Jamaica’s well-known efforts and ambitions to become a republic appeared to be on course for failure after the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) this week reiterated its long-held opposition to the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), suggesting instead that a local apex court be established on Jamaican soil.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness dropped this political and constitutional bombshell on a radio show on Monday as he prepared the JLP for a protracted but probably self-defeating fight with the main opposition People’s National Party (PNP). The PNP has unapologetically tied its parliamentary support for changes to the constitution to allow for Jamaica to become a republic to the island signing on to the CCJ and abandoning the British Privy Council as its final appeals court. A two thirds vote in parliament in addition to a referendum are needed for the switch to a republic among other changes.
Opposition Leader Mark Golding has repeatedly in recent days drawn a political line in the sand on republicanism, saying that the plan by the JLP for the island to become a republic while keeping the British court was disingenuous as the country must make a clean break with the British monarchy or remain as it is, an independent country with the British King as its head of state and while, bewigged law lords sitting as appeal judges. The JLP has said it will deal with a final court in phase two of the constitutional reform process.
On the other hand, the PNP steadfastly opposes this, arguing that it is a proverbial switch and burn tactic to stay away from the CCJ altogether. Facing a general election next year while lagging in the polls, PM Holness says Jamaicans can also decide through “the process of an indicative referendum. The people should have a say, that’s number one for us. And secondly, if we are having a final court to be repatriated it shouldn’t go to Port-of-Spain, it should come to Kingston. That has been our position.” In stating his party’s position on Monday, it means that the road to republicanism will likely be stalemated for a while yet as both parties have positions which are hardened and non-negotiable.
For his part, Golding wants a clean break with the British, saying that a regional appeals court will ensure the decolonization process is full and complete.
“Our position is that time has come to leave the British monarchy in full once and for all. When Jamaica is moving out of the king’s yard, we cannot have one foot in and one foot out of the yard. That will leave us neither fish nor cows in another man’s yard. That can’t work. We will not support a phased approach in dealing with the matter of full decolonisation, because the phased approach does not guarantee its attainment; it may never happen if we do it that way,” he told reporters recently, suspicious of the JLP’s phased approach.
If and when Jamaica becomes a republic, it will join Guyana being the first- way back in 1970-Trinidad, Dominica and Barbados in late 2021 as fully sovereign nations.
A recent Jamaica Observer editorial sums up the stalemate aptly. “This process, as we said, is going to be long. However, this generation has a duty to avoid the vacillation that has, for too long, stymied this important development. The matter of our final court, though, is already problematic as positions have hardened on both sides. A referendum can settle that, and both the governing JLP, which advocates retaining the Privy Council, and the opposition PNP, which is insisting that we move to the CCJ should not be afraid to put the question to the electorate.”
