Holness pushes back at Opposition on constitutional reform report

Prime Minister Andrew Holness says he is disappointed, but not surprised at the Opposition People's National Party's (PNP) refusal to sign off on the constitutional reform report. 

The report from the Constitutional Reform Committee (CRC) is being reviewed by Cabinet, but Opposition Leader Mark Golding warned that it would not get consensus in Parliament where entrenched provisions require the votes of Opposition members.

Golding had instructed Opposition members of the committee not to sign the document after concerns were raised about several matters, fundamental among them a decision on the country's final court.

The Opposition leader has been adamant that there would be no compromise on making the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Jamaica's apex court.

Further, he said the reform process should have had a single phase, insisting that Jamaica's severance from the British monarchy must be twinned with a departure from the United Kingdom-based Privy Council as its final court.

However, Holness, who has for the first time lent his voice to the constitutional reform process discourse, said he had deliberately refrained from making any comments lest it be “construed politically and used as an excuse to derail the process.” 

But speaking to journalists at this morning's post-Cabinet press briefing, Holness sought to “add context” to the public conversation on the issue. 

He argued that from the outset the Opposition had objected to the formation of a new CRC, stating that the reform process should continue on the work of the previous parliamentary committee.

He stated that the PNP had also declined to name members to the CRC and only did so after Vale Royal talks in February.  

“And we came to an understanding that the process would be a phased process that we would move on the matters on which we agree, which would be Jamaica becoming a republic. The other matters which were a little more complex and which consensus ought to be fully realise that would come in the second phase of the process,” he said. 

Stating that he had “a reasonable expectation” that the review process was proceeding in “good faith”, after the talks, Holness suggested that the Opposition was politicising the process. 

“I am not surprised that they would have tried to find every way out of seeing this process through its rightful conclusion,” he said. 

“I speak to you today as Prime Minister of the country, not as leader of a political party seeking power but as someone who is genuinely interested in the advance of our country, and so I want to assure Jamaicans that the process continues,” stated. 

Holness did not state the Government's position on the removal of the Privy Council as the country's final court of appeal, despite a commitment from Marlene Malahoo Forte, Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs and co-chair of the CRC, in October last year that Holness would address the issue in “short order”. 

“Many have bought into the narrative that the government has been unclear about it, the government has not been unclear about it. The government has said that as part of the move to make Jamaica a republic, we will decide on a final court,” Malahoo Forte said at the post-Cabinet press briefing. 

“As we look on the issue of a final court we must also look at the issue of justice, the kind of justice, the philosophy of the court having had the experience that we have; what it is that will be in the best interest of Jamaicans, to use the old system or resort to a different system,” she stated. 

The Prime Minister, in the meantime, lauded the consultative efforts of the CRC, describing them as “quite extensive”. 

“I would like to say to Jamaicans that the efforts that the Government has made is not in vain, that we will continue to pursue consensus because the truth is you cannot disturb the constitutional and governance architecture of the country without consensus, and consensus takes time and it takes effort,” he said.

- Sashana Small

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