Dear Editor,

I see members of the People’s National Party running around and trying to diminish the accomplishments of the Finance Minister Audley Shaw.

This causes me to recall an old saying that my grandmother would always use, “No one stones a fluxy mango.”

Why is it that they are so hell-bent on destroying the man? Is it that he has managed to accomplish what a man with a PhD failed to do? Wasn’t it Peter Phillips who went to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and was given a deal which included a primary surplus balance of 7.5 per cent of gross domestic product, which I believe to be the worst deal in IMF history?

Wasn’t he the one who accepted this deal — which was worse than that which was given to Greece, whose economy was in a worse position than Jamaica’s?

Wasn’t it Peter Phillips who only asked how high when the IMF told him to jump?

Wasn’t it Peter Phillips who told us to tighten our belts until our bellies met our backs?

Wasn’t it Peter Phillips who found money to give a particular contractor money to build a fence around the dead, while failing to find money to provide basic supplies to the hospitals to aid the living, which resulted in Jamaicans not being able to access care at the hospitals and health centres?

Wasn’t it during Dr Phillips’s tenure as finance minister that nurses and doctors had to resort to wearing black garbage bags as gowns and opening operating rooms while performing surgeries due to non-functioning air conditioners?

Instead of berating Shaw’s efforts, Dr Phillips should try to learn a thing or two about how to manage the economy and how to negotiate with multilateral agencies.

The problem with the members of the People’s National Party is that they have failed to grasp their essential irrelevance. They think they are special.

Again, my granny told me that “bad mind worse than obeah”.

I guess if I were Peter Phillips I would want to be Audley Shaw, too.

Nobody criticises something that is bad; no one stones a fluxy mango.

Jack E Brown

jack.e.brown1973@gmail.com