THE uphill task the Government faces as it embarks on the process to make Jamaica a republic while severing ties with the British Monarchy was on full display Wednesday when the parliamentary Opposition boycotted the second meeting of the joint select committee examining the Constitution (Amendment) Republic Bill.

A week earlier, on January 15, Opposition Leader Mark Golding, who is also president of the People’s National Party (PNP), posed four questions to Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness, one of which was to clarify the stance of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government on the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

Golding had indicated that the answers to his questions could determine the Opposition’s future participation in the committee meetings.

With deep distrust between the two political parties, Golding has insisted that the process to make Jamaica a republic while ditching King Charles as Jamaica’s head of State must be twinned with making the CCJ Jamaica’s final appellate court. He has argued that it makes better sense to also cut ties with the United Kingdom Privy Council, currently Jamaica’s final appellate court, at the same time the country abolishes the monarchy.

The JLP has countered, with the Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte, who is leading the process, continuing to argue that it is best to achieve significant reform in phases.

When the committee reconvened shortly after 10:00 am Wednesday, Malahoo Forte said she had been informed that Golding would be absent, so too the Member of Parliament for St Andrew Western Anthony Hylton, and Opposition Senator Donna Scott-Mottley.

“The questions which he [Golding] said he needed answers [for] from the head of government …the normal protocol was not utilised,” Malahoo Forte said.

“By this I mean I have no indication that the prime minister was formally written to. I have therefore concluded that it may be quite appropriate to use the very forum of this joint select committee to answer the questions on behalf of the prime minister, but I will not do that today,” the minister added.

When the Jamaica Observer contacted Hylton to ask whether the Opposition members were absent because the questions were not answered, he responded in the affirmative. He also said the Opposition will continue to boycott the meetings until the questions are answered.

At the January 15 meeting Golding asked, “How can the vast majority of the Jamaican people be left behind, particularly in a process of decolonisation, having already been made less fortunate by colonisation in the first place?

“Why should they continue to remain deprived of the fundamental right of access to justice at the highest level?” he continued, before posing the the four questions:

1.) The CCJ Bills, having been tabled for the second time in Parliament 10 years ago, are the people of Jamaica not entitled to be told why the Government has not tabled the CCJ Bills again, thereby signalling that both Government and Opposition will work together to accomplish the twin objectives of transitioning both from the British Monarchy and the British monarch’s court?

2.) Bearing in mind that the history of the constitutional reform process over the last 30 years has, undeniably, birthed a certain distrust factor, would the Government not, like the Opposition, like for that to be put behind us before embarking on this leg of the historic legislative process and referendum for Jamaica to become a republic?

3.) Is the Government not under a fundamental duty to explain in clear and unambiguous terms why it determined to proceed in this piecemeal fashion instead of using the historic opportunity…to ensure that the majority of the Jamaican people enjoy the benefit of access to justice to their highest court?

4.) Would the people and we [politicians] ourselves not regard it as a welcome sign of maturity and wisdom to witness an agreement between the parties on the settled way forward for success on these new constitutional arrangements, regardless of which party wins the upcoming national elections?