Robert Buddan
WHEN THE Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) called for bipartisan talks with the government consequent on the ruling of the Privy Council, I feared that it might use the talks to bargain for a by-election to get Bruce Golding a seat in Parliament. But it seemed too opportunistic for the new leadership of the party to use larger constitutional and regional issues for its own local political cause.
HOLDING REGION TO RANSOM
Now, Delroy Chuck has said this is precisely what it intends to do. Mr. Chuck says the JLP will not come to an agreement with the government on the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) until and unless a by-election is called to allow Mr. Golding to take a seat in Parliament.
This was announced in the same week that CARICOM was
scheduled to meet in Suriname to discuss issues that confirm its
importance to the development of its members. It was an embarrassing time for the JLP to introduce this political bargaining position, crude in its own right for placing the politics of the JLP ahead of national and regional issues.
Even worse, the Privy Council's decision forced postponement of the agreement to give effect to the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). The JLP has made this into an opportunity to hold the entire region to ransom in order to bargain for a seat for Mr. Golding. Even so, the CSME could be launched to give the CCJ original jurisdiction only. However, Mr. Chuck says that there will be no agreement with the government on the CCJ until a by-election is called.
Mr. Chuck also wants to break up the constitutional issues of capital punishment, republican status, the Charter of Rights and the CCJ into separate ones. This will no doubt give the JLP the opportunity to
bargain bit by bit for all it can get and to stretch out joining the CSME indefinitely. The whole process of regionalism and constitutional reform now rests on the self-interested
politics of the JLP.
Bipartisan politics should not be about holding the region hostage. The JLP's new priority a seat for Mr. Golding raises questions about its true commitment to the CSME and the CCJ, one that has only evolved by twists and turns anyway. Peter Phillips is justifiably confused by its new position because it is not clear who speaks for the JLP and what it is saying.
WHO SPEAKS FOR THE JLP?
Who really speaks for the JLP?
Mr. Golding is the incoming party leader, Dr. Baugh is the leader of the Opposition, Mr. Chuck is the spokesman on justice, and Mr. Seaga still has loyalists in the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament through whom he might speak. The most vocal have been Mr. Chuck and Mr. Golding.
In May 2003, Mr.Chuck declared, "We, on this side, are in agreement with economic integration and the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), so we see the CCJ as a proper body for a regional trade court, but this court must be limited to commercial and trade disputes and must not have appellate jurisdiction." Around that time, Mr. Golding told the Senate that the JLP would vote for the CCJ if a referendum was allowed. He said to the government side: "Give us the undertaking that if we vote with you, you will do a referendum. I would never want to give you the impression that we are holding back. I think I can speak for the entire JLP."
A. J. Nicholson took this to mean that the only issue separating the two sides was the referendum and that was for the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition to meet and discuss. Mr. Patterson has now said that he has extended invitations on several occasions to the JLP to meet with him and had not received a response up to the end of last week.
In February 2005, just after the Privy Council's decision, Mr. Golding went a step beyond Chuck's position of 2003 to say that Jamaica should withdraw from the Privy Council and that the only thing to discuss was the process of establishing a final court to replace that body. He said: "We are prepared to enter into discussions with the government on an approach to the question of a final court to replace the Privy Council" (Daily Observer, February 8, 2005).
Dr. Baugh, in the meantime, is the constitutional leader of the Opposition, and the one who has been speaking with the prime
minister on a bipartisan agreement to settle their differences. Peter Phillips, leader of government business in the House, had to ask the JLP only this week to clarify who is speaking for the party.
He wrote to Dr. Baugh asking whether an understanding between himself and the prime minister to proceed on discussions in good faith still stands. Dr. Phillips obviously wanted to know if Dr. Baugh's word was the word of the parliamentary opposition.
The government's position seems to be that if the CCJ is a national issue warranting a referendum, so are a number of others capital punishment, the Charter of Rights, and Republican status. All of these are about the rights of the people.
But Mr. Chuck wants to single out the CCJ, ignoring those other
fundamental issues of people's rights, and worse, he wants to introduce an entirely new and purely political condition that a by-election be held to facilitate Mr. Golding.
WHO DOES THE JLP SPEAK FOR?
Mr. Golding said the Privy Council's decision was a vindication of "the rights of the Jamaican
people." But if he speaks for the rights of the Jamaican people, he must acknowledge that those rights must be protected by full
constitutional reform. The CCJ cannot be separated from capital punishment, the Charter of Rights, and Republican status. Neither can those rights be separated from the rights and opportunities that CARICOM and the CSME provide to the Jamaican people. They offer Jamaicans greater freedom of
movement in the region, new principles of rights under the CARICOM Charter of Civil Society, and trade and commercial rights that only the CCJ can protect.
They provide greater opportunity for the farmers in the Jamaica Agricultural Society. They have formed the Caribbean Farmers and Agricultural Non-Governmental Network with farmers in the Caribbean to take advantage of the CSME.
They provide greater opportunities for workers who, through the early Caribbean Labour Congress, were a moving force for regionalism. They provide greater opportunities for companies involved in regional tourism, trade, and finance who are expanding their business and listing on the regional stock exchange. They provide greater opportunity for
students, intellectual workers, and sportspersons to study and work in the region.
The recent CARICOM meeting in Suriname also proves the importance of the CARICOM Commission, Assembly of Parliamentarians and CCJ. That meeting discussed a CARICOM passport, trade relations with the European Union, including preferential agreements on sugar and bananas, preparation for World Cup Cricket, 2007, regional fishing, communications, and energy policies, and collective measures against natural disasters. Each of these is of vital importance to the Jamaican people.
The JLP must make itself clear about who speaks for it and who it speaks for. It cannot reduce vital matters of the rights and opportunities of Jamaicans to a seat for Mr. Golding. It is inappropriate to raise it in conjunction with constitutional and CARICOM issues, and besides, to do so in the way the JLP has, is inconsistent with its stated support of the CSME and its conditional support of the CCJ.
Mr. Golding says he will speak more on the CCJ issue today. Probably we might hear who really speaks for the JLP and that the voice is a principled one that places the interest of the Jamaican people and the region ahead of narrow party opportunism.
Robert Buddan lectures in
the Department of Government, University of the West Indies, Mona. You can send your cments to robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm
or infocus@gleanerjm.com
