Justice Writes - History has repeated itself

EVEN A casual reading of Jamaican history will indicate that the legal system of slave and post-slave colonial society was primarily designed to secure first, the flow of surplus to Mother England, and second, the safety of the planters, overseers and colonial bureaucrats. This was by no means unique to Jamaica, as C. L. R. James has cogently argued in the Black Jacobins.

Post-slavery Jamaican society was rigidly segmented and one's rights depended on race, colour, social status and class. At the bottom of the social structure were the black tradesmen, small farmers and wage earners. Black professionals had a higher social status but were generally ranked below the brown skin mulattos.

Each group was conscious of its position in the social hierarchy and of the rights that it enjoyed in this position. Social equilibrium and reproduction of an oppressive social system required the differentiation of rights, backed by law, to keep the members of each group in their place. The Jamaican experience of authority, was therefore, one where its exercise was primarily to support inequality and oppression.

Consequently, the idea that a taxpayer was a citizen, entitled to the same rights as members of the establishment, could not be countenanced. Indeed, this was equivalent to subversive thinking, and its advocacy, equated to sedition. If the advocacy of equal rights was corrosive to the "public interest", this could warrant arbitrary restriction of movement, and if necessary, detention.

Constitutional rights

The Jamaican Constitution ­ and indeed, the present day exercise of authority in Jamaica - is the social product of this history. A history that recognises a Jamaican "nobility", entitled to rights that ordinary citizens do not share. Indeed, as was recently demonstrated, even the non-citizen tourist has rights that ordinary Jamaican citizens do not have, certainly rights that neither thirty-two Montego Bay Street People nor Agana Barrett have.

Could it be that the framers of our constitution who were to take over the mantle of state power from the English, thought it necessary to adopt similar arbitrary powers as the colonialists? In order keep the poor blacks like Paul Bogle, and their sympathisers like William Gordon in their place did they feel this arbitrary power was essential? At this juncture in our history where social equity, peace and prosperity have eluded us, it is time to examine the true weaknesses of our constitution. Has this rotten core social philosophy facilitated the emergence of a predatory political system, that allows rival clans to exploit these provisions to their own advantage and the country's detriment?

We cannot build a peaceful, co-operative society of shared interests, on the basis of an oppressive social philosophy that claims some citizens have rights while others do not. Will the skilled workers needed for an efficient, knowledge-based economy, want to live in a society where some non-judicial authority, can arbitrarily decide who has what rights, when and for how long?

Can a business establishment increasingly exposed to global competition and international standards of accountability, be comfortable with, and become internationally competitive, under this state of social volatility and such disincentive for worker productivity and social advancement?

To proceed with meaningful constitutional reform we need to recognise that the power paradigm that sustained the archaic, rights distribution model of the late nineteenth century can no longer hold because it poses a constraint to development. We can no longer proceed on the basis of discriminatory access to and application of rights.

We need to anoint the Law as king and dethrone "vested interests". We can begin by adopting into law the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, beginning with the principle that all humans are free persons; all life has equal value; rights are intrinsic and can only be recognised, not conferred. From these bases, we assert that: all Jamaican citizens are equal and vested with identical intrinsic rights. Meaningful constitutional reform can only proceed from this fundamental principle.

You may write Jamaicans For Justice at ja.for.justice@cwjamaica.com or visit its Web site at http://www.jamaicans for justice.org.

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