KARL SAMUDA'S comments in regard to Jamaica's high com-missioner to London and former minister of education, Burchell Whiteman, was smack of the old-style politics I heard Bruce Golding strongly denounce when he launched the National Democratic Movement (NDM).

Samuda was not at that meeting, by my recollection, but it brings into question something that has been occupying my mind and many others: Is it that Golding was a fraud in espousing those principles or is it that he was naive and has simply not been able to wrestle the partisan dragon out of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP)?

A moot point

Samuda said White-man was doing a good job and the prime minister had great confidence in him. Had he stopped there, he could have distinguished himself as standing on a laudable principle. What we need are the best people in positions, regardless of political affiliation. The fact that he went on to make the comment about Whiteman's departure makes what he had said before moot.

Whiteman is a man I know personally and have no doubt in his integrity. I think it speaks volumes to his character that he would wish to serve in a high-level position under an opposing government. If he is doing a good job (and there was no intimation in Samuda's comments that Whiteman wanted to come home), then why, other than partisanship, is he being replaced?

Wholesale replacementof comrades

Don't get me wrong, as a chief executive, it is important that you surround yourself with a team of people who you know you can trust. There is little doubt in my mind that the People's National Party (PNP) saturated the public sector with Comrades many of whom did no real work for the salaries they were getting. But it seems that there has been a wholesale replacement of Comrades with Labourites throughout all levels of the public sector.

But I could be wrong and I don't want my perceptions to rule me. So I would like to issue a challenge to your newspaper: Could you, please, publish a list of all public-sector positions at or above the mid-management level where a registered member of the PNP has been replaced by a registered member of the JLP? This is an area which investigative journalism could enlighten.

Samuda, as a rebuttal, would be free to provide a list of other registered members of the PNP who continue to hold senior positions in government.

I am, etc.,

BRUCE MCKNIGHT

bruce_mcknight@hotmail.com

Ontario, Canada