No to licences for illiterate persons

THE EDITOR, Sir:

One of the most dangerous statements to ever come out of the mouth of a police officer was printed by The Gleaner dated July 12, 2012. The headline read 'Lewis: Give licences to illiterate persons'.

The society has no guarantee of what that illiterate person knows, thinks, or understands about anything when he has no or limited education. How do we convey important information that may be transmitted in written form only, such as mobile highway signs (our road network is changing)?

How does the insurance industry work with such an individual? Are they allowed to operate public transportation vehicles? Who assesses their ability to function on the road?

SSP Lewis has spoken vociferously on the problems of the Tax Administration Jamaica and the licensing authority. So we create another layer for the issuing of licences to people who can't read?

If we constantly erode our standards, what is left is chaos. And Jamaica really does not need any more than what we already have.

What about all the international treaties that we are part of and the standards which allow us to interact with the rest of the world. If we produce people and call them drivers and issue them an official government document saying that they can drive, the rest of the world makes basic assumptions about those standards.

When we arbitrarily change them, what do we tell the rest of the world about us? That not only will they need interpreters to speak to us, 'but give us paper see if we can read'.

I think I can see what SSP is talking about, but the reason why those who are found out tend to be good drivers, according to the SSP, is that they are attempting to mimic the standard and, as a result, do everything to stay under the radar.

When we legitimise what is abnormal, when we let the cat out of the bag, there will truly be no standards to adhere to, and a complete free-for-all.

CHRISTOPHER GIVANS

Christopher.givans@gmail.com

Kingston 6