MINISTER Marlene Malahoo Forte’s announcement last Monday that the Constitutional Reform Committee (CRC) has completed its recommendations for phase one of the reform process and will shortly submit them to the Cabinet for deliberations has certainly piqued the interest of Jamaicans anxious to see the country shift gear on this matter.

According to Mrs Malahoo Forte, the minister of legal and constitutional affairs who co-chairs the CRC, the document is being prepared to be signed by members of the committee.

Mrs Malahoo Forte declined to go into the details of the recommendations because, she said, “there is a protocol and sequencing of the work that must take place”. However, she assured the public that after the recommendations are submitted to the Cabinet they will be tabled in the Parliament for full discussion.

Phase one of the process requires provision to be made to abolish the constitutional monarchy and establish the republic of Jamaica.

Monday’s announcement came just over a year after Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced the establishment of the CRC, saying that the work with which it has been tasked will take us “one step further in redefining who we are as a country and as a sovereign people”.

Mr Holness also noted that the job “is significant and complicated, and will involve reviewing the work that has already been taking place; pulling from that body of work what is relevant to today’s circumstances; and giving advice and guidance to the overall process”.

We reiterate that over the year we have been encouraged by the commitment we have seen from members of the CRC to get this process beyond the stage of pure talk, ever since it was first raised in the 1970s by then Prime Minister Michael Manley. Mr Manley died many years later and the needle had hardly moved on the matter.

Since then, successive governments have kicked the can down the road, despite declaring their intention to have Jamaica sever ties with the British monarchy.

Last Monday’s announcement takes us one step closer to that ideal. However, we acknowledge that this process will be very long as there are many legal steps on the road ahead.

Many suggestions have been put forward as to how we should conduct governance as a republic. The creation of a ceremonial presidency, and our final appeal court are but two of the issues that have fuelled intense and welcome debate.

Outside of how the vote for a ceremonial president is to be taken, there is consensus across the political divide on the office. Therefore, it can’t be difficult for either side to yield on this matter, given the importance of the country taking that first step to republican status.

The matter of our final court, though, is already problematic as positions have hardened on both sides. A referendum can settle that, and both the governing Jamaica Labour Party, which advocates retaining the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and the Opposition People’s National Party, which is insisting that we move to the Caribbean Court of Justice, should not be afraid to put the question to the electorate.

This process, as we said, is going to be long. However, this generation has a duty to avoid the vacillation that has, for too long, stymied this important development.