Dawn Ritch, Contributor
A STATE of lawlessness exists in the highest reaches of Government. As in much else besides the law was not a shackle in their declaration of a state of emergency. Fundamental rights and freedoms are now suspended. A state of emergency gives the Government extraordinary powers to take away constitutional rights. This is not a curfew, it is the most extreme of measures.
One was used in 1976 as a political tool to indefinitely detain, without charge or reason, members of the Jamaica Labour Party Opposition. Section 26 Subsection 4 of the Jamaican Constitution gives the definition of a State of Public Emergency. It reads that there are three bases for a state of emergency, (a) when a state of war exists (b) when the Governor-General issues a proclamation declaring that a State of Public Emergency exists and (c) when there is in force a resolution of each House supported by the votes of a majority of all the members of that House, declaring that democratic institutions in Jamaica are threatened by subversion.
EMERGENCY
At the time the Most Honourable declared one in his national broadcast, Hurricane Ivan was 100 miles away from Jamaica. The only emergency existing and continuing was themselves as a governing administration, and the chaos of their own minds.
The Constitution states explicitly that a proclamation by the G-G, that is pursuant to 26.4 (b) shall not be effective unless it is declared in the proclamation "that the Governor-General is satisfied" (a) that a public emergency has arisen as a result of the imminence of a state of war between Jamaica and a foreign state, or as a result of the occurrence of any earthquake, hurricane, flood, fire, pestilence, infectious disease, or other calamity whether similar to the foregoing or not (b) that action has been taken or IS immediately threatened by any person or body of persons of such a nature, and on so extensive a scale as to be likely to endanger the public safety, or to deprive the community or any substantive proportion of the community of supplies or services essential to life.
A most extraordinary situation has therefore developed in Jamaica. The Patterson administration either deliberately, or as a result of panic, ignored in the Constitution the use of the past tense in the word "arisen". Indeed the past tense is used throughout those sections which permit a government to declare a state of emergency. The difference between past and future was apparently a trivial legal matter of no consequence whatsoever. Clearly the law as well as the Constitut-ion of Jamaica is not a shackle to the Patterson Government. The Governor-General's declaration ought to contain a reason for the state of emergency, but I haven't seen it. The declaration may well have been gazetted. Kings House may well have released it. But up to the time of writing, no newspaper has yet re-printed it even as a public service. Perhaps they neglect to do so out of fear of embarrassing the Government internationally.
It is outrageous that a state of emergency most affects the citizens of the country, yet as citizens we are still in the dark as to its reason. One assumes it was Hurricane Ivan, who may in the P.M.'s mind have been elevated to being a person, or perhaps a body of persons. We can't know for sure until we've been told, and we are most certainly entitled to an immediate explanation. The official reason may have been the anticipation of potential widescale looting and deliberate destruction of property. But under the Constitution this is no reason at all, and no grounds on which to declare a state of emergency in anticipation.
LOW OPINION
Moreover, for the Government to expect that huge numbers of persons will decline into lawlessness after a hurricane, is to have a very low opinion of the Jamaican people themselves. It seems that like the Caymanians, the minute the Patterson administration looks at a Jamaican they see a bunch of thieves. As a Caymanian response, this is perhaps understandable. But in our Government, such an attitude towards its own citizens is beneath contempt. The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice A. J. Nicholson said he didn't know about the state of emergency. He was speaking with Tony Laing on POWER 106. It was the talk-show host who informed the Attorney-General that one had been declared. On matters of law the Attorney-General is required to advise the Government. Yet he freely admitted that he knew nothing about it. Perhaps there was no necessity to consult him when an "Anticipatory State of Emergency" is to be declared, as he can only advise on facts.
A state of emergency is not supposed to be a private arrangement between the Governor-General and the Prime Minister. The persons most affected don't know anything about it much less the details. A curfew and a police force allowed to do its job ought to have been quite sufficient to deal with the aftermath of a hurricane, including any attempts at looting. Then, of course, there is the efficient Jamaica Defence Force for good back-up. The declaration of a state of emergency was therefore completely unnecessary, and a gross over-reaction by a panicked Prime Minister.
The Constitution states that a state of emergency shall remain in force for one month, unless extended by the House of Representatives. Hopefully, before the end of that time the Patterson administration will take the trouble both to advise the nation in full on what this means, and why one was called. The Constitution is the law of the land. The Government in a fit of madness has thrown it away. It is time the citizens use it to shackle a Government clearly out of its mind, or out of control.
