Constitutional-reform process will ‘fall apart’ – political commentator Williams
POLITICAL COMMENTATOR Clyde Williams has cast doubt on the Andrew Holnessled administration’s ability to execute the constitutional reform process.
“It’s not going to happen under this watch. It’s gonna fall apart. That’s my take on it,” he said. “If di ting start bad, it hard to come good.”
According to Williams, the Opposition’s stance that it will not support Jamaica becoming a republic if the United Kingdom Privy Council is to remain Jamaica’s final appellate court will inevitably unravel the process.
A two-thirds majority is needed in both Houses of Parliament to make changes to deeply entrenched clauses of the Jamaican Constitution.
In October last year, Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte told Parliament that Prime Minister Holness was expected to declare in “short order” his administration’s position on whether Jamaica should accede to the appellate jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
No clear position has since been articulated. The Gleaner reached out to Minister Malahoo Forte to get an update on the constitutional-reform process and to ascertain if Government has taken a definitive stance on whether or not Jamaica should accede to the appellate jurisdiction CCJ.
However, there was no response up to press time.
But describing any decision to keep the Privy Council as the country’s final court as “two-thirds decolonisation”, Williams made it clear that it was one he, too, would not support.
“If we’re not going to leave the monarchy in its entirety, and if we leave the King to decide finally on justice issues, I am going to vote to keep the King. Mi nuh want two-thirds freedom. I don’t want two-thirds liberty.”
ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME CHANCE
The attorney also criticised what he described as a “failure” of the constitutional-reform committee to properly consult with citizens before taking the decision to institute a ceremonial president when Jamaica becomes a republic.
“Minister Marlene Malahoo Forte come out and seh, ‘the committee has decided that Jamaica will have a ceremonial president, and you go, like, ‘him nuh talk to none a wi, eno’,” he said.“We have a once-in-a-lifetime ... to unlock the potential of people through constitutional change, but in the ... very first set of meetings even before dem seh to wi seh ‘baay’, they decided that we’re going to continue to have a ceremonial head of state.”
Williams was speaking to students at the Excelsior Community College Research Conference held on the school’s campus yesterday.The annual event serves as a platform for scholars, researchers, faculty members, and students to showcase their innovative ideas, groundbreaking research, and transformative projects.
He insisted that this decision by the constitutional-reform committee was “at the heart of the change” and that citizens should have been given a voice in the matter.
“There was no public information as to the option because if you say ceremonial president, you’d expect that there’ll be some presentations about the various options – direct elections as distinct from ceremonial presidency. There is none of that,” he said.
According to him, such a detached approach is reminiscent of the one taken when the Constitution was developed for Jamaica’s independence in 1962.
And while noting the town hall meetings hosted by the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs to sensitise citizens about the process, he argued that they were inadequate both in scope and structure.
“The people don’t know about the Constitution, so a town hall that is not a town hall designed to educate and inform as to what we now have is not useful for the people because the people don’t understand the Constitution,” said Williams.