THE Editor, Sir:

IT IS WELL over one year since the Bruce Golding-led government has been in control of the administration of our nation state. I welcomed the change of administration last year against the background of a number of factors. First, the almost disinterested and tired way the previous government was functioning. There were times when I sensed a kind of arrogance that seemed to have overtaken the People's National Party (PNP) government. This could very well have been as a consequence of being in office for far too long a period. Second, the well-reasoned positions espoused by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) campaign machinery held up for us an image that said that they were in fact the change we needed and the change we could believe.

What I am witnessing after being in office for over a year is a government which is not coming clean with us on matters of national issues and which has not been consistent (the rhetoric is out of sync with actions). Sadly, the JLP government has failed to rally the goodwill of the people in (1) explaining the crises being faced by the nation and (2) outlining to us how they intend to tackle these challenges.

The campaign to win state power is long past. The JLP has won state power. They have been given a hand and we expect them to play the hand they fought so hard to win. It makes no sense, at least to me, to be harping back to what the previous government did over the last 18 years. Now is the JLP's time to govern and it is expected that they will engage the rest of us and rally the Opposition in finding solutions for the myriad problems that we have to confront daily.

What is the lesson from President-elect Obama? Obama has shifted gears! He has moved from the rhetoric of the campaign trail to the rhetoric of gover-nance. Sadly, many JLP parlia-mentarians, and I dare say the prime minister, often speak in the rhetoric of the campaign trail.

I believe that as a people, we must consistently challenge our leaders so that at the end of the day, we can together secure the prosperity and peace of our country.

Bipartisan collaboration

The Opposition, if it continues to react negatively to The Government's gestures for bipartisan collaboration, will get the unmistaken message from the many of us who refuse to be garrisonised by our thoughts or by our actions. They are still many of us who still put country first and want "change that we can believe".

I am, etc.,

PAUL GARDENER

pgardner@cwjamaica.com