Legal and Constitutional Affairs Minister Marlene Malahoo Forte has expressed disappointment in the parliamentary Opposition for failing to nominate two of its members to sit on the Constitutional Reform Committee.
The committee is to advise on a process of overhaul 60 years after Independence, including the process of transitioning Jamaica to a republic.
But the Opposition has maintained that the executive and judicial branches of Government should be decolonised together and expressed concerns on other matters such as the review and possible amendment of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedom.
“We consider it unfortunate that the parliamentary Opposition is twinning accession to the appellate jurisdiction of the CCJ (Caribbean Court of Justice) to the move to abolish the constitutional monarchy and establish the republic of Jamaica. I thought that when they said that we should complete the move that they meant it, but clearly it was plain talk. Plain talk,” Malahoo Forte lamented.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness was expected to name the members of the committee during the sitting of the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
The committee should comprise representatives of the Houses of Parliament from the Government and Opposition, the attorney general, the solicitor general, and constitutional law experts, among others.
“I am beyond disappointed because I thought, once and for all, Government and Opposition and the majority of the people were in agreement that we should move full speed ahead. In fact, persons were questioning what was happening in the ministry between last year January 10, 2022 and today – one year to date. We have spent the time to go through in detail, to take stock, to ensure that we can move as speedily as possible because it is our intention to have the referendum early 2024,” she said, adding that it will take at least nine to 12 months to pass the bill to amend the Constitution and establish the republic of Jamaica.
The minister explained that although there are concerns, the Opposition could have named its members as the purpose of the committee is to provide guidance, help build consensus, and to ensure that the views of the Opposition are considered.
“I don’t think I can express sufficiently to the people of Jamaica how disappointed I am with this position,” Malahoo Forte said as she referenced communication sent by Mark Golding.
In response, Golding said that following Malahoo Forte’s proposal to set up the committee, he wrote to her last June with concerns and questions, but only got a reply last Thursday.
The opposition leader said the response set out some positions on the matters he had raised and asked him to respond with the naming of his committee members before Tuesday.
“On the main issue on the table, in terms of constitutional reform which is for Jamaica to move from being ruled with a head of state, if not governed by a monarch based in the UK (United Kingdom), to having a Jamaican head of state – a president – that as part of that process, we don’t do it in a piecemeal way, but we complete our decolonisation, achieve full sovereignty and political independence by moving away from the [King’s] Privy Council as our final court and acceding to the jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice as our final court,” he detailed, as he argued that the current arrangements are inaccessible.
Golding said the Opposition would love to proceed and appoint its members to the committee, but he expects a response, giving the information which they have reasonably requested and which Jamaicans are entitled to know.
“Everybody is frustrated that we seem to be no further along a year after this new ministry was created,” Golding said, adding that the Opposition is not unwilling to come on board, but wants to do so with a full understanding of the direction the Government intends to take.