By Clive Simpson, Freelance WriterNEARLY 27 years after enactment of the Status of Children Act, Jamaican children born out of wedlock are still "bastards" under the law.
The long held belief that "no bastard no deh again" was shattered Friday night by Senior Resident Magistrate for St. James Glen Brown.
"Parliament forgot when they brought in that Act in 1976 the Status of Children Act to take away the Affiliation Act," said the RM, speaking in Montego Bay.
His revelation came as he delivered the keynote address at a fund-raising dinner at the El Greco Resort commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Home of Charlotte's Children at First Street in Albion, Montego Bay.
NOT EQUAL
This means that "everyone lawful" as declared in the popular party song heard during election campaigns since the 1970s are really not equal under the law.
"When I'm in court and two sets of children are brought, one by a married couple and one by an unmarried mother, I have to determine which law I am going to use because there are two laws, one for the married woman and one for the unmarried woman. And that in itself shows that the bastardy still exists," he said.
That's not all, according to Mr. Brown.
"If a woman who is married has a child out of wedlock and brings an action to get the father to maintain (the child) and she is now married, the court is going to say look to your husband and don't look to the father. While on the other hand, if she has been divorced and remarried, the first husband who is the father will still have to support his child."
THE LAW
Against that background, Mr. Brown said, "as far as I am concerned the law remains an ass, but I have to ride it."
Speaking of the need to care fore children, he bemoaned the fact that "some of us as judges had to deal with these juveniles in court; not that they committed any crime but that their parents had let them and then we on behalf of the State had to deal with them."
He noted that while children need love, more than love was needed to make them grow into responsible adults. Judges, he said, "have a day in each parish they call Affiliation Day or Baby Maintenance Day and on that given day you have fathers and mothers coming before the judge, and the mother is always pleading to the judge to get money to maintain the children, and most fathers will say to the judge, 'I can't afford to pay so much money because I have five more to deal with.'"
Mr. Brown expressed concern that "there are women in the society who are forced to provide the love and all the financial assistance alone. And on the other hand we have these careless fathers, worthless fathers who will prefer to spend on other things than to provide money for their children. And then when the children pass the GSAT and when they pass their final exam you hear how they're telling everybody how the child bright and what they did."
ROLES
Making reference to murder convict Lee Malvo, Mr. Brown pointed to the onslaught against his mother while ignoring the role played by his Jamaican father and the American who moulded him into being a criminal. He argued that she made a mistake into thinking everything in the States was milk and honey but opined that "she tried (and) she failed."
Taking into consideration the defence's case that the absence of the father and the beating by the mother as Malvo's reason for looking for a father figure, and ended up being brainwashed, Mr. Brown questioned "how many other Malvos are out there on the streets of Jamaica today?"
Mr. Brown declared, "What is happening in Jamaica, is that we must force our men to be good fathers, not just be sperm donors. We must insist."
He said he blamed the women for the ills. Citing some reasons, Mr. Brown pointed to the women who stand outside the prison at Tower Street in Kingston "looking for loved ones inside, no matter what they do. If they rape another woman you see them down the courthouse giving support; if they must pay money to the other lady to support the child, they're going to insist that she mustn't get no money."
In the new paradigm in which women are more educated and have a greater control of power, Mr. Brown said they needed to support "the token few" men who can still be looked upon as leaders. He maintained that the women should "force us not only to say that we love but to show love."
