Garwin Davis, Assistant News EditorGOVERNMENT SENATOR Kern Spencer, not well-known for his oratorical skills, was making a wonderful contribution to the debate in the Senate two weeks ago regarding the proposed Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) when he whether inadvertently or not let slipped something which had been making the rounds in Government circles.
"A referendum for the CCJ is just one way of securing another general election through the back door, even though it is not constitutionally due until five years time," Senator Spencer said, to loud applause from his colleagues on the Government side. The Opposition senators remained silent some appeared stunned. In the end, not one of them stood to refute the remark.
And, as if taking a cue from their Senate colleagues, Govern-ment Parliamentarians, during the CCJ debate in the Lower House last week, continued the ribbing. "That issue was settled on October 16 last year," Labour Minister Horace Dalley reminded Opposition MP Abe Dabdoud who was busy saying "the people should decide whether the CCJ should replace the British-based Privy Council." Perennial ribber, Water and Housing Minister Donald Buchanan, also chipped in. "The people decided that long time ago," he chided... "is so soon you want them to do it again."
KNOCKOUT PUNCH
But is there merit to this argument? Is the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) only pressing for a referendum knowing the potential is there to embarrass the Government? Are they looking for "another general election through the back door" as Senator Spencer asserts? Certainly it cannot be lost on the JLP that the Government of the People's National Party (PNP) is as unpopular today than it has probably been at anytime in its history yes even more than during the 1999 gas riots. Knowing this, a referendum on the CCJ... on anything as a matter of fact...would suit the JLP just fine. For the first time, at least since last October's election, with the exchange rate spiralling out of control and the Government seemingly on the ropes and susceptible to a knockout punch it goes without saying that the Opposition indeed smells blood.
"I am sorry for those who think that by consulting with the people on such a fundamental issue as a change in their justice system would be nothing more than trying for another general election," said Dr. Ronald Robinson, President of Generation 2000 (G2K) a group of young professionals affiliated to the Opposition JLP. "The truth is that the Government has very little confidence in the Jamaican people to make that distinction between the two issues. I mean we are just coming out of a general election... it is still fresh in the people's minds ... they know who they voted for. The fact of the matter is you put before the people the issue of a third tier court and the changes to the third tier and they will understand."
He continued: "We in G2K believe in the ability of the Jamaican people to understand. We are very, very confident when we say go to the people for an indicative referendum so that you can have the pulse of the people on that matter that's all we are saying. I am sorry for those who would think otherwise."
But did the people by re-electing the PNP last year indeed voted to abolish the Privy Council as many Government spokespersons, including Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Senator A.J. Nicholson seem to be saying? And can you blame them for thinking this? The Prime Minister had made it clear prior to the general election that those who have been clamouring for a referendum should simply "FA-GET-IT!"
CAMPAIGN STRATEGY
On several occasions, Senator Nicholson had said that the implementation of the CCJ would be a part of the Government's campaign strategy and that the PNP would consider victory at the polls as a mandate from the people to abandon the Privy Council. The question now has to be whether the people had sufficiently made the link between the CCJ and reelecting the PNP. I don't think so.
I am firmly of the belief that many ordinary Jamaicans, up to their necks with the daily rigours of life, have not begun and would be hard-pressed to understand the issues surrounding the CCJ. I would even go as far as saying that not too many of them truly care, and this is not an indictment on the debates or the quality information available regarding the CCJ. For them, and regrettably so, it is not that important and I agree with the position taken by Government Senator Professor Trevor Munroe who, by the way, may have given the most thought-out and reasoned position on the CCJ of all the debaters, which even drew rare applause from Opposition Leader Edward Seaga.
"Victory of the PNP does not in my view mean endorsement of the CCJ," Professor Munroe said. "It does mean that the current situation is no longer on all fours with the 1959-61 referendum situation." What Professor Munroe appears to be saying is that it is foolhardy to suggest that the people went to the polls thinking that by reelecting the PNP they were simultaneously giving the go ahead for the CCJ. The argument is without merit and is maybe even a little disingenuous.
FACING THE BARREL OF A GUN
I am of the view that the Government, despite facing the barrel of a gun with this CCJ issue, should go ahead with a referendum. It might be an opportunity for the JLP to capitalise on the Government's vulnerability but so be it. To do otherwise would be playing right into the hands of the critics and to lose whatever limited political capital it claims to have left. Simply put, to use its thin majority in Parliament to "railroad the process" would be the equivalent of political suicide. As Opposition Senator Shirley Williams quite rightly said, "The Government is all alone out there on this one... it doesn't have a consensus anywhere."
And how does the Opposition Leader feels? "Their reasoning about wanting another general election through the back door is false reasoning," Mr. Seaga said. "This is not our concern and neither should it be theirs. This is a focused question a highly focused question. A general election is on a whole range of issues and as a consequence, a Government may or may not change as a result. A referendum does not provide for a change of government. It provides for an indication for the people on a particular issue. Nobody can and should try to offer that as the reason why we shouldn't have a referendum."
He continued: "People are so desperate that they will find all kind of reasons to not want to go to the people. Let the people speak; if it's all so good, let the people speak. Let the people be polled in a referendum on the type of justice they want. And about this thing about getting a mandate from last year's election did last year's election victory give them a mandate to have lied to the people. About the $8 billion that they spent wrongly in that budget year when they should have used it to address salaries and wages?"
POLITICAL SAVVY
The Opposition Leader has never been known to be anybody's fool and he knows an advantage when he sees one. The Government with all the political savvy it has demonstrated over the past 14 years now finds itself on the receiving end and is in serious trouble. It now finds itself in a 'damned if you do and damned if you don't' situation and has to be smarting from the fact that its chief nemesis the man it loves to hate, Eddie Seaga seems to be holding all the aces. My colleague Vernon Daley is partially right when he said in his column last week that the PNP is still bogeyed by the 1961 referendum where the party lost out on the question of staying with the West Indies Federation. If it was bogeyed then, it has to be certainly spooked now by the unfavourably possibilities.
Senator Spencer, whether through the front door or the back door, the people it would seem are looking for a reason...any reason to vent their displeasure. The Opposition Leader may well be right in his declaration that a lot of people are of the view that there will be another general election in less than three years at the rate we are going, one of his predictions may at long last be true.
Stay tuned.
