Dear Editor,

In the latter part of 2023 I attended a reasoning session held at the Faculty of Law, The University of the West Indies, on the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). Having listened to all the discussants as well as the guest speaker, who is a member of the CCJ, one was left thinking: Why has Jamaica not given up the Privy Council and be fully part of the CCJ?

Aside from the fact that we have been contributing to the operation of this regional court from its inception in 2005, so cost is involved, I concluded it must be a political reason, as it has crossed both administrations.

What is Jamaica waiting for? Guyana, Trinidad, Barbados, and Dominica, which all got political independence after us, have moved away from the British system to a republican system of government. In my view, federation was not a pipe dream. It could have worked. Look at where we are now in relation to the smaller states that would have “sucked the big pig (Jamaica) dry” if we stayed part of West Indies Federation. They are better off today and through Carifta and later Caricom get benefits for their smaller size.

Years ago a minister of Government said if Jamaica had been allowed to run with ganja instead of being restricted to following the directives of the US, we would have said goodbye to international debt as well as the loans and grants we depend on now. The international community wants to keep us dependent. We do not make guns here yet there is a high flow of weapons entering our country.

As well, I believe the size of our Parliament needs to be drastically reduced. We do not need more than 15-20 Members of Parliament (MP). The constituencies should be created based on our overall population. Why do we need 65? MPs should be solely focused on their constituencies. None of them should be in the Cabinet, which would be much smaller than currently exists.

Having worked in the government system for over 40 years, I had to interact with ministers. What became clear to me over time is that some are suited to running a constituency on a full-time basis while others are suited to focusing on being a minister without the distractions of constituency matters or running for election. I believe a lot of taxes would be saved. This can be done through changes to our constitution, but I am doubtful either of the major political parties will take it on.

Dawn Williams

dantheawilliams@gmail.com