THE way to hell is paved with good intentions. What is being proposed in the Parliament of Jamaica is something that represents the worst assault on our justice system since Independence.

The Government of Jamaica is attempting to usurp the fundamental right of the people to have access to the most credible institution of justice in the Commonwealth, if not the world — the United Kingdom Privy Council.

They propose to replace it with an unproven institution — the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) — which will exist for the foreseeable future under the shadow of Jamaican and regional politicians who are irrevocably in love with their own sense of power to intervene, adversely, we might add, in the running of local and regional institutions.

And they are moving to do this under no form of duress, except for a bunch of platitudes and their self-imposed burden to get rid of what are really intangible notions such as “relics of colonialism”.

Noble ideals are good, but they must be timely and practical. The Jamaican system of justice is in absolute shambles. The backlog of untried and uncompleted cases is impossible to obliterate. Some cases will never be tried, and we might as well write them off like bad debt. If there is danger in delay, there is no more danger than in the courts.

Corruption is rampant in the corridors of law. Key evidence and witnesses disappear for less than 30 pieces of silver or fear for their lives. In our abysmally small geographical space, the overriding need for arms-length transactions and transparency in the justice system is too frequently frustrated by cronyism, school ties, business and familial bonds.

These connections and links, which sometimes stretch from Jamaica to other islands of the Caribbean, too often conspire to determine the outcome of cases without any legal constraints.

It is no wonder that Jamaica, as far as crime is considered, is such a virtual wild west in which most people feel they can get no true or timely justice and so take the law into their own hands. The brutal killings and runaway murder rate are the undoubted result.

While this status quo remains, none of us — including the very politician, or the lawyer, or the human rights activist, or the church man — who are courting this disaster can feel safe or have even reasonable confidence that justice is assured. Lest we forget, it’s today for me, tomorrow for you.

That is why the time to replace the UK Privy Council is not yet come and not because the CCJ idea is intrinsically wrong. In fact, we see the possibility of our people being given the option of choosing one or the other at some future time.

At the very least, such a cataclysmic decision must be put to the people of Jamaica in a referendum. It cannot and must not be left to 84 politicians!