Editorial | Jamaica’s route to republic

The recent wig-burning action of eminent Jamaican Queen’s Counsel, Hugh Small, has reignited public discourse about the seeming reluctance to sever ties with the British monarchy and embrace full political independence.

Small, a former judge of The Bahamas and once part of Jamaica’s political elite, having served as a minister, did a symbolic torching of his horsehair wig and two others which are traditionally worn in certain courts. He did this while calling on Jamaica to withdraw from the UK Privy Council, which remains its final appellate court.

His action gave a boost to the republic debate about the relevance of the monarchy which has dragged on for years. Among one of the persons jumping on-board was popular recording artiste Sizzla Kalonji, who agreed on social media that it was time for Jamaica to leave the Privy Council.

Because of colonialism, 17th-century accessories designed for Europe found their way into courts of former colonies and remained a feature for years until a growing number of jurists expressed the view that the dress code (wig and gown) is outdated and unsuitable to tropical conditions such as exist in Jamaica and other former colonies.

RELEVANT

Yet, there are traditionalists who feel that the wig and gown are relevant to keeping objectivity in law. Change is slowly coming about after a 2007 English court case which challenged the dress-code tradition and resulted in victory for those wanting change.

But it would be naïve to think that Small’s wig-burning exercise is merely about scratchy, horsehair wigs. After all, he is over 80 years old and may not even use that wig. The bigger argument we believe he and others make, is that 60 years is a reasonable time in which to build a distinctive Jamaican society, instead of continuing to hew so close to colonial tradition. In a mere five months, Jamaica will celebrate its 60th year of independence from Britain.

An astute judgement of the way history is shaping in the region can be made by tallying those countries which have swapped constitutional monarchy for parliamentary republic. Barbados is known as ‘little England’, yet Prime Minister Mia Mottley had no difficulty in severing the umbilical cord in 2021 to coincide with the country’s 55th anniversary of independence. Amazingly, it took Guyana a mere four years after independence in 1966 to go the republic route, while Trinidad and Tobago did so in 1976, and Dominica, in 1978.

Has Prime Minister Andrew Holness found himself in a dilemma then? A cacophony of voices has been calling for Jamaica to sever the colonial apron string, even while he is basking in his appointment as one of Her Majesty’s privy councillors. We recall that Mr Holness said in his 2016 election manifesto that ditching the monarch was a priority. Indeed, all incoming prime ministers in the last 20 years have spoken about aiming to make this change.

We acknowledge that there are hurdles to constitutional changes, including the requirement for a referendum. Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica and Barbados have shown that there are various ways of achieving this goal. Disappointingly, Mr Holness has not laid before the country a road map for achieving republic status. There seems to be no urgency and sometimes the matter appears to have slipped to the back-burner.

As besotted royalists prepare to welcome the future king, Prince William, and his wife to our shores next week, those who still have enthusiasm for the royalists will be on their best behaviour and the matter of ditching the monarchy is not likely to surface in polite conversation. After the celebrations are over, we still have the matter of billions of dollars of reparation negotiations to deal with and how to remove the last vestiges of a colonial past.

Mr Small, by his action, has certainly breathed new life into rising ambitions for a Jamaican republic.