For in excess of forty years, Jamaica has been knocking around with the troubling issue of whether we should sever relations with the British Monarch as our head of state.
For years too, I have
been a voice in the wilderness calling for us to do it before
Queen Elizabeth died, for whereas I considered her quite harmless, the thought
of having her son Charles as our head of state has always been
for me, very repulsive. Not least because I consider that,
the non-executive head of state should at the very
least, be a good role model and neither Charles nor
his “Queen Consort” can fill that bill.
Well, the inevitable is
on us and instead of running full speed ahead to
get rid of them and appoint a local person as our head, the political nonsense
which has always stymied our progress, is evident again.
The more things change
the more they remain the same.
In the initial stages,
the sticking point between our alternating governments led by the Peoples
National Party (PNP) and the Jamaican Labor Party (JLP), has
always been the kind of republic we should replace our monarchial system with.
For the PNP has always wanted an executive presidency and the JLP
a ceremonial one.
I have no idea if that
issue has been ironed out yet, but because little England (Barbados)
took the step to get rid of the British monarchy in 2022, the ruling JLP, to
tek shame outta dem eye, said they would follow suit and even appointed a
minister of Constitution Affairs, to lead the process.
There is good reason why
we should never cheer too early, for it appears now that those two
idiotic institutions (JLP and PNP) are again going to stymie
the country’s progress.
For the PNP has now
refused to appoint members to the Constitutional Committee to discuss the
extent of the constitutional reforms to take place, as getting rid of the
monarchy requires serious reform and a referendum.
This time, the
distraction is that the PNP wants the country to adopt the Caribbean Court of
Justice (CCJ) to replace the British Privy Council as our final court of
appeal, and will have no discussions unless this is agreed up front.
Omg. But shouldn’t the
idea of a Constitutional Committee be that they negotiate these issues, not
lay down hard lines?
I will be honest, when
the CCJ was first established in 2005, I opposed it totally. For in
my book, the interest of the Jamaican people was not properly represented by the
Patterson regime (which led the PNP Government at the time) and it had all the
appearances of being just another attempt to foist elements of a ‘federation’
though the back door.
For readers will recall
that the PNP had supported the West Indies Federation but in 1961, when a
referendum was called to sanction our membership, the Jamaican people
said no way.
In the initial stages,
the CCJ was a lopsided agreement between Jamaica and the other former British
colonies. My main grouse was that although Jamaica
contributed almost US$29 million of the $100 million fund established to fund
the court, NOT ONE MEMBER OF THE JAMAICAN JUDICIARY WAS APOINTEFD
TO SERVE ON THE COURT!
On the other hand,
Guyana which contributed less than $9 million, had two judges, including the
Chairman of that prestigious body.
That to me was a
disgraceful insult to our judges, for by no measure could Guyanese
judges be said to be twice as competent as Jamaicans.
That was my major
turnoff, but over the years that situation has been rectified and the court has
handed down some solid judgements and have proven themselves just as
good or better than the UK privy council in terms of its competence.
So now I have no
argument against us getting rid of the privy council as our final court of appeal.
But if the CCJ has to
wait a while, so be it.
The refusal of the PNP
to participate in the talks could mean we will be stuck in the monarchial
rut again because our politicians seem incapable of sitting down together
and ironing out simple issues.
In my book however, if
it comes to that, the JLP needs to realize that it is the government and
therefore has the responsibility to move full speed ahead with a referendum
to get rid of the monarchy, with or without the PNP.
We really can’t allow
political squabbles to cause this matter to drag on for another 40 or so years!
7 comments:
Thanks for this very informative blog. I was unaware of the various impediments to this process. Seems it won’t be resolved in my lifetime.
Or mine!
No truer words have ever been spoken. The time is NOW
So one thing is clear from your blog, the Jamaica Court of Appeal or another locally constituted tribunal can’t be trusted to be the final court of justice. Am I correct in my assessment?
You are completely right on all points...meanwhile, we wait and see...
Omg how on earth could you draw this conclusion? No such.idea was even hinted at! Go read and understand please.
You're right. That isn't in your article so the person isn't right in his or her assessment.
Post a Comment