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A.J. Nicholson | Vale Royal talks? Hurricane Melissa's milestone message
Whatever became of the officially-proposed pre-Hurricane Melissa expectant Vale Royal talks on constitutional reform? In a recent interchange with a senior parliamentarian on that subject-matter, he posed the following question: "Do you ever feel that the CCJ issue has become a one-man Crusade?" An immediate response did not come to mind since several persons address the issue from time to time, and the last published opinion poll showed near two-thirds in favour of Jamaicans transitioning to the regional final court.Further discussion led my answer to be based on an apprehension that from the parliamentarian's perspective, which I share, the deeply disturbing approach to the subject by an utterly deluded section of the authorities in this 21st century has developed into an unsettling chapter in Jamaica's painfully chequered history. The unvarnished truth about succeeding generations of the overwhelming majority of Jamaicans is that from the moment their forbears were dragged from West African shores up until this day, the foundational entitlement of access to justice in all courts of law has eluded them.First, they were property, bought and sold; then manumitted, humanized, and colonised; in time, granted the privilege to vote and to elect their government; and they also came to experience political independence.But the intrinsic, emancipating dignity of unencumbered access to justice in their highest court of law has unrelentingly been withheld from them.In biblical terms, enjoyment of that cardinal human right is exemplified by the matchless fortune of the mother, in agony over the fate of her imperilled child, accorded access to the highest tribunal of justice, King Solomon's court.It is a haunting element of the original slave-trade sin that has endured in Jamaican society where access is a privilege reserved for the wealthy, sustaining rooted inequality.As an injustice, a glaring indignity inherited throughout all generations, there can be no greater item of substance on any constitutional reform agenda, requiring priority attention and redress.Astoundingly, present government leaders have not only fastened onto the heresy that Jamaica moving to attain republican status far supersedes the right of access to final justice for all citizens but have also actually erected sturdy, even unconstitutional, walls to stymie that redress.No doubt, that irksome position triggered the further query and observation of the parliamentarian that: "Constitutional reform is probably dead as long as the JLP want to achieve a republic as their political trophy and the PNP are not willing to let them have that trophy unless the CCJ is part of the package."So it would make sense to focus on other (also very important) aspects of constitutional reform, in particular those that would enhance participatory democracy and accountability".To be sure, there are indeed "other also very important aspects" to be pursued
