The Editor, Sir:

The members of the Lower House of the Jamaican Parliament were called upon to use their conscience. Conscience is a person's inner sense of what is right or what is wrong morally. My struggle with the term conscience vote is that it gives the impression that at other times when the leaders do the nation's business, they park their conscience in the parking lot until the sitting is adjourned.

On the issue of the death penalty, persons were asked to listen to their inner voices that help them to distinguish between right and wrong. I wonder what happens at other times when they have to vote? When the issue is on minimum wage, laws to protect children, laws on abortion, laws on family and marriage, laws that protect the public purse from the hands of those who hold the purse strings, how do we ask our leaders to vote? Shouldn't voting in the House be conscience vote at all times?

On the issue of the death penalty, it would seem that some of the parliamentarians were unsure or afraid to use their conscience. Many of them referred to what their constituents dictated to them to do. They claimed they voted the conscience of those who sent them to Parliament in the first place. Is this a cop-out on the part of politicians? Are our politicians saying that on matters of national morality, they would rather go with the popular view? What if the popular view is the less noble path to take?

Shouldn't we commend those leaders who declare that even if they are voted out, they have to follow their conscience? Whenever we see leaders going against the popular view, it is more often than not a sign of courage and higher reason.

Many will ask whether or not we can trust our present political leaders to vote their conscience. What kind of worldview informs their conscience? Do they nurture and build their conscience in order that they can be relied upon to make ethically sound decisions, even if they are not popular? I believe that a major part of the nation's problems today has to do with conscience. Many of our leaders have stifled their conscience in order to maintain or gain power. Give the people what they want even though we know it's not the best for them.

I urge our national leaders to take their conscience with them and use it whenever they are doing the nation's business.

I am, etc.,

ROY NOTICE

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