Attorney urges Jamaicans to educate themselves on constitutional reform
YOUTH ADVOCATE Christina Howell, who is also an attorney-at-law, is urging Jamaicans to be proactive in seeking information about the constitutional reform process, instead of expecting details of the process to be delivered to them.
Addressing a ‘Conversation on the Constitution’ forum held last Thursday at the St James Methodist Church in May Pen, Clarendon, Howell said that Jamaicans must be able to understand the details of the constitutional reform process, which is designed to transform Jamaica into a republic
“While we continue to make the call for the Constitutional Reform Committee to be more inclusive, the responsibility is ours to stay informed on the issues. We have to continue attending public forums like these, and we have to ask the real questions,” said Howell about the committee which is led by the minister of legal and constitutional affairs, Marlene Malahoo Forte.
“We also have a responsibility to constantly educate ourselves on the process so that we can participate in a meaningful and informed way, and this is our collective responsibility. We have to seek information, and we cannot be found guilty, as Jamaicans, of an attitude of entitlement where we expect that information must come to us and we make no effort at all to find out the information,” added Howell
The Constitutional Reform Committee, which was named by Prime Minister Andrew Holness on March 22 this year, is expected to guide the three-part constitutional reform process, which includes focusing on the abolition of the constitutional monarchy, establishment of republican status for Jamaica, and assessing the country’s legal and constitutional infrastructure to facilitate putting together a new constitution.
Howell noted that educational material must be made available for Jamaicans to become better informed on the issues surrounding the constitutional reform process.
“We can ask probing questions as the process proceeds so that when the time comes for us to vote on issues regarding the changes to the Constitution, we do so based on reasoned decisions and positions. It is important that educational material becomes available to us in languages and formats that we understand,” said Howell.
Meanwhile, National Integrity Action (NIA) Director, Professor Trevor Munroe, argued that lack of literacy did not prevent Jamaica’s electorate from being involved in the country’s Independence Constitution in 1962, and likewise, it should not now exclude Jamaican citizens from participating in the constitutional reform process.
“In 1962, there was little basis for consultation because, at the time, 80 per cent of our people were illiterate. Illiteracy does not mean lack of intelligence, or that you do not have the capacity, once you have the basics of what the Constitution is, to make suggestions as to what should be in there and what should not be in there,” said Munroe. “It cannot be that in 2023, we do not get something in the various media that are available, such as podcasts or Tiktok, which could be utilised to tell us what a constitution is.”