KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC—Former Prime Minister PJ Patterson has expressed concern about several proposals in the report of the Constitutional Reform Committee (CRC) now before the House of Representatives.
On Wednesday, Jamaica’s longest-serving prime minister, the Caribbean statesman, spoke during a forum dubbed ‘A Reasoning With The Most Hon PJ Patterson about the Jamaican Constitution.’ The Faculty of Law of The University of the West Indies, Mona campus hosted the forum.
The CRC has recommended that the prospective president be selected through a two-stage process of nomination and confirmation. The committee states that to reach a consensus, the leader of the main Opposition, the People’s National Party (PNP), should be consulted.
It also said confirmation should be done by the Parliament, in a joint sitting of both Houses, where members of each house vote separately by secret ballot, with the vote to confirm the nominee an affirmative vote by a two-thirds majority of each House.
However, according to Patterson, this method is “absolutely unacceptable.”
He added that the process would “destroy the purpose and the intent and legitimacy of a head of State because what it is saying is, nominated by the prime minister after consultation with the leader of the Opposition, and if you can’t get two-thirds, it speaks about taking into account political realities in our democratic system of Government. It also provides a solution by applying the majority rule to a problem where gridlock exists.”
“You cannot afford gridlock in this. Several things can be done. In Barbados, it is done by the prime minister and the opposition leader. If you put that position in, you would not only get two-thirds, but you would also get unanimity. Suppose you don’t put that in, and the first nomination fails to get the two-thirds. In that case, you must treat it like a papal consistory, that is to say, lock them up and don’t let them out until you have got a nomination. Then, you can let the smoke out of the chimney. We have elected a new head of State,” said Patterson.
The former Prime Minister also expressed reservations about the report’s proposals to extend Senate membership.
“Let me say very clearly, I am not opposed to careful consideration as to whether you should get Senate representatives other than those from the political parties. I am saying that the categories would have to be specifically defined,” he said.
“They would have to provide for the people within that category to make that selection and not vest it in the head of State because if you vest it in the head of State, you are having then interference by the head of State in the legislative process and that you cannot afford. I am saying if you are going that route, consider very carefully whether the representatives of the Diaspora should not have some role or some voice”.
Patterson, who is also an attorney, stated that he was “not proposing it as a settled matter” and that including members of the Diaspora needs further consideration.
“If you are going for putting in the Church, the private sector, the unions, the NGOs [non-governmental organizations], there is a significant group called the Diaspora, so you would have to look at whether or not you are going to include them and if so, how; because the oath of allegiance those citizens are required to take, make it inconsistent for them to be servicing simultaneously in the Jamaican Parliament.”
“Please also note that there are several Jamaicans who have lived, particularly in the United States for years, have children and grandchildren, who to this day operate on green cards because they refuse to take an oath of allegiance which will in any way seem to renounce their Jamaican citizenry. So, this matter needs cautious further consideration,” Patterson said.
The former prime minister was blunt about the proposal to extend the life of the Parliament under special circumstances for up to two years.
“I am not for that if you can have a general election during a global pandemic. There shouldn’t be an exemption that could permit the life of the legislature and deny the people’s right to choose for two years in those circumstances. I would also have hoped that having abandoned the proposals to include impeachment procedures against parliamentarians. The CRC would have proposed the entrenchment of the Integrity Commission. Where do we go from here?”
In the meantime, as far as calls for the report be laid on the table of the House for public ventilation, Patterson said, “I would strongly suggest…that the report should first of all be debated in Parliament, in both Houses. It should be referred to a joint select committee to permit submissions, and then I think there has to be what I call meaningful Vale Royal Talks, a come to Jamaica moment. I believe the reformed constitution must seek to capture popular will, symbolize national values, and inspire us to become a great people where our destiny beckons,” said Patterson.
In April 2023, Prime Minister Andrew Holness named the CRC members Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte and Ambassador Rocky Meade co-chair.
The body was required, among other things, to assess how the passage of time has impacted the recommendations of the 1995 Joint Select Committee on the Constitutional and Electoral Reform Report. The work was done in three phases.
The recommendations for the first phase were recently submitted to and approved by the Cabinet before being tabled in the Lower House.
But Opposition Leader Mark Golding has charged that the recommendations will, among other things, allow the Government of the day to use its majority in Parliament to install a president without the Opposition’s consensus.
Golding has also warned that the Opposition will not accept the first phase unless it includes ditching the Privy Council for the Caribbean Court of Justice as the country’s final court of appeal.
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