Shalman Scott, Contributor 
WINSTON SILL / FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
Dr. Lloyd Barnett, answering questions at The Independent Jamaican Council For Human Rights, the Jamaican Bar Association and Jamaicans For Justice public forum on 'The Privy Council's Decision In The Caribbean Court Of Justice Case', held at Holy Cross Church Hall, Half-Way Tree on Tuesday February 8, 2005.
THE RECENT ruling by the British Privy Council regarding Jamaica's participation in the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is being hailed in sections of the population as a victory.
Some say it is a victory for governance, others say it is a victory for an underlining a legal principle while still others say it is a victory for democracy. The Privy Council decision is described by the press variously as a setback for the ruling People's National Party (PNP) government, a difficulty and also as a blow.
But during my short life time I have seen so many wrecked marriages and relationships after one side or party has scored a decisive victory on some point or principle. This observation is my point of departure as I seek to weigh in on this debate on our country's involvement with the CCJ.
For it seems to me that correctness of the demand for appropriate procedures which can withstand the vagaries of political flip flops and
opportunistic behaviour as it relates to an important institutions such as the CCJ, is about to so damage the possibility of its establishment and even that of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) that is, if we are not careful about our seeming preoccupation as usual, with
winning sectional victories among ourselves without paying
attention to the bigger picture
of poverty enhancement or
eradication.
CONTACTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
The CSME provides Jamaicans with a market of not 2.7 million but six million persons with which to do business. These six million people engage in an economic union through CARICOM which provides a corridor through which we can enter trade agreements with other regional and hemispheric blocks. And by so doing, broaden economic contacts and opportunities to the benefit of ourselves and other sovereign people within the region. Within this context, a regional machinery for the adjudication of trade dispute becomes critical to the whole process of integration.
The leadership of the Caribbean, in recognition of the broader issues of completing the process of political independence, have sort to incorporate a multiplicity of needs and concerns into a single response which is to set up a regional appellate court which can comprehensively deal with the whole gamut of interactions within and without CARICOM. This of course is good planning, backed by a vision of where we are suppose to be heading as former colonial independence.
Obviously, there are justifiable concerns about Jamaica's role in the CSME as it relates to a wide range of issues such as the quality of our labour market, the parity of our currency with other states within the union and legal and constitutional considerations. But, are we to sit and wait until all these issues are settled before we join the march of the world towards supposedly economic progress?
Certainly if we stand still as a nation while everything else around us is moving, then we will most certainly be left behind.
