How the senators vote on CCJ will echo across time
AHEAD of today’s start of the Senate debate on whether Jamaica should accept the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as our final court of appeal on criminal matters, Government Senator Mark Golding urged Opposition senators to “dig deep and do the right thing”.
We feel compelled to agree with Mr Golding, the minister of justice, but not for the reasons for which he made his one-sided, if impassioned plea, that is, to vote in favour of the Bills which cannot be passed without the support of at least two opposition senators.
The Opposition, which is maintaining that the matter be put to a referendum, has already voted against the three related Bills in the Lower House, but voting strictly along party lines, the Government side passed the Bills. The question is, why should they not expect the Opposition senators to vote similarly along party lines in the Upper House?
Senator Golding called on the Opposition senators to ensure that they do not “etch their names forever on the wrong side of history” as the legislature needed to fulfil “this most critical element of our national independence”. We would be more inclined to believe in his sincerity had he urged all senators, including Government colleagues, to vote their conscience when the time comes.
We have in this space been careful not to oppose the noble ideals of the CCJ, but we have taken sides with those Jamaicans who yearn for a deeper justice that our politicians in general have not shown a commitment to. We have seen nothing in the actions of Jamaican and Caribbean politicians to move us from our belief that the time for the CCJ is not yet come. We maintain that a decision on the CCJ should be made by the people who will most be affected by it and is too fundamental to our system of justice to be left to politicians alone.
Earlier this year, the Government waved the referendum carrot at the Opposition in exchange for its support of the three Bills which were originally tabled in the House on May 12, 2015. So if the Government is not fundamentally opposed to a referendum, why not just do it and forget the political gymnastics?
We firmly reject the specious argument that the people cannot be trusted to make a reasonable decision in a referendum because they would vote along party lines. If they have the good sense to elect the best government for the country, they should be trusted to have the good sense to reject or accept the CCJ.
It is easy to warm to the argument that the Privy Council is the last vestige of colonialism and that it is time that former colonies handle their own legal matters completely. But we must prove that we are ready to do so in a manner that inspires the highest level of trust from the people, and that is by demonstrating that our politicians have matured to the extent that they can allow the court to operate completely unfettered.
The Senate has come now to a fork in the road, a moment of history. Its decision will echo across time. And only the Opposition can stand in the breach, for the Government has made up its mind. They must do the right thing, not for politicians, but for Jamaicans.