Stop the dilly-dallying, Minister Chuck!

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Constitutional Affairs Minister Delroy Chuck reported in May 10 Sunday Gleaner as contending that “what the Opposition leader wants” is for the Government to “bow to his demands that the CCJ should be a part of the initial process” of constitutional reform. 

That, sadly, is evidence of the depressingly shallow, puerile approach taken by the administration to the obligatory mission for all Jamaica’s citizens to enjoy unhindered access to their court of last resort. 

The minister sees the issue through the partisan lens of a struggle between positions taken by the Opposition and those adopted by the Government, and who will “bow”. 

Surely, the key governance question that ought to exercise his mind and those of his colleague leaders is: Between the pursuit of republican status for Jamaica and seeking after unimpeded access for all Jamaicans to their courts of law, which one brings benefit to, uplifts, and serves the best interests of, the people, our employers? 

Unsurprisingly, the orthodoxy across the entire Commonwealth through all the years has been that the question has been answered by the delinking from the Privy Council taking place either before or, certainly, no later than moving away from the monarchy. The people’s interests are not relegated to lesser positioning. 

Minister Chuck’s thinking on these matters has clearly gone awry. Startlingly, he posits that after “putting in place the republic”, we could “start discussing what the final court will be. It could well be the CCJ”! 

Start discussing? So, what has been taking place on the subject through the years, and with consensus reigning for decades after having been reached in 1970 under the Hugh Shearer-led government?

Moreover, if not the CCJ, then what? A local final appellate court when the courthouses across the island have become museum-like arrangements? 

Further, what mechanism will Minister Chuck and the Government find to insulate their proposed local final court from political and other influence within Jamaica’s confining geographical space, a visionary design having been developed for that purpose in the case of the regional final court? 

Wonder whether it really has settled in Minister Delroy Chuck’s mind, and fully registered, that an overwhelming majority of citizens have been unjustly denied unimpeded access to justice in their highest court for generations, since Emancipation.

The people’s business comes first. It is time to act!

A.J. NICHOLSON