In his usual rambunctious fashion, Member of Parliament Everald Warmington recently sought to trivialise and ridicule his colleague Culture Minister Olivia “Babsy” Grange’s foray to the United Kingdom to “knock on the door” of Buckingham Palace to deliver a petition relating to the ongoing reparation issue.

Unfortunately, the late calypsonian the Mighty Sparrow is no longer around to add his witty lyrics to this perceived fiasco.

Readers will recall his “man in the bedroom” jibe in a song relating to that infamous incident when a man infiltrated the grounds of Buckingham Palace and allegedly ended up in the Queen’s bedroom.

This time round, the calypso king would undoubtedly have done a parody on Warmington’s pussycat allusion, but as Jamaicans would say, “putting fun and joke aside”, the issue of reparation is not to be taken lightly.

Indeed, on March 26 this year the United Nations General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” while urging member states to pursue reparatory justice.

Warmington has subsequently been slapped on the wrist by various interest groups and enraged individuals for the position he took, and for saying that some Africans were just as culpable for the slave trade, in that they participated in the capturing and trading of their brothers and sisters with the Europeans.

One suspects that Warmington’s stance may well be rooted in the view that the “crab-in-the-barrel” mentality has been rooted in the psyche of the black race.

An analogy that speaks to the fact that if one puts crabs in a barrel they will never escape because as soon as any of them tries to do so, the others pull them back down.

Needless to say, the quest for reparation, of necessity, must be pursued on a united front, and even though there were, in my opinion, missteps in the culture minister’s trek to “Mother England”, there is sufficient merit in what the group she led set out to achieve.

So even if there is room for disagreement, the true cause should not be lost and, like the proverbial baby, be thrown out with the bathwater.

When all is said and done, Warmington owes his colleague and those who he may have offended with his “pussycat” mumbo jumbo an apology.

In the meantime, the Andrew Holness Administration has been hit by another “casscass”, this time round it is the third-country nationals (TCNs) kerfuffle, whereby Jamaica and the United States have finalised operating procedures allowing the temporary transit of TCNs through Jamaica before they return to their home countries.

Several sates in the Caribbean are also party to this agreement.

On the surface it would appear to be a straightforward diplomatic issue, but the main bone of contention for Jamaicans is what appears to be a “puss-in-a-bag” arrangement as it has been disclosed by Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Kamina Johnson Smith that the contents of this agreement cannot be made public.

For those who may not be sufficiently familiar with the expression “puss in a bag”, it is a Jamaican proverb commonly phrased as “Nuh buy puss in a bag”, meaning that one should carefully examine or investigate something before you buy it, accept it, or commit to it.

This scenario has not gone down well with many Jamaicans, both here and in the Diaspora.

However, the Holness Administration has remained stubborn and tightlipped, a stance that has led to a great deal of speculation, including the question of whether we are truly a sovereign nation that can stand on its own two feet or are we becoming yet another fawning pawn of the Donald J Trump Administration.

In the meantime, it is to be noted that the US Supreme Court has intervened via an emergency appeal regarding the TCN deportation policy, prompting the Jamaican Government to expect a pause or review of its bilateral transit agreement with the US.

Against this backdrop, there are genuine concerns relating to national security, transparency, and legal uncertainty.

The Opposition People’s National Party, through its spokesperson on national security as well as the Opposition Leader Mark Golding, have quite rightly criticised the Government for keeping the details of the memorandum of understanding secret from Parliament and the public.

Truly a “puss-in-abag” arrangement.

Meanwhile, the nation’s quest for achieving republican status has been railroaded and left in a quandary because of the seeming recalcitrance and blatant stubbornness of both the Government and Opposition, whose leaders remain at loggerheads, seemingly unable to reach any degree of consensus on the contentious issues, chief among which is the controversial matter of the country’s final court of appeal.

What is most disconcerting is that the Jamaican people have become seemingly complacent on this issue.

This writer has repeatedly brought this vexing but vital matter to the fore for national discourse, but it does not appear that this subject matter is “sexy” enough.

Our forefathers who fought so hard — through blood, sweat, and tears — for our freedom, political independence, and self-actualisation must be turning in their graves.

The realisation of the highly touted Vision 2030 goals looms on the horizon, yet there does not appear to be any sense of urgency to once and for all bid the British monarchy, King Charles III, his heirs and successors goodbye.

Instead, constitutional reform continues to stay on the back-burner, with our parliamentarians lacking the necessary testicular fortitude to bring this matter to the fore in Gordon House, preferring to nitpick and pursue banalities relating to political one-upmanship and partisan jousting.

To put it bluntly, it is time Holness and Golding stop the pussyfooting and get the job done! Lloyd B Smith has been involved in Jamaican media for the past 50 years.

He has also served as a Member of Parliament and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.

He hails from western Jamaica where he is popularly known as the Governor.

Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or lbsmith4@gmail.com.