By Earl Moxam, Senior Gleaner WriterAN ATTEMPT to include a provision protecting 'the public interest' in the proposed new Charter of Rights in the Jamaican Constitution has drawn the ire of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), with some members describing it as a dangerous opening for the abuse of the very rights that are to be guaranteed under the Constitution.
The bill asserts that the provisions of the new Chapter 13 will protect the rights and freedoms of persons "to the extent that those rights and freedoms do not prejudice the rights and freedoms of others or the public interest."
Delroy Chuck , Opposition Spokesman on Justice, presented on behalf of the JLP an alternative draft, which omits reference to "the public interest."
The "public interest", said Mr. Chuck, "is too vague a concept to put in the Constitution. It is too ambiguous, so we are not in agreement."
Attorney-General A.J Nicholson, chairman of the committee, asserted that the very term "in the public interest" was used elsewhere in the Constitution.
But Senator Anthony Johnson, Mr. Chuck's JLP colleague, would not back away from his party's position.
He asserted that the use of the term "public interest" had been identified "as that door through which persons who wish to infringe the rights of citizens have walked and run and committed egregious offences against human dignity, not only in Jamaica, but all over the world."
Giving support to his colleagues, Ernest Smith, Member of Parliament for South West St. Ann and an attorney-at-law, argued that the contentious expression was too wide, asking whether there would be "a yardstick to determine what the public interest is."
Mr. Nicholson argued in response that the courts would be the proper testing ground for such questions.
With both sides at loggerheads on the matter, it was set aside for further consideration by Parliament when the committee presents its report.
