- Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
Caroline Kelly, left, member of the organising committee of the West Kingston Development Committee presents a gift to Opposition Leader Edward Seaga and his wife, Carla, at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel on Friday night.
Trudy Simpson, Staff Rporter
ANY MOVES by the Government to introduce the Caribbean Court of Justice by way of the Queen's removal as head of state, and the introduction of a republican form of Government, have been "checkmated," Oppositon Leader Edward Seaga claimed on Saturday.
Speaking at the 25th anniversary function of the West Kingston Development Committee's annual fundraising dinner Friday night, Mr. Seaga said Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) checks show that even if the Government succeeds in removing the Privy Council as final appellate court, Jamaicans could still appeal to the London-based final court of appeal via petitions to the Queen.
ENTRENCHED
He said both routes were entrenched in the Constitution which could only be amended with a two-thirds parliamentary majority, which will be impossible without JLP input.
"What this means therefore is that the intention of the PNP (People's National Party) to establish a Caribbean Court of Justice as the final court of appeal would have to be by way of removing the Queen and the Queen cannot be removed without the referendum in which the people of Jamaica would have to go with a vote of more than 66 per cent. (This) has never been achieved in our history. No vote has ever achieved a 60 per cent plurality so on both counts the intentions of the Government have been checkmated. It will now remain to be seen if the Government wishes to take us up on the position which we offered in Parliament as a compromise," he told hundreds of supporters who turned out at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston.
Mr. Seaga, who is JLP party leader and MP for West Kingston, had declared last Tuesday that the party would only support a republican form of government if there was a referendum to decide Jamaica's final Court of Appeal.
CRITICISM
The JLP has criticised the Government's moves to set up the CCJ without a referendum. The JLP has also suggested that if the CCJ is established, it should be allowed to operate for 10 years "during which the country can assess whether it is working."
Under this system, the Privy Council would still operate and then a decision can be made at the end of the 10 years on whether the CCJ is working and should be kept.
Mr. Seaga was responding to last Sunday's proposal by Prime Minister and PNP President, P. J. Patterson, that the Government hoped to consult the JLP in hopes of gaining the two-thirds parliamentary majority needed to remove the Queen as Jamaica's head of state as the Government makes moves to make the country a republic by 2005.
The Opposition Leader said while the JLP had no problem with the concept of a republic, its members were concerned about the type of republic. Mr. Seaga said there was no way the JLP would endorse a system which has an executive president, a system in which, he said, all the levels of power will reside in one hand.
The JLP believes that the best republican system is one with a ceremonial president, one with the duties and limited powers similar to the Governor-General's, he said.
PROTECTION OF THE PEOPLE
During the function, Mr. Seaga also stated that the JLP was ready to lift Jamaica out of its doldrums ...again. Mr. Seaga said the JLP has rescued the country many times over the last 60-odd years and was still continuing to safeguard Jamaicans. Hearty applause greeted him as he detailed JLP success in turning around the country time and again after the end of each period of the PNP's rule.
"Our position is the protection of justice and the rights of the people. It is our role to lay the foundation once again, to chart the course with the sure hands that guided Jamaica through the uncertain pathways of those cross-roads in our history. Sixty years after we started, our course remains the same. We have never changed the charter. We know where we are going because we have been there before time and time again," he said.
Also addressing the function was Mayor of Kingston and Councillor for the Tivoli Gardens division, Desmond McKenzie, who announced that beginning tomorrow, the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation would be taking down illegal billboards. Crews will be starting in Half-Way Tree, St. Andrew, he said.
