Gordon Robinson | Magna Carta myth

If we’re ever to understand why we must urgently sever colonial links; implement real constitutional reform; emancipate Jamaicans from mental slavery; chart a new path, we must first stop over-rating “English justice”.

We are often taught that “English justice” (imperialism’s favourite oxymoron) has its roots in the Magna Carta. But “justice” was never Magna Carta’s intention nor is there any “justice” in it for We the People.

Magna Carta was a simple peace treaty between warring factions namely the Monarch, King John, and disgruntled land barons. Land barons revolted against the King’s absolute power resulting in arbitrary, oppressive taxation; abuse of power; and unsuccessful military campaigns especially disastrous wars in France. King John, staring defeat in the face, signed the treaty on June 15, 1215 to save his own skin.

Magna Carta attempted to limit the Monarch’s power but not on our behalf. Its first, most important clause was:

“(1) FIRST, THAT WE HAVE GRANTED TO GOD , and by this present charter have confirmed for us and our heirs in perpetuity, that the English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired. That we wish this so to be observed appears from the fact that, of our own free will, before the outbreak of the present dispute between us and our barons, we granted and confirmed by charter the freedom of the Church’s elections – a right reckoned to be of the greatest necessity and importance to it – and caused this to be confirmed by Pope Innocent III.”

The Church came first. The Pope was still head of the English Church and remained so for another 300 years. When King Henry VIII broke from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534, so he could divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn, King and Church became one thus confirming all power and authority in the Monarch.

The Charter continued:

“This freedom we shall observe ourselves, and desire to be observed in good faith by our heirs in perpetuity. TO ALL FREE MEN OF OUR KINGDOM we have also granted, for us and our heirs forever, all the liberties written out below, to have and to keep for them and their heirs….”

But all “liberties” were granted to Barons not to ordinary citizens. Not one ordinary citizen signed the treaty so citizens had to take Barons’ word for it. The Barons (and their heirs) were granted absolute right to their lands and to have their cases tried in Court not by the King. Many ordinary citizens worked for Lord Barons on estates as serfs paying exorbitant rents in cash and kind (e.g. part of their crops). “Free men” was euphemistic at best.

There’s a monumental myth regarding Magna Carta’s influence. It’s true the principles of freedom it incorporated for Barons influenced founders of USA’s Constitution in crafting freedoms for all citizens. But the original Charter incorporated nothing of the sort.

It’s a little known fact that Magna Carta lasted less than two months before it was annulled by Pope Innocent III in August 1215. As King John’s Overlord, the Pope felt the Charter was signed under duress and didn’t approve its infringement on the Monarch’s absolute authority.

Some half-hearted re-issues of the Charter (including by John’s son Henry III) bear little resemblance to the original except the Church’s rights were always protected. UK Parliament (“Westminster”) wasn’t created until January 1, 1801 when Ireland “joined” the Parliament of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) created in 1707. Parliament was allegedly an evolution of Magna Carta’s attempts to restrict the Monarch’s power but both Parliaments’ focus was the same namely to protect land barons’ rights. House of Lords, Parliament’s Upper House, ensured no Bill passed in the House of Commons adverse to barons’ interest was ratified.

Stay with me now!

I apologize for this boring history but it’s vital that we, as Jamaican citizens, understand our current governance system’s origins. It does NOT come from any mythical concepts of “fairness” falsely attributed to Magna Carta. The purpose of Westminster has ALWAYS been to protect wealthy barons and to ensure the poor and vulnerable NEVER rise above the level of working to contribute to barons’ wealth.

Westminster does NOT operate and was NEVER intended to operate for We the People. Its origins can be traced to Magna Carta but narratives that cast Magna Carta as a cornerstone for individual liberties and due process in Anglo-American jurisprudence is mythology. The myth was perpetuated by 18th century Lawyers and historians. They believed an ancient English Constitution that protected individual English freedoms was overthrown by William the Conqueror in 1066 and re-introduced via the Magna Carta.

Rubbish!

That calculated political myth persisted until well into the 19th century. It influenced early American colonists in writing USA’s Constitution which became the template for true republican democracy based on separation of powers. But Victorian historians’ research proved beyond doubt that the original 1215 charter concerned ONLY the relationship between monarch and barons NOT ordinary subjects. The myth that Magna Carta was a harbinger of universal human rights was created centuries after it was signed and swiftly canceled.

The myth persists to hoodwink us into believing democracy is possible in a monarchy and justice flows from politicians awarded absolute power. Our experience over 63 years should’ve taught us that’s horse radish.

Concentration of power = Monarchy by any contrived name. Separation of Powers = Democracy. It’s as simple as that.

Please don’t try to tell me Jamaica already has separation of powers. The only authority expressing that view is the Privy Council in the celebrated Gun Court case of Hinds v D.P.P. [1977] where English Judges used the fact that branches of government were separated in the Constitution to find that our Constitution entrenched “Separation of Powers”.

High-larious!

Since it’s the only governance English Judges experience they think mythical separation from the Monarch is the same as separation of powers. They interpret separate written chapters to mean separation of powers when, in reality, parliament and government are inseparable, indivisible and in each other’s pocket. By this deliberate mental manipulation Englishmen continue to bamboozle us into believing their monarchical system bestows democracy on us inferior, native dullards and we can’t survive without colonial oversight of our judiciary.

This is the sordid history of the governance system English slave masters and colonizers imposed on Jamaica; that we were tricked into continuing in 1962; and that has kept us colonized by English traditions and English judges since then. Humans fill whatever space they’re allowed. If our space is a system created to enrich land barons at the expense of ordinary citizens; with a parliament that can pass any law without effective oversight including exempting parliamentarians from taxation they impose on us; and a judiciary bound by legal principles prescribed by English judges, we’ll run wid it. But are we truly independent? Do we live in a just society?

Will such a governance system ever be powered by the people for the people? Will we continue to support a system that treats us like serfs whose favour can be easily curried with free goat and rum? Will we perpetuate a system that allows monarchs to rule in turn for the benefit of self and connected barons while We the People suck salt through wooden spoons?

How will we EVER win the right to reparations from former slave masters if, to do so, we must petition those slave masters and their court? If, by some miracle, reparations are offered, agreed or ordered will they be paid to We the People or to our puffed-up monarchs in representatives’ clothing to distribute as they please? How will we ever obtain justice for brutality wrought upon our ancestors except we fight for it against the oppressor rather than beg him for largesse?

We need to look in the national mirror and make a change. It’s pointless to be satisfied with changing our Monarchs’ T-shirt colour. We need fundamental change. We need power to be transferred from them to us. We want accountability. We want good governance. We want guaranteed freedom of the press from oppressive defamation laws over-protecting public officials and freedom from a farcical “Access to Information” regime that forces media to beg for transparency. To achieve these democratic necessities, we need radical constitutional reform.

Don’t allow political monarchs to bamboozle you into believing a pig with lipstick isn’t a pig.

Peace and Love.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com