Peter Espeut | The elephant is fatter

The Government of Prime Minister (PM) Andrew Holness is trying to ram through amendments to deeply entrenched sections of Jamaica’s Constitution without consensus with the Opposition. Without the cooperation of the Opposition such efforts are doomed to end in flop and failure, and embarrassment for the PM and his Government in the run-up to a general election.

Don’t take my word for it. On August 30 last year, speaking at a forum at The University of the West Indies (UWI), no less a person than Orette Bruce Golding, former prime minister of Jamaica and leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), is quoted as saying: “We are at that point, where sadly, the momentum towards constitutional reform has been disrupted by the issue of the CCJ [Caribbean Court of Justice]. That is the elephant in the room. That elephant has grown fatter and more boisterous by the way in which the debate about it has been conducted.”

That was more than four months ago. Have there been talks between the Government and the Opposition to come to any agreement to go forward together? Has the elephant in the room slimmed down, or has it grown even fatter and more boisterous?

When the Constitutional Reform Committee (CRC) submitted its report “on the Transition to the Republic of Jamaica and other Matters” on May 3, 2024, the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) representatives declined to sign it, indicating their lack of support of its recommendations. That should have raised red flags that the process had hit a major roadblock.

Those who understand the process to amend deeply entrenched constitutional clauses know that without the support of the Opposition, the process is dead in the water! Such a move requires a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate, which will not happen without Opposition support, unless one Opposition senator can somehow be “persuaded” to vote with the government; maybe PM Holness believes he has that in the bag!

STATESMANSHIP AND DIPLOMACY

Such an impasse calls for statesmanship and diplomacy towards achieving consensus, not political arrogance and petulance. The PNP says it supports the removal of the British monarch as Jamaica’s head of state, but it wants what it calls “full decolonisation” all at once: for appeals to the UK-based Privy Council to cease, and for the CCJ to become the nation’s final court. “Why remove the king, but retain appeals to the king’s Privy Council?” they argue. The JLP has not committed to replacing the Privy Council, and promise the issue will be addressed in Phase II of the constitutional reform process. Few believe them.

Once the Opposition members on the CRC refused to sign the report, immediately, meetings should have been held – in dark back rooms if necessary – to work out the way forward, or admit failure and abandon the process to avoid the embarrassment of failure. It was in this context that the forum at UWI was held last August.

Part of the public education programme of the Faculty of Law, it was entitled “A Reasoning with Mr. Orette Bruce Golding about Reform of the Jamaica Constitution and De-Linking from the British Monarchy”. In his “Reasoning”, the former PM is quoted as saying: “nothing can happen, nothing in terms of constitutional reform, nothing in terms of the CCJ without consensus”.

Clearly PM Holness does not agree!

TABLED BILL

To the surprise of many, last month (December 10) the Government tabled a bill in Parliament to amend Jamaica’s Constitution to remove the British Monarch as Jamaica’s head of state without any provision for change in Jamaica’s final court. With general election due by September this year the Government clearly intends to amend the Constitution before then – without official Opposition support! The JLP must really have that PNP senator in the bag!

Or is Humpty Dumpty headed for a great fall!

Last week Wednesday (January 15) at the first meeting of the joint select committee examining the Constitution (Amendment) Republic Bill, the Leader of the Opposition – Mark Golding (no relation, of course, to Bruce) – quite predictably restated his party’s non-negotiable position with respect to the CCJ, and posed four questions to Prime Minister Holness in an effort to get the JLP government to clarify its stance on the CCJ.

Having not received any answer to their questions, the PNP boycotted the second meeting of the Joint Select Committee scheduled for Wednesday last. What else did the Government expect?

And what now?

Over the years the Holness administration has shown symptoms of dictatorial governance syndrome and allergies to meaningful public consultation or consultation with the Opposition. Will it really try to amend Jamaica’s Constitution without the support of the Opposition?

Taken to a vote after the appropriate time, the bill to amend the Constitution will pass the lower house where the JLP has the required two-thirds majority. And let us say the JLP government by hook or by crook is able to get the bill passed in the Senate, it still has one more hurdle: it must obtain sixty per cent of the vote in a national referendum!

I am sure that PM Holness knows that never in the history of contested general elections in Jamaica since 1944 has any party ever won sixty per cent of the votes cast – not even in the landslide electoral victories of 1972, 1980, or 1993.

Only with consensus between the PNP and the JLP where both ask their supporters to vote for it can any referendum on constitutional reform succeed. This is the safeguard that our founding fathers wrote into our present Constitution to prevent state capture.

If PM Holness really believes that he can push through these constitutional amendments without the support of the Opposition, then either he possesses an incredible deficit of political judgement, or he has a big plan that he is keeping close to his chest.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and development scientist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com