The minister of legal and constitutional reform has announced that, to date, six meetings have been held by the Constitutional Reform Committee (CRC). I am sure this proud announcement was intended to elicit applause for the committee doing its work and doing so at a frenetic pace.

While they may be happy with the prodigious nature of these meetings, I was taken aback, to put it mildly, that, despite these meetings, no engagement has taken place to begin to solicit public participation in these deliberations. It is only after concerns were raised about this that driblets of news about public meetings was heard, as if this was a mere afterthought. If this assessment is correct, then the CRC might have started on a slippery path, many meetings notwithstanding.

One does not get the impression that, despite the impressive talk coming from the committee, members are sufficiently seized of the urgency, if not the supremacy, of public engagement with the process and that without strong public input their work will amount to naught. We must not repeat the mistakes of the past, in which the present constitution was the product of an elite gathering without any robust public consultation on the matter. We must do all in our power to get it as right as possible this time, which means getting to the point at which full ventilation of views from the public is allowed. Whatever the outcome of the process, there must be a certain reasonableness that this is what the Jamaican people would be comfortable with.

As a product of the human mind, no document is infallible, including any final one that may emerge from the CRC. But for the CRC’s work to be taken seriously it must reflect a certain degree of national consensus to have any weight or legitimacy. Haste, as they say, makes waste. We must take all the time we need to get it right. We have waited too long only now to have the process rushed to meet perhaps political deadlines. The last thing we want is to have any arrangement remotely resembling that which came out of the 1962 deliberations which placed politicians, specifically Members of Parliament, at the centre of power, and not the people.

A work of the sort being undertaken by the CRC should be done in the full glare of public scrutiny. That is why I was amazed that six meetings could have taken place and the public had no knowledge of this until Minister Malahoo Forte announced it in Parliament. Why the secrecy and inordinate haste? Will the public now only have to be satisfied with brief, selective reports on these important deliberations? If there were no public outcry, one can be sure that the committee would have continued apace and thus presented to the public, as final, what the members have agreed on for the first of the three phases.

This smacks of elitism of the highest order. Those who sit on the committee must realise that they are not there for their brightness or academic excellence or lawyerly sobriety. You do not have to search too deeply to find in the society citizens of worth whose intellectual sagacity and judicial temperance far exceed many, if not all, the present members of the committee. They are there as the people’s servants, whether they are being paid or not, and we expect them to act accordingly or leave the committee. We do not have the luxury of a do-over.

To date, for over 60 years, we have not had a meaningful amendment to the constitution bequeathed to us by our colonial masters. You can more easily turn around a military carrier in open sea than get any deep-seated change to constitutional matters in Jamaica, especially given the context of the tribal orientation of our politics. That is why we have to get it right this time around. I see no reason the meetings of the committee cannot be conducted in the open, with cameras blaring, just as we do commissions of enquiry.

I remember well the attention that Jamaicans paid to the Mannatt, Phelps, & Phillips enquiry and that of the collapse of the financial sector. By doing so we will get full ventilation of what is now being done in secret. Intermittent reports to Parliament by the minister of legal affairs will not suffice. We want to see in real time what is happening. What say you, Minister? Prime Minister?

Grudging engagement of the public smacks of snobbery, which the Jamaican people will entertain to their peril. It might not be worth much, but for all it may be worth, I will be the first to shout, “No!” to any reform that does not, as widely as possible, engage the Jamaican people.

The SSL secrecy

Another indication of public secrecy concerns the investigations into the fraud at the now-defunct Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL). The debacle started almost three months ago and to date there has not been a single public comment from the Ministry of Finance, in whose court the matter ultimately rests, about what might be going on. As I have said in this space before, one understands that matters of this nature take time and there are sensitive issues that cannot be blared to the public as these may compromise the investigations. But, for the love of God, what prevents the Financial Services Commission (FSC) from providing updates. There has not been a press statement from the FSC or the finance ministry, for that matter.

I have it on good authority that the outfit sent in to investigate the finances of SSL is not far from wrapping up and making its findings known to the FSC. Insofar as this is so, it would be good news to the clients who are anxious about their investments. If this is so, is it too hard for a minister of finance to so advise and assuage the public’s anxiety? Again, grudging engagement of the public smacks of elite snobbery. Enough said.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storms; The Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life; and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.