Spat over constitutional reform grows

Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte has dismissed as false reported claims by the parliamentary Opposition that the Government was trying to push the constitutional reform process “down the throats of Jamaicans”.

During a meeting yesterday, of the joint select committee of Parliament reviewing a bill to replace King Charles III as Jamaica’s head of state with a ceremonial Jamaican president, Malahoo Forte, who chairs the committee, said the Opposition’s claims were “laced with untruths”.

“If anything is being pushed down the throats of Jamaicans, it is ascension to the appellate jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) without a process that would enable Jamaicans to own their final court,” the legal and constitutional affairs minister said.

“We know that we can’t accomplish it alone, but I want the people of Jamaica to know that the Holness administration is serious about getting the work done in the best interest of the people,” she added.

The parliamentary Opposition has made it clear that while it is in favour of replacing the British monarch with a Jamaican head of state, its support for the process is tied to Jamaica’s departure from the United Kingdom-based Privy Council and accession to the CCJ as the country’s final court.

‘Pausing our participation’

Opposition Leader Mark Golding said earlier this week that his parliamentary caucus would not take part in the meetings of the joint select committee reviewing the constitutional bill until Prime Minister Andrew Holness divulges why his administration wants to remain with the Privy Council.

He recalled that it has been more than a year since it was communicated that Holness would issue a statement on the matter.

“We are not boycotting that committee, but until the prime minister, who has been promising for over a year to say what his position is on his issue, comes to the Jamaican people and explains his position, we are pausing our participation with that committee,” Golding said during a political rally in St Mary on Sunday.

Government member of the joint select committee Senator Charles Sinclair raised concern during a meeting of the committee yesterday that members of the Opposition who were appointed to the committee did not attend the meeting.

He questioned what should happen procedurally in a case where members of the committee did not show up for the meetings.

“I find something inherently wrong with the position that has been taken,” Sinclair said of the Opposition’s decision to stay away from the meeting.

editorial@gleanerjm.com