By Rickey Singh, From Barbados Nationnews

WHAT FORMER Prime Minister of Jamaica, Portia Simpson-Miller, had promised to do four years ago – but never did – is now being pursued by the country’s new head of government, Prime Minister Andrew Holness, leader of the Jamaiaca Labour Party – moving that nation to a constitutional republic.
Normally, governing with a mere one-seat parliamentary majority – as Mr Holness is currently doing following this year’s general elections – such a political initiative would be quite risky. Not so in today’s Jamaica – Caricom’s most populous member state that’s rich, like T&T, in creative cultural history.
Mr Holness could, therefore, bask in the political glory of doing what had been so enthusiastically promised by Jamaica’s first woman Prime Minister, “Sister P”. Also for his new promise to implement measures for Jamaica to have fixed election dates – a political first within our 15-member Community and to also establish a National Human Rights Institute.
However, there is a most significant political minus for Prime Minister Holness. It is his glaring failure to make any mention about Jamaica’s much overdue abolition of appeals to the London-based Privy Council and to access the Caribbean Court of Justice, (CCJ), headquartered in Port-of-Spain, as his country’s final court.
It remains a crying political/cultural shame that the first two CARICOM states to achieve political independence, within a month of each other, back in August 1962, show no remorse whatever in retaining a colonial relationship with Britain’s Privy Council instead of accessing the CCJ as its final appeal court for which the people of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago are faithfully paying the relevant annual contributions.
The fact that both Dr Keith Rowley and Holness are first-time prime ministers, is not, in my assessment, cause for remaining silent and unmoved over continued failure to access the CCJ as their respective final appeal court. These two PMs have been around in active parliamentary/governance politics for a pretty long time.
Ignoring the CCJ
The comparison may be worse for Holness than for Rowley when viewed in the context of Jamaica’s new move to terminate the monarchical system of governance with a Jamaican as head of state, most likely a woman. But it’s no excuse for continuing to ignore required arrangements to replace Britain’s Privy Council with the CCJ as their court of last resort and for which their citizens are paying.
In the meanwhile, the Barbados Government of Prime Minister Freundel Stuart continues to behave – at least publicly – as if it’s devoid of any concerns about the country retaining its monarchical system of governance with the British monarch as head of state, instead of a Barbadian – man or woman.
Like Guyana, Barbados will also mark its first half century of political independence this year within six months of each other. Surely replacing the Queen of Britain with a Barbadian Head of State would be a most welcome constitutional development for the second half of the 21st century.
After all, back in 1976 Trinidad and Tobago became the first English-speaking Caribbean nation to emerge as a constitutional republic. Little Dominica was to follow in later years and the government of St Vincent and the Grenadines has given clear signals of its intention to attain republican status with a Vincentian national as president.
Questions? When will Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica access the CCJ as their final appeal court of Appeal? Also, when will be the “correct” time for Barbados to part company with its colonial legacy and elect a Barbadian head of state instead of a Governor General serving as the Queen’s representative?
After all, little Dominica has long elected an outstanding national as its first native-born head of state. However, I am not holding my breath for a response, any time soon, from Prime Minister Freundel Stuart.
• Rickey Singh is a noted Caribbean journalist.

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