The constitutional reform process which was stalled during the last parliamentary term due to major disagreements between the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National (Party (PNP) has already hit a possible roadblock just days into the new term.

Opposition leader and PNP President Mark Golding on Friday stated that after Prime minister and JLP Leader Dr Andrew Holness extended an invitation for both political leaders to partner to complete the work started in making Jamaica a republic, he had expected to meet with Holness. However, Holness proposed that he meet with Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Delroy Chuck on the matter.

“That approach will not initiate the required partnership of which we speak,” Golding said in a letter to Holness which he made public.

“I therefore invite you to reconsider the matter in light of what I am suggesting in this letter and look forward to hearing from you presently,” Golding wrote.

The Opposition leader said he had welcomed the prime minister’s entreaty for both leaders to work on the matter at his swearing-in ceremony last month as it was “consistent with the reality that the Government does not now have a two-thirds majority in either House of Parliament, further reinforcing the imperative of partnership between Jamaica’s two major political parties if progress is to be made in reforming the constitution”.

“I accept that the only route to reaping success in this reform effort is through authentic collaboration, as demonstrated by former political leaders,” Golding continued.

He told Holness that it was his “heartfelt desire that we complete our unfinished circle of independence by establishing Jamaica’s full sovereignty.

“This means leaving both the British monarch as head of state and the British monarch’s Privy Council as the final court of appeal, and in a manner that our constitution no longer originates from an Order in Council of the British monarch”.

Both the JLP and PNP, as well as many Jamaicans, agree on ditching the British monarch while transitioning to republic status. However, the parties differ on what should be Jamaica’s final appellate court, with the PNP favouring the Caribbean Court of Justice and Holness, stating in May 2024 and in the leadership debate before the September 3 General Election that he and the JLP prefer Jamaica having its own final court.

Additionally, Holness and the JLP are insisting that the final decision should be made by the Jamaica people in a referendum.

The issue of the final court was the sticking point that led the PNP in January this year to boycott the meetings of the joint select committee of the Parliament that was examining the Constitution (Amendment) Republic Bill tabled by then Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte.

Of note is that Malahoo Forte was not reappointed to the Holness Cabinet after the September 3 General Election and portions of her ministry subsumed in Chuck’s justice ministry.

In his two-page letter dated October 3, the Opposition leader cited as examples of past collaborations, the Bruce Golding-led JLP collaborating with the Portia Simpson Miller-led PNP when Golding opened the debate on the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms in 2010 and outlined the imperative of partnering in the reform process, “since the constitution requires it”.

“Similarly, on December 2, 2021, former Prime Minister PJ Patterson wrote to you and I, saying that ‘The solution to constitutional reform requires unity of purpose and action, transcending partisan borders’,” Golding stated in his letter.

“This approach also accords with Jamaica’s democratic tradition. History shows that in transitioning from colonial status to political independence there was constant interaction between NW [Norman Washington] Manley and Sir Alexander Bustamante, as there was between PJ Patterson and Edward Seaga, during the seminal constitutional reform undertakings of the 1990s,” said Golding.

“Accordingly, it is you and I, as leaders of Jamaica’s two major political parties, who must establish a basis for the required partnership, if the reform process is not to become another exercise in futility,” he added.

Golding told the prime minister he would be making the letter public, “given that your embrace of partnership was expressed in a public speech”.

HOLNESS… extended invitation for both political leaders to partner in making Jamaica a republic (Photo: Collin Reid)