'Don't drag out constitutional review', says public commentator

 

Attorney Clive Munroe Jr wants the government to establish clear timelines to ensure that the review of the Constitution is completed in a timely manner. 

 

Speaking at the Jamaica Labour Party's 78th annual conference last month, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced that the review will begin next year.

 

According to Mr. Munroe, while public consultation on the constitutional review is critical, the process should not be dragged out. 

 

"There is a misnomer in it, you know - and it’s understandable - that we must come to some perfect agreement in order to proceed. There really is no democracy in the world that has ever truly come to any perfect agreement. But you come to something that's workable, at the very least for the majority, and offers minimal distress to the minority, and you proceed from there," he suggested on Sunday as a guest on Radio Jamaica's weekly news review programme, That's A Rap.

 

Social commentator Latoya West-Blackwood, who was also a guest on That's a Rap, argued that the government can make certain changes like removing the British monarch as head of state while conducting a full review of the Constitution. 

 

"We can have two discussions at once, where we understand that this whole matter of constitutional reform can include the decolonization agenda, and it can also seek to induce social and economic well-being for all in that kind of equitable way that we want to go for. It's not divorced. It's not like we have to choose one over the other," she insisted.  

 

 

Attorney Nicole Gordon added that public education is needed to ensure that Jamaicans understand the significance of removing the British monarch as head of state. 

 

Some Jamaicans have questioned how the removal of the Queen will improve their standard of living. 

 

But Ms Gordon argued that the move would be part of Jamaica's quest to "emancipate" and "unshackle" itself from its colonial ties to Britain - a job, she said, is now the responsibility of the current administration. 

 

"It does affect bread and butter issues," she contended, "because when the Charter of Rights included the fact that the state has an obligation to promote human rights and freedoms, that was a new thing and it was an important thing."