Intellectual capital
Published:Thursday | February 17, 2011 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
LIKE MANY Jamaicans, I have been viewing the Manatt enquiry with fascination. As it unfolds, one cannot help but observe that it displays the best and the worst in us, as a people.
We are privileged to witness a cadre of legal luminaries who can hold their own in the highest courts anywhere in the world, and as a Jamaican I feel proud. The sharp wit of a K.D Knight, the sombre, articulate mode of a Hugh Small, the almost sage-like bearing of a Frank Phipps - all these make me proud that our small country has produced such esteemed individuals. Jamaica is truly the intellectual capital of the Caribbean.
On the other hand, as the evidence unfolds a dark trend is emerging. We have always suspected that politicians will stop at nothing to achieve their own self interests. This enquiry confirms that. Functionaries in government departments are unsuspectingly used to carry out actions which might be detrimental to their own careers as well as to the country, in the name of party interests.
We hope that at the end of it all the scales will fall from our eyes and we will all insist - nay, demand - that our elected officials act in accordance with decency and moral rectitude.
I am, etc.,
Doreen Morgan