals into reacting in such a manner which comes across as merely being petulant.

In fact, this need not have been such a millstone at all. A better course of action could have been to acquire the vehicles for a government car pool, which would not carry claim of ownership in a nation where Hurricane Sandy recently exposed the ugly underbelly of grinding poverty, as in all national disasters in Jamaica: people weeping with hands on their heads, at the loss of their shelters, some made of cardboard and old zinc. This is the reality. We cannot rely on the blessings of foot speed by our great athletes, and national euphoria as a result of this, to “paper over” these horrendous and glaring economic realities and then appear to be fostering extravagance by government-side parliamentarians.

Cathy Brown

cathy291181@yahoo.com