Dear Editor,

I’ve meandered around this long enough, but knowing who I am, silence just isn’t in my DNA. So let’s talk.

I didn’t even need to read the full thing, just a glance at the statement from the general secretary of the People’s National Party (PNP) was enough to make my skin crawl. You really stood in your so-called wisdom and compared the current PNP President Mark Golding to Michael Joshua Manley?

I beg your pardon?

That’s not just a reach, that’s a disrespectful, ahistorical, mind-boggling leap. What do they have in common, exactly? Light skin and curly hair? Oh, right — and they both held the title of PNP president. That’s where the similarities begin and end.

Let me educate you.

Michael Manley wasn’t just a leader, he was an experience. He was eloquent, magnetic, and intellectually unmatched. When he spoke, the entire country — even diehard Labourites — paused and listened. He didn’t need a script. He was the script. The depth, the cadence, the conviction — unforgettable. Even his critics respected him. That’s legacy.

Now tell me, what exactly does Golding evoke when he speaks? I’ll wait. Actually, don’t answer. Because even the media, both traditional and social, have not been kind. And I won’t echo the sentiments I’ve heard publicly, not because I don’t agree with some of them, but because I’m not here to crush him, he is the president of my beloved party.

But let me say this clearly: To compare Manley to Golding is a national insult.

Not just to the PNP, but to the Jamaican people. To history. To oratory. To legacy.

You owe the nation an apology.

And if you think I’m being harsh, just remember this: Your logic is so detached from reality, I wouldn’t be surprised if next week you liken yourself to Hippocrates, the father of medicine, because, clearly, your comparisons know no bounds.

Even down to lifestyle and charisma — chalk and cheese. Manley was a rock star. Golding is a man with lukewarm energy. And, again, I say this as a staunch PNP. Loyalty doesn’t mean blindness.

So, no, I won’t be silent.

And if anyone’s offended by my honesty, kindly take a number and keep it to yourself. I’m not playing diplomacy today.

And to the easily offended: Save your outrage. I am not playing semantics, I am playing defence. Defence of reason, logic, and common sense

Al Ezzo-Lawson

Mark Golding.