Dear Editor,

We have a strange culture of threatening lawsuits for everything, seemingly to exercise power and might with claims of defamation and also to force individuals into silence out of fear.

This is often done when questions are asked in the media and shared with the public.

Politicians especially are the culprits, they must pause and ask themselves: Is it worth wasting valuable time in courts with lawsuits? Surely politicians don’t think the public is stupid.

If questions can’t be asked publicly without the threat of a lawsuit, how can anyone function in a democracy?

In a court of law, this must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

When there is a culture of corruption, questions, and concerns will be raised, and lawsuits cannot silence anyone. We also have media, which works very well with investigations and keeping issues of public interest in the news.

We must therefore stop the nonsense of filing lawsuits for everything simply because we can, especially when there is hardly any legal merit behind them. If there is nothing to hide, come clean with the facts and let the chips fall where they may, and let the public decide.

Politicians need to embrace maturity and lead by example with assertiveness and less emphasis on emotion and rage.

P Chin

chin_p@yahoo.com