Unpatriotic civil servants

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I agree 100 per cent with the sentiments expressed by the writer who calls himself 'Old Civil Servant' in Thursday's Gleaner, and with those expressed by G2K President Delano Seiveright.

I, too, am a civil servant who entered the government service in the 1990s. I have seen the politicisation of the service, and it's appalling. Many people want to pretend it is not true, but it is very much so, especially at the top echelon of workers. They are tribalised. Like the politicians, they are more interested in the welfare of their party than that of the country or the organisation in which they work.

As a child, when I heard of a new government getting rid of civil servants who worked for the former government, I was appalled that something like that could happen in a modern, civilised society. But now that I am in the service, I clearly understand why, and now I fully endorse the move to boot these unpatriotic, unprofessional 'politicians' from their jobs.

sabotage

They are not about serving the country nor doing their job, but are all about sabotaging the current government to fail so that, supposedly, the other party can look good. I guess this happens on both sides of the political fence (I have worked in the service under the PNP and now the JLP), and it is so sad.

It is one thing to have a political bias - which I believe is OK. It's another thing to allow that bias to undermine one's integrity and professional responsibility. I've always thought that politicians were the ones entrenching political tribalism in our country but now I realise that some civil servants do it, too.

Even some persons in corporate Jamaica, and journalists, are guilty of putting party above country. I believe that persons who do such things do not love themselves, because to undermine the progress and development of your own country is to undermine your own well-being and that of our children.

So sad.

I am, etc.

DISAPPOINTED

CIVIL SERVANT