THE EDITOR, Sir:I WAS privileged to have been at the first in the series of political debates held at the University of the West Indies, Mona recently.
The discourse was certainly enlightening and powerful. Senator Bruce Golding handled himself well as the opening batsman for the series. However, early on in his innings, he tried to evade a bouncer from the Reverend Garnett Roper, which went on to hit him on the helmet.
Mr. Roper, the first member of the audience to pose a question to the senator, asked Mr. Golding to inform the gathering of his track record as a minister of Cabinet, member of Parliament, and more recently, leader of the National Democratic Movement, NDM.
TRACK RECORD
Mr. Golding responded by saying, "Rev. Roper, if you didn't ask me those questions, then I would think that you were not feeling well". This was said to rousing applause. Mr. Golding went on to state that the answer to the question of his track record would be left up to the electorate.
This situation to me was totally unacceptable. When quizzed about his response to the Rev. Roper, Mr. Golding said that at every public opportunity, be it in the press or on the radio, Mr. Roper has been undeviatingly consistent in his response/comments to him.
Mr. Golding could have done more justice to the hundreds of students on hand by responding to the question asked and not to the person who asked the question.
That aside, I would like to take issue with his eventual response - "I will leave that up to the electorate".
My question to Mr. Golding is, which electorate are you talking about? To whom are you leaving the question of your track record?
As a young person below 24 years, I would not do you any justice as a member of that electorate.
You failed to acknowledge that a vast majority of your audience was of that age group. It was an opportunity for you to give them a reason to have confidence in you and to reflect that in an election, be it by-election or general election.
The fact that I am under 24, means that I would not be privy to most of your work as a Cabinet minister and a member of Parliament. When the Jamaica Labour Party last formed the government of Jamaica (1989), I was only eight years old. Should I make any decision based on my understanding of your contributions at eight years old?
GETTING YOUTH VOTES
It is of priority that both political parties get out the youth votes, so how can you count on that part of the electorate to put you in when they are ignorant of your past performance and contributions to the country?
Mr. Golding, please get in line and play those bouncers better. Don't just stick out your bat and hope that the pace of the ball will carry it to the boundary. After all, you might just get a faint edge and find it lobbing into the hands of the keeper, or worse yet, floored like the West Indian captain was by the Rawalpindi Express.
I am, etc.,
SHAWN MCGREGOR
CARICOM Youth Ambassador
