KINGSTON, Jamaica — Opposition Leader Mark Golding has renewed his call for Jamaica to complete the constitutional reform process by replacing the British monarch as head of state and establish a final court accessible to Jamaicans.

Golding made the call during his Independence Day message on Thursday.

“Government, opposition, the business sector, trade unions, churches, civil society and families all have a responsibility to ensure that our nation achieves this holistic vision of independence. So it is time to come together to fully decolonise our 1962 constitution so that our head of state is no longer a foreign monarch and our final court is no longer the colonial vestige of that monarch, but is an institution of judicial excellence that has been deliberately fashioned to be accessible to our people and to ensure its independence from political interference,” Golding said.

As the country marks its independence, Golding said: “A holistic vision of independence entails a society in which our economy is well-balanced and strong, where talent and application are rewarded, where innovation is encouraged, where integrity is embraced as a core principle of personal identity and of national development, and where success is determined by merit rather than one’s circumstances.”

He said an independent society requires sound and accountable governance and respect for the rule of law.

“It requires a shared commitment to the pursuit of the common good and the deliberate and authentic embrace of unity as the balm for achieving our national goals. And perhaps most of all, it requires a strategy of national development that is firmly anchored in these principles. That is the Jamaica we should strive to build. And the work to build it is a shared responsibility of all of us. Government, opposition, the business sector, trade unions, churches, civil society and families all have a responsibility to ensure that our nation achieves this holistic vision of independence,” Golding said.