EDITORIAL - Reform the Senate

Arthur Williams, or whoever else is hoping to dilute Andrew Holness' mandate as leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), may well prevail in the courts, stalling Mr Holness' move to enforce the 'resignation' of senators he caused to be appointed, but who can no longer abide his leadership.

In this respect, this newspaper makes no comment on Mr Williams' application for an injunction to prevent Mr Holness from proposing replacements, or on the legal merits of the argument on which he rests his claim.

However, we believe that there are moral, political and practical management issues raised in this matter which are worthy of debate, but which has largely been drowned by purveyors of a narrow analysis and those who would punish Mr Holness for his success.

Mr Holness was challenged for the leadership of the JLP by Audley Shaw, among whose supporters was Christopher Tufton, who, like Mr Williams, was a senator.

In a campaign of bruising rhetoric, among the harshest was Dr Tufton's characterisation of Mr Holness as an insecure man, frightened of "bright" people.

In the end, Mr Holness won. He signalled he would welcome the resignations of senators he appointed. Messrs Williams and Tufton demurred.

The Jamaican Constitution gives no specific power to either the prime minister or the leader of the Opposition to revoke their Senate appointments. So, Mr Holness reprised signed, but undated letters of resignation that his Senate appointees had agreed to.

observations

Mr Williams argues that those letters were to be used only in the event that a senator departed from the JLP's policy on the Caribbean Court of Justice. On the legal efficacy of pre-signed letters in general, and these, specifically, we reserve comment.

But we offer a number of observations.

The absence of a specific right of political leaders to revoke Senate appointments notwithstanding, all of a party's appointees to the Upper House have a moral obligation to offer their resignations once a new leader emerges or has prevailed in a challenge. That burden rested more heavily on someone like Dr Tufton, who actively opposed Mr Holness. The leader must be allowed space within which to structure the party's priorities with the assurance of support and trust of people in sensitive positions.

Further, by signing the undated resignation letters, the JLP senators, it seems to us, understood and embraced a broad principle: Political parties are not constrained to a single issue, but range over a broad spectrum of matters.

Locating the Senate as a sort of distant, deliberative forum, the primary task of whose members is as bulwarks against the vulgarians of the House, needs attention. Two members of the Cabinet must be appointed from the Senate, but as many as four can be.

In the Westminster system of collective responsibility, ministers carry Cabinet policy.

If a prime minister, in the circumstance, were to appoint, say, four technocrats to the Senate, to undertake ministerial assignments, the PM would have no recourse if, at the completion of their assignments, those appointees declined to vacate their seats. That is unlikely to have been the intent of the framers of the Constitution.

We believe that it is time that Jamaica revisit the idea of independent senators, in addition to those appointed by the prime minister and leader of the Opposition.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.