Questionable Conduct: The Jamaican Political Reality

There has been talk of  behind-the- scenes moves aimed at breaking the deadlock over the three CCJ Bills. A proposed Agreement was to operate on two levels: the Government and the Opposition one one level  and the PNP and JLP on the other. Deadlock : The Government wishes the Opposition to support the CCJ Bills by voting in favour of the CCJ Bills, both in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. The Opposition wishes the issue of whether the Caribbean Court of Justice should replace the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as Jamaica's final Court of Appeal to be put to the Jamaican electorate by way of a vote. Proposed solution :  More than 50% of Opposition Members in the House of Representatives and more than 50% of the Opposition Senators in the Senate will vote in support of the CCJ Bills in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, respectively. The question to be put to the electorate: " Are you in favour of the Caribbean Court of Ju...

                           The CCJ debate in the Senate is in full swing: lots of distractions , drama , and rhetoric but woefully devoid of substance . We have expressed our discomfort with the decision of Jamaica’s final appellate resting solely on the vote of one Opposition Senator “exercising his conscience” and being anxious to be on “the right side of history”. One of the key elements is the role of the citizens (not their elected representatives or their appointed agents) in the making of this decision. On strict Constitutional terms there is none. The Constitutionalist : The PNP Government has decided to replace the Privy Council with the CCJ as Jamaica’s final appellate court The severing of ties with the Privy Council requires only a simple majority in both Houses. The government of the day has such a majority so that is a relatively simple exercise. Both our Supreme C...

                     Decolonization is a process by which nation-states reduce their dependency on institutions, structures and processes imposed, copied or inherited from the colonial experience. The ultimate aim is to fashion such to reflect the local realities. The process is a complex exercise varying in length, character and prone to a number of challenges, distractions, resistance and set-backs. Sometimes initiatives have to be undertaken by visionary leadership moving ahead of the general edification of the populace. A failure to satisfy expectations invariably gives rise to calls for the return to the “good ole days”. The Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition has described the current debate on replacing the Privy Council (PC) with the Caribbean Court Of Justice (CCJ) as Jamaica’s final appellate court as a “ distraction”. The general reason given is that it shifts the national attention from d...