Dear Editor,
On Tuesday (November 12, 2013) I attended a public forum at which the Minister of Justice Senator Mark Golding indicated his intention to initiate a review, in 2014, of Jamaica's laws pertaining to sexual conduct so as to introduce in his country "modern principles of morality", removing laws from what he called an "oppressive [past] era" in which persons were discriminated on the basis of race, creed and class.
He also noted that, although the majority of Jamaicans did not approve of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) behaviour and the review will be controversial, his Government was interested in advancing the interests of a sexual minority.
But isn't forcing unwanted laws and behaviour on the majority of a population an act of oppression? Where is the justice in that move, Minister Golding? Is there a plan to make this PNP Administration no different from the imperialistic pre-1962 political administrators? Is this what their founder, Norman Washington Manley, fought for when he sought Jamaica's Independence from foreign powers?
To whom is Minister Golding really accountable? Foreigners, a minority group or the majority who democratically elected him and his party into power? Is this what the PNP calls progress?
Philippa Davies
seivadap@gmail.com
No funny business, Minister Golding
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On Tuesday (November 12, 2013) I attended a public forum at which the Minister of Justice Senator Mark Golding indicated his intention to initiate a review, in 2014, of Jamaica's laws pertaining to sexual conduct so as to introduce in his country "modern principles of morality", removing laws from what he called an "oppressive [past] era" in which persons were discriminated on the basis of race, creed and class.
He also noted that, although the majority of Jamaicans did not approve of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) behaviour and the review will be controversial, his Government was interested in advancing the interests of a sexual minority.
But isn't forcing unwanted laws and behaviour on the majority of a population an act of oppression? Where is the justice in that move, Minister Golding? Is there a plan to make this PNP Administration no different from the imperialistic pre-1962 political administrators? Is this what their founder, Norman Washington Manley, fought for when he sought Jamaica's Independence from foreign powers?
To whom is Minister Golding really accountable? Foreigners, a minority group or the majority who democratically elected him and his party into power? Is this what the PNP calls progress?
Philippa Davies
seivadap@gmail.com
No funny business, Minister Golding
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