Currie says new Maroon ID no threat to NIDS
Published:Monday | October 24, 2022 | 12:10 AM
WESTERN BUREAU:
Maroon Chief Richard Currie has defended the rollout of an identification card for Accompong Town and insisted that it was not meant to clash with the implementation of the National Identification System, which has been pitched as a game-changer for governance and commerce.
However, the designation on the Maroon ID – referencing the St Elizabeth-based Accompong Town as a sovereign state – may rankle the Holness administration, which has rejected any notion of statehood by the ethnic community.
The new card is being promoted as a national identification and travel card for Maroons that will recognise the holder’s nationality as Accompong Maroon. It is scheduled to be launched on Tuesday.
According to the sample presented by Currie via his Instagram social media messaging platform, enrolment will commence on the day of its launch.
The card, when issued, will carry several features, including a photograph; name and date of birth of the holder; and a picture of the abeng, a Maroon musical and ceremonial instrument.
Currie said, in a Gleaner interview, that the rollout would not clash with NIDS.
“Who would have insinuated that the Maroon national identification card goes against the NIDS? That is news to me,” said Currie, suggesting that there may be misconceptions.
Efforts to contact Minister Floyd Green, who has oversight of NIDS, were unsuccessful as several calls to his mobile phone went unanswered.
But the Accompong Maroons, in a press release, say that the Government for the Accompong Maroons of Cockpit Country will be conducting the phase 1 rollout of the Accompong Maroon National Identification programme before the end of this month.
“All previously registered Maroons whose names appear on the 2021 Maroon electoral list will receive a free identification card,” a statement issued by the Maroon Council said, via Currie’s Instagram page.
All Maroons, local and overseas, will receive further instructions on October 25 on the application process.
Further, the so-called Sovereign State of the Accompong Maroons said that all natural persons inhabiting the archipelago of Jamaica and overseas who can trace their ancestry to Maroon heritage, culture, and bloodline may qualify for status.
“All applications will be vetted by a trained team ... . A background check report will be mandatory before an applicant can be granted status and given an identification [card],” the statement said.
In January, Prime Minister Andrew Holness alluded to the separatist group as dangerous and a potential incubator of guerrilla militancy.
Holness said that “not one inch of Jamaica will come under any other sovereign authority”.
“There are some threats that the average citizen looking on might think innocuous or popular and take a liking to it because the discussions that are held in places that should know better do not highlight the threat,” the prime minister said.