As the discussions about our becoming a republic proceed apace in the Parliament, all Jamaica should be reflecting on the far-reaching decisions we are about to make to ensure that what we end up with is what we truly want.

The longer one is around the clearer it is becoming that raw sentiment and unbridled emotionalism will not get one anywhere soon.

Indeed, it is a lesson that Mr Mark Golding, the Opposition leader, needs to learn, aspiring as he does to lead this great nation.

Mr Golding knows that becoming a republic and not having the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as our final appeal court are not mutually exclusive. We know this because he is aware that our sister island, Trinidad and Tobago, is a glaring example where this prevails, and we know of no related problems.

That the Opposition leader is willing to take the position that his People’s National Party (PNP) will not go forward with a republic unless Jamaica accedes to the appellate jurisdiction of the regional court is curious and short-sighted, to say the least.

Mr Golding offers no compelling logic or overriding rationale for tying the two things together. But then, maybe, there is for him, even if he has not said out loud the difficult part about such an extreme and unhelpful position.

It may be necessary to look again at his statement:

“We want the CCJ as another powerful and strong Caribbean institution designed and built for the Caribbean people. That only needs a two-thirds majority of both houses and no referendum for that. That legislation has already been developed, because we brought it to Parliament, but at that time the JLP did not see it fit to support it,” he told journalists on Sunday in Westmoreland.

And there is the rub, to borrow from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Not only is Mr Golding being sentimental about a “Caribbean institution designed and built for the Caribbean people”, but he is playing tit for tat over the CCJ, because “the JLP did not see it fit to support it” — meaning, when the PNP started the legislative process several decades ago.

We in this space have opposed the idea of a CCJ on the basis that, until we have a justice system in which our people can have faith and not feel that they have to take justice in their own hands, we are not ready to dispense with a credible institution such as the Privy Council.

Moreover, we are aware that as we seek to attract major investors to move our country forward we will not succeed in getting those that matter if they do not feel confident that, should it be warranted, they can get justice in a dispute with local entities — private or public.

It is not sentiment that we need in a court, but rather efficiency, reason, fairness, and merit based on morals which transcend petty differences, where powerful individuals can’t influence the justice system for themselves or connected parties.

Jamaicans know why, in almost three decades of the CCJ, only four Caricom members — namely Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and Guyana — have signed onto its final court. They have the same fear we do.

And perish the thought that we believe regional judges are inferior, because we trust them to interpret the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs the regional bloc, which is critical to holding together the Caribbean Single Market and Economy.