Golding urged to renounce

Opposition Leader Mark Golding is facing calls to renounce his British citizenship as a demonstration of his “firm commitment” to Jamaica and to avoid any conflict of interest if he were to become prime minister.

After a week of criticisms from members of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) for possessing dual citizenship, Golding on Sunday acknowledged to The Gleaner that he is a British citizen, and insisted that there were no legal grounds to require him to relinquish his status.

Section 39 (a) of the Constitution outlines that “ … any person who at the date of his appointment or nomination for election, can serve in Parliament as long as he or she is a Commonwealth citizen of the age of 21 years and upwards”.

The (b) clause of that section further states that an individual who “has been ordinarily resident in Jamaica for the immediate preceding 12 months, shall be qualified to be appointed as a senator or elected as a member of the House of Representatives and no other person shall be so qualified”.

Moral responsibility

But while agreeing with Golding that it is not illegal for him to have British citizenship and serve in the Jamaican Parliament, political commentator Germaine Barrett yesterday argued that the Opposition leader has a moral responsibility to relinquish his status as a United Kingdom (UK) citizen.

“I think it would be best for him to showcase firm commitment to the Jamaican nation state as a (potential) prime minister by renouncing his British citizenship,” Barrett told The Gleaner.

He further stated that Golding’s British citizenship “lends fodder to the argument that he has conflicting interests” in the event that he is elected to lead the country.

“It might be the case that Jamaica’s foreign policy is such that there are decisions to be made at a governmental level that would see Jamaica diverting from the interest of the UK. At the point at which he holds dual citizenship, you cannot be absolutely sure where his interest will lie and how he would act,” he said.

Currently, a citizen of a Commonwealth country, 18 years or older who does not require permission to enter or remain in the UK, or has indefinite permission to remain in the UK, can stand as a candidate in a UK parliamentary general election.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, speaking on CVM morning show, Sunrise, yesterday labelled as “untenable and incurable” the idea that the leader of the country should hold citizenship of any other country.

Last week, Golding pressed for constitutional amendments to allow Jamaicans with dual citizenship to run for office, to include Jamaicans who hold citizenship for non-Commonwealth countries.

He said there are Jamaicans domiciled overseas who may want to return to the island and contribute who should not be excluded from the eligibility to serve.

In responding to Holness’ comments yesterday, Golding argued that the prime minister’s position would violate the existing Constitution which allows dual citizens of Commonwealth countries to sit in the Jamaican Parliament after a period of residency in the island.

However, Barrett argued that the Constitution should be amended to ensure that only people with sole allegiance to Jamaica can serve as the nation’s prime minister.

Political scientist Dr Paul Ashley is of a similar view.

“I am not comfortable with a prime minister being of dual nationality, whether it be Commonwealth or non-Commonwealth,” he told The Gleaner.

Ashley further contended that no parliamentarian should possess dual citizenship.

“They ( members of parliament) can assume whatever citizenship they want before, whatever they have after, but they must be [only] Jamaican once they are in the House,” he said. “We need to make sure that the new Constitution has that in law.”

Noting that the People’s National Party’s current position on the issue “smacks of hypocrisy”, he pointed to 17 years ago when the party, as Opposition, lobbied to have several JLP members of parliament who possessed dual citizenship removed from the House.

Moreover, he stated that any reluctance on Golding’s part to give up his British citizenship will negatively impact his campaign to become the country’s next prime minister.

However, Barrett disagrees, telling The Gleaner that although the JLP may try to make an issue out of the Opposition leader’s dual citizenship, it will not gain much momentum, and in fact has the potential to backfire.

“The Opposition is responding, they are basically saying that… the Jamaica Labour Party is engaging in colourism and a sort of classism and making a big issue out of something that isn’t an issue, that Mark Golding has never demonstrated disloyalty to Jamaica, and so it is an act of political desperation. That’s how the narrative I think will be,” he said.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com