Proposed law would allow PM to create a police state

THE PERIOD that a declared area will continue as a zone of special operations is initially up to two months. However, the bill gives power to the National Security Council, that secretive body that reports to nobody, to extend it for two additional periods, each of two months. So for six months, this prime minister in council can keep that area as a zone of special operations, without Parliament having any say in the matter. The area comprising a zone of special operations can be a community or a constituency or a parish, or a cluster of parishes, or even the whole of Jamaica excluding, say, Jamaica House.

Furthermore, when that six-month period is about to expire, the Government can use its majority in Parliament to extend it further, for an unlimited period, even for the entirety of its term in office, just by passing a resolution. To do this, only a simple majority is required in the House and Senate which, by definition, the Government of the day will be able to muster. So the Government is effectively guaranteed a free hand in extending this state of affairs for as long as it wants, even for its entire term in office.

A POLICE STATE

The bottom line is that this bill would allow a Government to declare virtually the whole of Jamaica a zone of special operations, and to maintain that situation for the entirety of its term of office. The bill, therefore, allows the prime minister in council to convert Jamaica into what may fairly be described as a police state, in which the rights of our citizens are severely curtailed in a manner analogous to a state of public emergency, and to keep that situation in place indefinitely.

The regime under this bill can even be brought into action in the run up to elections, as a cynical tool for suppressing areas where the Government of the day feels it politically advantageous to do so, thereby thwarting the right of the people to free and fair elections. The potential for abuse is obvious and unacceptable.