The Editor, Sir:

Now that the election date has been announced, the politics will fervently once again be on most persons' minds, except the sufferers after Hurricane Dean.

The question I am asking is, are we getting as a people what we deserve?

I am looking at the two persons now being put forward for leadership and as a Jamaican I am not very proud. Mrs. Simpson Miller is clearly not so competent. One is still wondering if she now recognises that she is the leader of the PNP. After the Trafigura incident, when she referred the TVJ journalist to ask the PNP whether the money was sent back, she clearly did not know. As someone who voted for the PNP in the last election, I am saddened by the leadership of this honourable party.

On the flip side, is Mr. Bruce Golding any better? Crime is Jamaica's problem. We are suffering a lot from our history where these politicians, by virtue of their associations, have created monsters among us. My questions to Mr. Golding are: (1) What was the level of this association? (2) Who purchased the guns that these gunmen were using to chase out the PNP? (3) When the gunmen were chasing the PNP, is it that they just waved these guns for the people to run away, or were people shot and murdered in the process? (4) How were these people rewarded when the JLP was in power?

We are aware that this occurs on both sides, but I don't believe it is enough to say they were doing the wrong too. What this means is that we are electing persons who are corrupt and not worthy of our votes.

Garrison politics is not an impression, but it is a way of life in the communities where donmanship prevails and gunmen seek to extort and eliminate people who don't support their way of life. Mr. Seaga gave the names of persons to the police who are functionaries of crime. Are they still in the community? Mr. Golding, we will question your integrity if you were once associated with gunmen.

I will not be voting for any of these persons on September 3, because I don't believe they would have qualified for leadership in any country which believes that its leaders should be beyond reproach.

I am sorry I will not assist the process, but I believe until we have a truth and reconciliation commission and a new beginning, this country will continue to be divided and will not realise its true potential. We have unworthy persons in leadership and will only get what we deserve, until we select better persons to govern us.

I am, etc.,

DELROY PETERSON

Delroy221@yahoo.com

Portmore

St.Catherine

Via Go-Jamaica