Disappointed by Don

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I am writing to express my disappointment with Mr Don Wehby, group CEO of GraceKennedy, and one of the judges in the recently concluded primary schools' debate, sponsored by GraceKennedy Money Services.

In the pre-debate interview of the final on Love 101 FM, Mr Wehby was very candid in his support of the idea that "... Jamaicans should buy local instead of foreign goods to boost the economy", which happened to be the moot that the two schools were debating.

I strongly believe that for him to have expressed his personal opinion so publicly would, by all means, make him ineligible to be one of the judges.

Adjudicators of all sorts must always maintain an unbiased view of the situations over which they are presiding. By making that statement, followed by the opposing team losing, only created doubt in the minds of not only those who were supporting the opposing team, but also in the minds of every well-thinking person.

They might be of the notion that the final decision was predetermined, even though that might have not been the case.

There is no doubt that we all are in support of the 'Buy Jamaican, Build Jamaica' concept; however, in the context of a debate where he was a judge, he should have reserved his comments, since as the often-quoted maxim states, 'Justice must satisfy the appearance of justice.'

IAN J. BLYTHE

ianjblythe@yahoo.com

Maryland, USA