Devon Dick

The recent ruling by Chief Justice Zaila McCalla stated that the issue in the Abe Dabdoub vs Daryl Vaz case was not about dual citizenship; it is about pledging allegiance and/or obedience to a foreign power or state. Nevertheless, the RJR newsroom and other media outlets continue to equate foreign allegiance and dual citizenship.

The chief justice in handing down judgement stated that the Jamaican Constitution allows for persons with dual citizenship to hold political office in Jamaica. A person can hold dual, triple or quadruple citizenship for that matter once he or she has not made a pledge of allegiance or obedience to a foreign power or state. However, media practitioners continue to make the erroneous claim that persons with dual citizenship cannot hold political office in Jamaica.

Total obedience

The Constitution rightly recognises that the pledge of allegiance and obedience to a foreign power is absolute, full and complete. The Constitution recognises that one cannot have absolute full and complete allegiance and or obedience to two competing entities. The Bible also states that a person cannot serve two masters meaning that it is impossible to be enslaved to two masters. Enslavement requires total obedience. There are other situations that require total commitment and, therefore, tend towards exclusivity, namely marriage and playing a sport for one's country.

Furthermore, to be a naturalised US citizen requires absolute allegiance. The oath states:

I hereby declare, an oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have therefore been a subject or citizen, that I will support and defend the constitution and laws of the US . . . that I will bear arms on behalf of the US when required by law.

This oath is not only absolute, exclusive and comprehensive in its allegiance and obedience, but it also requires one to renounce one's Jamaican citizenship.

Any Jamaican who pledges allegiance and obedience to a foreign country should be debarred from our Parliament. Any Jamaican who renounces his Jamaican citizenship should also be disqualified from our Parliament.

Now that the Chief Justice has clarified the issue, I hope journalists would stop misleading the Jamaican public on the issue of dual citizenship. It is also time for the political leaders to make a statement. On August 21, I wrote, "And our political leaders should make an unequivocal statement that if they were selected to become prime minister that they would not allow any person who has sworn allegiance to a foreign power to sit in the House of Representatives, Senate or Cabinet."

No statement

To date neither the JLP leader nor PNP leader has made that statement. It is, therefore, possible that there might be JLP and PNP MPs who are flouting the Constitution of the land.

Those who are guilty of flouting the constitution by pledging foreign allegiance should be punished. It is not enough for someone to flout the Constitution and all that happens is a by-election. By-elections will cost the country millions of dollars. As Prime Minister Golding said recently, "Just like the man who steals a coconut and is locked up, so it is that those who tamper with people's money will be charged" (April 9). The ruling by the chief justice means that a person who steals a coconut will get a harsher punishment than a politician who flouts the Constitution. A politician who floats the constitution and causes the country to incur cost for a by-election should at least be fined the cost of the by-election.