The vote in support of the Charter of Rights Bill in the Lower House last week is highly commendable, even as it highlights the long, tedious process of legislation in Jamaica.

As was reported, this Bill has been before the Parliament for close to 20 years, having first been tabled by then prime minister Mr Edward Seaga, after which former prime minister P J Patterson made an attempt to have it debated and passed. And even though parliamentarians were obviously happy after last week’s vote, it is worth noting that it took the present legislature just under a year-and-a-half before they could get to the present position.

That the Opposition did not seek to frustrate the passage of the Bill, as was done in previous years, suggests a level of maturity among our politicians which we find refreshing.

We are also encouraged by Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller’s declaration that her side of the House took “the historic and progressive decision that we are putting principle and the interest of the people above party politics”, because what has obtained for far too long in this country has been the complete opposite.

It is against that background that we find puzzling the position taken by Opposition senator Mr A J Nicholson that the Upper House needs a month to debate and pass the Bill.

According to Senator Nicholson, Opposition senators have no intention of voting against the provision which, on being passed, will replace Chapter III of the existing Constitution.

Given the length of time that this Bill has been before the Parliament, we refuse to believe that there are still some senators who are unaware of its provisions, as was argued by Senator Nicholson last week in the Upper House.

If that is indeed the case, we submit that those senators really don’t deserve the seats they occupy. For it is their job to acquaint themselves with the Bills being debated in the Lower House in order that they can make informed decisions when the proposals are placed before them for review.

Senator Nicholson’s abstruse position aside, we must support the advice offered by senior journalist, Mr Claude Robinson, in his excellent column on the Charter of Rights issue in this week’s Sunday Observer.

As Mr Robinson correctly argued, “the new society envisaged in the Charter is not going to happen quickly or cheaply; there will be inertia from a political system where deeds are often out of sync with words and there will be resistance from the beneficiaries of the present”.

There must, he said, be a systematic plan to give effect to the Charter. “Specifically, the provisions must be translated from legal and technical formulations to concepts and language that people understand; reform of the justice system must be speeded-up and the system must become more accessible, especially to poor people seeking justice; there must be institutional mechanisms in place, adequately staffed, so that citizens have a place to turn when they wish to seek redress,” Mr Robinson said.

His proposal for a public information campaign to heighten people’s awareness of their rights and to “create greater awareness of corresponding responsibilities” is also spot on.

The Government would do well to act on these suggestions and do so with sincerity.

We hope Senator Nicholson will not stand in the way.