THE EDITOR, Sir:

Section 40(2)(a) of our Constitution which says that no person shall be qualified to be appointed as a senator or elected as a member of the House of Representatives who is, by virtue of his own act, under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or state does not make any sense because the holder of a passport owes allegiance to the issuing state or country whether or not the passport was issued by the act of the holder.

It is, therefore, shameful for anyone to invoke the section because it is politically expedient to do so at this time while ignoring the provision for about 45 years and without due regard to the possible adverse effect on our citizens abroad and damage to our relations with our many friends including the United States in particular.

Those who seek to justify on the basis that it is a constitutional provision must know that even serious common law crimes, including blasphemy, which attracts capital punishment, are not being enforced in the west and must factor this as well as what I have said about the holder of a passport owing allegiance to the state or country issuing same whether or not the passport was issued by the act of the holder - Joyce v. Director of Public Prosecutions, (1946) A.C., 347.

It can also be argued that non-observance of the section for so many years has become a convention of the constitution as a principle of constitutional law.

Let us put the interest of our people at home and abroad before power for party and discontinue the suits forthwith and give priority to the unity of our people under the new administration.

I am, etc.,

OWEN S. CROSBIE

oss@cwjamaica.com

Mandeville