People’s National Party vice-president Dr Karl Blythe has broken ranks with his party on the Government’s desire to replace the London-based Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), saying that the contentious issue should be decided by a referendum.

“If the people strongly believe in the establishment of the CCJ as our final court, they will ensure that that is so,” a news release from Blythe’s public relations agents quoted him as telling his Central Westmoreland Executive at a special dinner held at Beaches Sandy Bay in Negril last Saturday.

Blythe made the recommendation in a broadside against the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) which, he said, had no interest in reaching any agreement with the Government on any issue of national importance.

“My comrades, it is clear to me and, I am sure, to you, that the new JLP leadership is in a confrontational mode,” Blythe said. “They have no intention of arriving at a consensus on any matter with the PNP Government.”

Blythe’s reference was apparently to JLP spokesman on justice Delroy Chuck’s declaration last week that any agreement with the Opposition would have to await Bruce Golding’s formal appointment as opposition leader.

“There will be no decision until Bruce Golding is leader of the opposition, which would not be before around June,” Chuck told the Observer in an interview.

Blythe also referred to comments he said was made by Golding on the Perkins on Line radio talkshow

Golding was last Sunday formally installed as JLP leader at the Opposition party’s rescheduled annual conference at the National Arena in Kingston.

He replaced Edward Seaga, who has retired from active politics in order to take up a post as distinguished fellow at the University of the West Indies.

Seaga’s West Kingston parliamentary seat is to be contested by Golding as soon as the Government calls a by-election.

His expected victory will give him a seat in the lower House and the post of opposition leader.

Chuck, in the Observer interview, had also responded to Prime Minister P J Patterson’s invitation to interim Opposition Leader Dr Ken Baugh for dialogue on the CCJ and other outstanding constitutional issues, including the abolition of hanging and moving Jamaica from a monarchy to a republic.

Said Chuck: “If you want to discuss capital punishment, we will discuss it, but not together.”

Patterson had made the approach to the Opposition after the London-based Privy Council earlier this month ruled, on an appeal filed by the JLP and civl groups, that the route taken by the Government to establish the CCJ as Jamaica’s final court of appeal was unconstitutional.

The UK law lords argued that while the Government could end appeals to the Privy Council by a simple parliamentary majority, it required special procedures to entrench the CCJ as a court superior to the Jamaica Court of Appeal.

The ruling means that the establishment of the CCJ as Jamaica’s final court will require either a two-thirds majority in both houses of Parliament and/or the winning vote in a referendum.

Patterson has signalled that his preference is for the parliamentary vote, but Blythe believes the people should have their say.

He said Patterson must understand that while his intentions are noble, there is no consensus with the new JLP leadership.

“As the party with the mandate from the people, we need to seek consensus with the people of Jamaica on these matters of national importance,” Blythe said. “We are servants of the people. Let them take the decisions one way or the other, and we, the servants, implement.”

However, on Sunday, in his inaugural address as JLP leader, Golding offered to talk with the Government to quickly implement a number of constitutional issues on which there is already agreement with the Opposition and which would help to enhance the quality of governance in Jamaica.

They include:

. the charter of rights, which is currently before a Joint Select Committee of Parliament;

. the impeachment of public officials so that persons in positions of public trust can be removed from office;

. appointment of services commissions for the judiciary and the police, which still requires bi-partisan consensus;

. a citizens’ protection bureau to defend the constitutional rights of ordinary citizens and seek redress, where necessary;

. judicial review of the decisions of the director of public prosecutions, on which the Government and the Opposition have already agreed on the need to amend the constitution;

. constitutional protection for local government, which already has bi-partisan agreement; and

. the creation of an electoral commission, as envisaged when the Electoral Advisory Committee was founded in the 1970s.

“We are ready to sit down with the Government, not only on these issues, but on any matter that will advance the interests of the people of Jamaica,” said Golding.