On reading an article in the Jamaica Observer today that Jamaican born Mark Escoffery-Bey is vying to become president of the Bronx borough with its almost 1.5 ,million population, I could not but be reminded of the fiasco in my own country, Jamaica, where persons born in the USA cannot represnt our tiny constituencies without first revoking their American citizenship.
This became an issue in the 2011 election and one would have thought we would have looked at this discriminatory constitutional provision by now, discriminatory because it prevents younger Jamaican born persons who take up US citizenship (as opposed to the older generation who migrated mainly to England and became English citizens) to return to serve their country while remaining dual citizens.
On the other hand, commonwealth citizens, even those who have never lived here for more than a year, are welcomed with open arms to become constituency representatives and even prime minister, without having to give up anything.
It is time this 50 year old provision be reworked one way or the other, either to keep out all aliens or level the playing field.
One would have thought that the JLP which was the party that suffered most because of this discriminator constitutional requirement, would have gotten off their bottoms to mobilize the citizens to have this requirement changed to give Jamaicans better a wider choice in candidate selection, but I must have been dreaming to have expected the JLP to really fight for progressive change.
This became an issue in the 2011 election and one would have thought we would have looked at this discriminatory constitutional provision by now, discriminatory because it prevents younger Jamaican born persons who take up US citizenship (as opposed to the older generation who migrated mainly to England and became English citizens) to return to serve their country while remaining dual citizens.
On the other hand, commonwealth citizens, even those who have never lived here for more than a year, are welcomed with open arms to become constituency representatives and even prime minister, without having to give up anything.
It is time this 50 year old provision be reworked one way or the other, either to keep out all aliens or level the playing field.
One would have thought that the JLP which was the party that suffered most because of this discriminator constitutional requirement, would have gotten off their bottoms to mobilize the citizens to have this requirement changed to give Jamaicans better a wider choice in candidate selection, but I must have been dreaming to have expected the JLP to really fight for progressive change.
1 comment:
Very astute opinion my lady J.
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