Dear Editor,

In the interest of clarity and a better understanding amongst the public regarding issues raised, I am compelled to respond to HG Helps’ article entitled: “Why Obama had no meeting with Holness”, published in the Sunday April 19 edition of this newspaper.

Let me at the outset indicate that it was with delight that the Opposition welcomed news of the then impending visit of the president of the United States when the announcement was made in Parliament by the prime minister. We shared the pride and optimism which engulfed Jamaicans at home and abroad as our country prepared to host the leader of the free world. We are equally pleased that the president’s visit was successful and incident-free.

The country will recall that when the announcement was made in Parliament, it was communicated that President Obama’s visit would have been a State visit. The Opposition found it curious that other parties connected to the visit would describe it as a “working visit”. State visits usually carry a convention in Jamaica whereby the Leader of the Opposition and other constitutional office holders would participate and have official occasion to meet and receive the visiting Head of State. The Opposition was well within its right therefore, to ascertain from the Government, since it was the prime minister who made the announcement, whether the established protocols for such visits would be followed.

The use of language in the article to suggest that President Obama was especially “opposed” to meeting with the Opposition is unfortunate and misleading. As a matter of fact, with the article itself going on to mention that it is the policy of the US Government to have meetings with its Government counterparts only, it is neither true nor fair to have positioned the situation as Obama refusing to meet with the Opposition in Jamaica only. For indeed, the policy applies to all Opposition parties and candidates.

As it turned out, it was the unease wrought by attempts to play politics with the visit and score cheap political points that saw the Government having to walk back its earlier announcement of a State visit and advise that the visit was not in fact a State visit.

In the final analysis, the Opposition is pleased that Jamaica was able to host the POTUS in an admirable manner, with our warmth and hospitality being on display in every instance. The Opposition is proud of our relationship with all our partners in the international community and values our friendship with the United States of America. We were delighted to have President Obama on our shores and we were also pleasantly surprised, and received warmly, a gift courtesy of the White House marking the President’s visit.

Edmund Bartlett, CD MP

Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade

EDITOR’S NOTE:

We find nothing “unfortunate” or “misleading” in the article in question. United States President Barack Obama was indeed opposed to meeting with Jamaica’s Leader of the Opposition, Andrew Holness. We therefore stand by what was published.