Dear Editor,

Sixty-three years after Independence we still live under a Westminster-style constitution that looks and sounds a lot like the one we inherited. Independence, August 6, 1962, gave us formal sovereignty, but the deeper work of constitutional self-definition remains unfinished.

Our current basic law came into force through the Jamaica (Constitution) Order in Council of 1962. Locally drafted, yes, but legally birthed in London. That was an historic start, not our final destination. A genuine republican transition is our chance to move from a constitution we “received” to one we fully craft.

Political Philosopher Frantz Fanon reminds us that decolonisation is not cosmetic it is the rebuilding of political life so dignity and agency belong to the people. “Colonialism”, he wrote, “is violence in its natural state,” and it yields only when we create institutions that reverse its logic.

Kwame Nkrumah, the first prime minister of Ghana, also warned of the trap that follows flag-raising, stating that neo-colonialism is when power remains unaccountable and priorities are set elsewhere. If our supreme law merely repaints inherited structures, we risk entrenching that last stage of imperialism in legal form.

Jamaican National Hero Marcus Garvey’s charge to “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery” is the civic spirit a Jamaican-made republic should translate into rights that can be enforced, offices that can be trusted, and elections that reflect how we actually live and vote.

We should also own our leadership story. Jamaica was the first English-speaking Caribbean territory to implement universal adult suffrage, voting under the new system in 1944. That democratic leap ought to embolden us now to be first-rate constitutional founders, not fast followers.

Becoming a republic must be more than swapping a governor general for a president. Our sister islands offer lessons, not templates. Barbados completed a smooth republic transition on November 30, 2021; Trinidad and Tobago did so in 1976 but retained first-past-the-post (FPTP) elections. Jamaica should study both and then design what fits us. We know FPTP can turn pluralities into “manufactured majorities”. A modest mixed system (keeping constituency Members of Parliament while adding a proportional tier) could better convert national support into seats and cool the zero-sum incentives that drag our politics. A republic that leaves our electoral incentives untouched will change the portrait and preserve the problem.

There is serious, ongoing work to build on. The Constitutional Reform Committee (CRC) has laid out a phased approach: patriate the constitution, abolish the constitutional monarchy, and establish a Jamaican republic while strengthening key institutions like the Electoral Commission of Jamaica and the Office of the Public Defender. Whatever final model we choose — ceremonial or hybrid head of State — the office should carry clear guardianship roles and require broad, cross-party consent for appointment and removal. That is how you turn the presidency into a symbol of civic unity rather than a prize of partisan victory.

Scholars have long noted the friction between transplanted Westminster forms and Caribbean realities. Historians like Kate Quinn argue that the Westminster model’s “stability” came with complexities in our region, especially when crisis exposes the real political weight of offices thought to be merely ceremonial. Classic studies like J B Kelly’s analysis of the 1962 Independence constitution underline just how much of our framework was negotiated with British habits front and centre. A republic would give us the constitutional canvas to make those habits truly Jamaican or replace them when they don’t serve us.

None of this calls for haste. We should take our time, study the country, map the gaps, and write a charter that sounds like us, works for us, and is rooted in our history, honest about what we’ve built since 1962, and hopeful about what we are still building.

But it also shouldn’t be stalled by the next election cycle. This cannot be another People’s National Party-versus-Jamaica Labour Party tug of war. It must be a black, gold, and green initiative, because a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, and a republic born in partisan crossfire will limp from day one.

The moment is real. In late 2024 the Government tabled a Republic Bill, and debate towards a referendum has been signalled. Let’s turn that momentum into a nation-building exercise in which parish halls and classrooms, not just Cabinet rooms, shape the text. We led the region once on the meaning of the vote; we can lead again on the meaning of a truly Jamaican Constitution.

We are more than a flag. Now let’s write the document that proves it.

SP

Student at The University of the West Indies