I prefer the devil I know
Dear Editor,
When the idea was bounced around to remove the King of Great Britain as the head of State of Jamaica and turn the country into a republic I was on board at first, as I would like nothing more than to be able to truly celebrate Independence Day for what it ought to be, political and economic independence from our former colonial masters.
Now, looking at how the constitutional reform process has been carried out and remembering the actions of the incumbent Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government and previous actions of People’s National Party governments, I believe that if a referendum were to be called, I would vote for King and country instead of a Jamaican president.
Judging by the Constitutional Reform Committee’s process, and given the gravity of a constitutional reform, I don’t trust the Government to make true and meaningful changes. It claims to want consensus about a major process that would affect 2.73 million Jamaicans, but from whom would it be getting consensus? Its members and their preselected representatives from various interest groups in closed-door meetings and then come to tell the public what they intend to do in a once-in-a-blue moon town hall session that is as ceremonial as the governor general and future president and call that “public engagement”?
What is the sense of replacing a ceremonial King with a ceremonial president with the same 63 representatives and a near-autocratic prime minister who isn’t even chosen by the citizens but by whichever party wins the election? In fact, why is a ceremonial president proposed and not an executive one? What anti-corruption measures and impeachment proceedings will be discussed for the Jamaican republic?
As much as I may not like having a governor general and having to still pay fealty to a King across the Atlantic Ocean, I prefer the devil I know over the one I don’t.
I may dislike the current state of affairs, but I don’t trust a political party that has a recent history of what the courts have deemed unconstitutional policies; I don’t trust political parties that are responsible for the turmoil of the 70s and 80s; and I don’t trust political parties that have long rap sheets of corruption scandals to reform the constitution so that Jamaica doesn’t morph into a banana republic with either a corrupt oligarchy or a full on dictatorship as its Government.
Marcus White
whitemarc918@gmail.com
