SEEMINGLY confident that all its 32 members of Parliament are “one hundred per cent Jamaican”, the Government last Thursday tried to turn the full glare of public spotlight on the Opposition, issuing an invitation to use the Access to Information Act to expose any “aliens” still sitting in Gordon House.

The move comes after the Government was scorched by public opinion in March this year when Prime Minister Bruce Golding admitted that although he was aware that five of his MPs were ineligible to sit in the House, his administration could not risk exposing them, having them resign en bloc and consequently being overthrown by the parliamentary Opposition.

Golding’s admission came after House Speaker Delroy Chuck informed Parliament that South West St Catherine MP Everald Warmington, the supposed last of the five, had resigned based on the stipulations of Chapter 5, Part 1 and Section 40(2)a of the Jamaican Constitution which states the criteria for sitting in Gordon House. Warmington was returned as MP following a by-election in the constituency earlier this month.

The prime minister had, at the time, invited the Opposition to clean its own “stables”.

Last Thursday, Information Minister Daryl Vaz, in presenting the report of the parliamentary joint select committee appointed to review the Access to Information Act (ATI), revived the issue.

“I encourage all members of the House and members of the public to familiarise themselves with the report and its recommendations. I would like to encourage the media and the public at large to utilise the new Access to Information legislation to start making enquiries through the Act in relation to those of us who sit in this Parliament and serve,” Vaz said, stirring up an audible murmur of discontent from the Opposition benches and cheers from Government members.

“I think it would be useful for them to use the ATI Act to decipher in this new parliamentary year, how many aliens are in our Parliament, how many strangers are in our Parliament, and I believe it will be more than opportune in this new sitting of the parliamentary year and this important bit of legislation being tabled, that once and for all we return our Parliament to being 100 per cent Jamaican,” he shouted above the din.

“And I put the blame on that side (Opposition) as I have more than evidence to know that there are two aliens on that side. I can say as the minister with responsibility for information, that I can say without the shadow of a doubt, that we on this side are now 100 per cent Jamaican,” Vaz boasted before asking that the report be approved.

Since the Golding administration took office in 2007 with a 32-28 majority, the Opposition has challenged the citizenship of MPs Vaz (West Portland); Desmond Gregory Mair (North East St Catherine); Michael Stern (North West Clarendon); and Shahine Robinson (North East St Ann). All were unseated by the courts and all regained their seats in by-elections, with Robinson returning to the House in January of this year.

Warmington was the only MP to resign ahead of a court challenge. The Opposition’s Ian Hayles and Sharon Haye-Webster are the two individuals now in the Government’s dual citizenship cross hairs.

Vaz also outlined several recommendations of the ATI review committee, including a call for the repeal of the 1911 Official Secrets Act. The committee has suggested that the statute be replaced by an Act that would include penalties for the release of information that puts the country at risk. Prime Minister Bruce Golding several weeks ago appointed a committee to make recommendations on the Act.

A similar call had been made last year by the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights, which had warned the Government that the provision, if kept as is, would void the Whistleblower Legislation — formally called the Protected Disclosures Act — being debated by Parliament.

Attorneys Lord Anthony Gifford, QC, and Nancy Anderson, addressing that committee, had said the Official Secrets Act is a relic of a past where government operated behind closed doors and nobody was privy to what took place behind them.

This concern was rooted in clause 4(2) of that provision, which says disclosure of information is not protected if the employee making the disclosure commits an offence by making it; since this would be in direct conflict with the Official Secrets Act.

Under this Act, if a person employed to the state in a sensitive post passes on information or documents to anybody other than those authorised to see them, then that person is guilty of a misdemeanour.

The JLP, while in Opposition in 2006, had called for the immediate repeal of the Official Secrets Act citing its intention to introduce whistle-blower legislation to create a clean government, where the country’s resources would not be plundered and abused by a reckless, insensitive and corrupt administration.

Also on Thursday, Vaz pointed to another recommendation of the report.

“It is recommended that there be an effective public interest override, which will help to ensure a balance between the application of exemptions and the release of information under the Act,” he said.

Currently, the ATI Act provides for nine categories of exemptions including Cabinet documents, documents affecting national security, defence or international relations, documents relating to law enforcement, those subject to legal privilege, those affecting the national economy, documents revealing Government’s deliberative processes or trade secrets, documents related to heritage sites and documents affecting personal privacy.

Exemptions, however, cease to apply 20 years after the creation of the document.

Other recommendations were for the adoption of publication schemes to strengthen and standardise the existing framework for disclosure of certain information to the public, and the review of legislation with non-disclosure provisions.