The Editor, Sir:

It was with great shock and dismay that I listened to our prime minister, the Honourable Bruce Golding, dishonour himself and his nation by trumpeting his bigotry on an international stage, on the BBC's Hardtalk programme on Monday night.

Mr Golding, seemingly oblivious to the treacherous slope he was on, dove head-first into a cesspool of ignorance and pious discrimination. His hypocritical double-speak betrays the intelligence and charm that have endeared him to so many. It was a disappointing departure into the land of darkness between the ears that Jamaica seems content to be seen as internationally.

Abandoned political savy

For Mr Golding to once more utter the nonsense about 'no homos' in his Cabinet is regrettable, to put it mildly. For him to make these utterances two days after IDAHO (International Day Against Homophobia), a day marked as the beginning of a tourist boycott of Jamaica for the very same attitudes espoused by Mr Golding, is an abandonment of the political savvy he is known for.

If, as Mr Golding posits, his selection of Cabinet members is based solely on professional merit and the ability to act without fear or intimidation, then what is the implicit disqualification of a homosexual?

Mr Golding is no better than the deejays, clerics, and other pied pipers who are proudly leading Jamaica into an abyss. He has no moral authority to ask for these bastions of ignorance to clean up their act when he vehemently opposes the inclusion of any actual or perceived homosexual in his Cabinet.

I am, etc.,

DAVID EVANS

david@realjamaica.cjb.net