Dear Editor,

Councillor for the Trafalgar Division, the People’s National Party’s Kari Douglas’s open and vehement objection to the principal of Hampton School, Heather Murray’s actions of attending court, and what she believes to be an ill-advised move for Murray to be involved with the process through her role as a justice of the peace in relation to the Moravian pastor’s case, is commendable yet questionable.

It is commendable for the fact that, as a politician, she has a duty to speak out against and rebuke what she believes to be wrongdoing in our society and that which can affect Jamaicans as a whole. However, the persistence and virulence in how she chastised the Hampton principal is the first of its kind, at least to my knowledge of her speaking out about wrongdoing in authority and those who are leaders in our society.

I cannot help but wonder if her comments on this issue call into question whether this sort of open rebuke for alleged wrongdoings is partial to only those who don’t hold political office. Where was her outcry at the initial silence of then Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller on the Outameni scandal? Where was Douglas’s outcry and disgust at the chikungunya epidemic which plagued our island in 2015, while her fellow Comrade Fenton Ferguson was at the helm of the health ministry? Why was she deafeningly silent when Ferguson was not completely relieved of his Cabinet duties, but simply transferred to head another ministry? Where was Douglas’ outcry at the handling, or lack thereof, of the fire which engulfed the Riverton dump by her own political colleague Jennifer Edwards, and the then prime minister’s perceived attempt to shield Edwards from accountability?

The fact of the matter is that all these issues tug at the strings of the fabric of our society. How we deal with the issue of health; accountability by those in authority and to whom leadership is vested; and respect for children and women by all people are all critical issues which have a daily impact on our society and in our individual lives. How we, as the public, respond to the handling and addressing of these issues is starkly different from those in authority. This is because politicians, by their very appointment, are given a far-reaching platform by which they communicate with citizens. Their voices, even on social media, carry more weight, attention and are more resounding than the regular public.

Douglas has done the right thing by speaking out and clearly stating her position on the issue, but she has also clearly shown, by doing so, that the same standards of accountability and chastisement for perceived wrongdoing are not applicable when it comes to her fellow colleagues.

Wendy Beswick

wendybeswick@gmail.com