Last Monday the country celebrated its 61st anniversary of Independence from its colonial masters in Britain. The celebration of a country’s Independence is almost a sacred obligation contingent upon a deep sense of a people’s identity and aspirations.

As a young nation, we have made tremendous strides since 1962. We have achieved much in the area of education, art, the sciences, music, sports, cultural traditions, the maturity of our political space, and now setting the country on a path of economic growth and vitality. Perhaps we are now beginning to see the dream of Norman Manley, one of our founding heroes of Independence, of the economic mission of this generation, now bearing some fruit. If we keep the course, the long nightmare of indebtedness and economic carnage of the 80s and 90s may be coming to an end. At least, receding farther and farther in the rear-view mirror.

Make no mistake about it, for the first time in a long time the country is undertaking several capital projects and paying for them out of its own coffers. We are no longer the international beggars that we once were.

For the first time in a long time, we have had six successive budgets in which no new taxes were levied on the people. Many in my age group well remember the nightmare scenarios which accompanied every budget presentation. You could bet without losing that inordinate tax measures would be visited on the people. Some of these measures, too, were easily predictable. The Michael Manley era was pregnant with this reckless economic adventurism which besieged the country, but the 18 unbroken years of the mostly-led P J Patterson Administration was the icing on the cake. This, notwithstanding the strides that were made in road infrastructure in creating national highways for which the Administration should be credited. Take a bow, Dr Kingsley Thomas.

But problems still abound in what is yet a fledgling democracy wanting to find a sound footing in the world. Violent criminal activity is an existential problem which has grown in sophistication as the tools of modern technology give the violence producers solace.

We have made great strides in education but a lot remains to be done in ensuring that we develop a good cadre of critical thinkers who are fully grounded in a vibrant and productive early childhood and primary schooling.

In the political sphere, we have developed, after many years of carnage and deaths, a vibrant and functioning electoral system which is the envy of the world. But we have to guard it zealously and jealously. Democracies by their very nature cannot survive on wishful thinking but on studied vigilance by an engaged electorate. The withdrawal of a large percentage of our people from our voting process cannot spell well for our democratic future. Protest against a system with which people have found disfavour is impotent if the only solution is to withdraw oneself from the political process, brand every politician as corrupt, and fail to be a part of the change for which one is clamouring. This is political suicide, par excellence. This is how democracies get overrun by totalitarian impulses.

This brings me to another consideration as we contemplate this year’s Independence celebration. There are those who believe that Jamaica is a fully independent country. I beg to disagree. There are many determinants that have been suggested as defining an independent country. One of these is that of self-government, the ability of a people within a defined geographical boundary with a common identity and shared ideals, to conduct their own affairs without interference from an external power.

Some use the 1962 compact that “set us free” as a benchmark for the Independence we now ‘enjoy’. But I have a visceral belief that we have not met this benchmark. If self-government is a critical component of an independent State — and it sure is — then how independent are we when our head of state is the King of England, and our judicial sovereignty still resides in a foreign country? Britain may not control how we conduct our affairs as a nation, but in matters of law, which go to the very identity of who we are as a people, it is a set of law lords, sitting in a country from which we claim to be independent, who have the final say in how our laws are interpreted. In fact, a Bill passed by our parliamentarians does not become law until the King’s representative in Jamaica, the governor general, signs it into law. How independent does that make us?

Until we say goodbye to the King, and until we repatriate our judicial sovereignty to Jamaica and not to a halfway house somewhere in the Caribbean, we cannot claim with any truth or justification that we are a fully independent nation. This is why the constitutional reform process that is currently underway is so critical. We have a chance in a lifetime to set it right and we must not muck it up.

We are a proud people who can and have made our way in the world without anyone peering over our shoulders. Our justice system may not be the best we want it to be, but as in so many areas, we have made strides. We can fix in our legal system what is wrong, just as we did in bringing fiscal integrity to the country’s financial space. We belittle the confidence and self-esteem of our people when we believe and act otherwise. We must build confidence in the basic integrity of our people and their ability to make it and do what is right. If we do not start now, then when.

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.