January 8, 2014

Dear Sir,

Just before Christmas, the Acting Shadow Premier, Derrick Burgess, criticised Premier Craig Cannonier for remarks he made in the House of Assembly.

Mr. Burgess thought the Premier might be “endorsing the politics of personal destruction and political payback”, and that he had made “dictator-like statements”.

He encouraged the Premier to conduct himself in a “more statesmanlike manner.”

I’d like to suggest that Mr. Burgess is the very last person who should be lecturing the Premier on how to be statesmanlike.

Mr. Burgess is well known for his outbursts in the House — to the extent that the House Speaker recently called him in for a talking-to after he said another Member of Parliament “had the attitude of a redneck.”

He was removed from his position as Minister of Works and Engineering for physically attacking a fellow PLP Cabinet Minister.

He called a Supreme Court judge ignorant.

He said the Auditor General had written a report on financial misbehaviour at the Berkeley Institute because the contractors were black.

And when then Premier Paula Cox said the chairman and deputy chairman of one of Mr. Burgess’s boards should be dismissed, he ignored her.

Mr. Burgess’s behaviour, as reflected in these instances, suggests he is the last person to lecture anyone on how to behave.

Yours

ERJ