Dear Editor,

Sweeping inconvenient truths under the carpet has become such a national pastime it could almost be explained as a defence mechanism for maintaining national sanity.

Finance Minister Audley Shaw is now trying to find funds to deliver on the JLP’s $1.5-million tax relief election promise. But before he reveals the much-awaited policy, let’s not sweep yet another inconvenient question under the rug: how come the voters were never told that the funds to underpin such a major electoral issue were not available?

Some cynical, diehard Comrades will no doubt allege that the JLP knew all along that the funds were not available and deliberately tricked the voters. Not likely. That would have been a most improbable, ridiculous fib for the simple reason that if the JLP knew the funds were not available they would also know that the PNP, particularly then Finance Minister Peter Phillips, would know that fact as well. The JLP’s entire campaign could have been blown out of the water within minutes.

So why didn’t he explain that to voters? He said the JLP’s plan couldn’t work the way it was proposed; the PNP called it a “three-card trick”; he harked back to a previous broken promise to nurses. Had he simply said the funds were not available and provided proof, what would have been the impact of that information on the election?

And what of the various economists, financial experts and media personnel who cover Gordon House and have access to Hansard? How come they never told the voters that the funds were not available?

Perhaps, not since 1962 and the famous ‘Russian ships’ episode, has one single issue had such a dramatic effect on a Jamaican election. Yet the electorate only discovered the unpalatable facts until after they voted? The more things change…

Errol WA Townshend

16 Turtledove Grove

Scarborough, Ontario

Canada M1X 2B2