EDITORIAL - The defeat of principle

WE NEED not repeat the little respect with regard to Mrs Sharon Hay-Webster's handling of the issue of legitimacy to sit in the Jamaican Parliament, especially the stealth with which she rescinded the move to renounce her American citizenship that would have placed the matter beyond doubt.

What, however, has now commanded our attention is the curious decision by the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to warmly welcome Mrs Hay-Webster into its ranks as the sitting MP for South Central St Catherine and its likely candidate for the new Eastern St Catherine constituency whenever a general election is called. Having sat as an independent member of the House since June, she crossed the floor on Tuesday.

The action smacks of expediency.

Prior to June, Mrs Hay-Webster was a member of the People's National Party (PNP), on whose ticket she first entered the House in 1997. But she is one of the MPs who, after the 2007 general election, were caught in the constitutional maelstrom over eligibility for membership of the legislature.

Allegiance to a foreign state

Section 40 of the Constitution precludes persons who, other than in the case of Commonwealth countries, are 'by virtue of their own act' under allegiance to a foreign state.

Five members of the JLP were, over time, forced to resign their seats and face by-elections because of this clause. They all returned to the House.

Mrs Hay-Webster is an American citizen - one of the two members who entered Parliament under the auspices of the PNP, who faced scrutiny. But she has argued that her situation is different.

Unlike most of the others who gain foreign citizenship by naturalisation or being registered by their parents at birth, Mrs Hay-Webster was born in the United States, but came to Jamaica as a baby. This is not by her own act, her argument goes.

What is unclear is whether, like the JLP's Mr Daryl Vaz, who was ruled ineligible until he renounced his American citizenship, if, since reaching majority age, Mrs Hay-Webster applied for and obtained an American passport. The courts held that against Mr Vaz.

Renunciation quietly withdrawn

Having initially resisted, Mrs Hay-Webster publicly declared her intention to renounce her American citizenship. She actually filed the relevant documents with the US Embassy. It was, however, later revealed in leaked embassy cables that she quietly withdrew her renunciation.

The JLP ridiculed Mrs Hay-Webster's behaviour and brought a court case to have her thrown out of Parliament. In so far as the public knows, the JLP is still pursuing the case which Mrs Hay-Webster was determined to fight. Indeed, when her former party attempted to have her follow the JLP members into resignation, Mrs Hay-Webster left the PNP.

Unless the JLP withdraws its court case and declares itself in error, we can only assume that it still holds Mrs Hay-Webster to be in breach of the Jamaican Constitution, in which event she has no right on its side of the aisle and among its members.

Her presence there raises a serious moral question for the new prime minister and the party's putative leader, Mr Andrew Holness, who has promised a new approach to politics.

While we understand Mr Holness' wish to widen his thin majority in the current Parliament and widen it futher in the next, he should not allow expediency to trample principle.