Dear Editor,

While growing up I thought that the best minister of education should be someone with a PhD in that discipline; the best minister of health a doctor; the best minister of agriculture someone who has a farm; and the best minister of finance someone who has a PhD in economics. My illusions have all been dispelled. Now as a grown person I realise that this isn’t so.

Dr Fenton Ferguson is one of those rarities. Christopher Tufton, whose hands only get dirty if he falls down, ran rings around Roger Clarke’s performance as agriculture minister. Peter Phillips does the same with Omar Davies. Ronald Thwaites’ ideas are being stymied by those around him. It proves that the will to succeed far outweighs the qualifications to perform such a task.

There are few politicians trained in the field of law enforcement, but the will to make us safe can overcome this shortfall. Peter Bunting is trained in engineering and finance, this shouldn’t prevent him being a good minister of security, but this is not so. The horrific murders, beheading, shoot-outs would make anyone call for “divine intervention”. He seems to be summoning the strength and fortitude and, most of all, the will to confront the crime monster.

There are a multiplicity of reasons for our society being so violent, but if our leaders can summon the will to face these challenges we can overcome. Our police force cannot repay murder with extrajudicial killings, neither can our farmers repay praedial larceny with mob justice. As Mahatma Ghandi said: “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

Mark Clarke

Siloah PO, St Elizabeth

mark_clarke9@yahoo.com