The editorial titled 'Where is the PNP's morality?' (March 13), is well-meaning. I accept the basic point that in all the circumstances, the fact that People's National Party (PNP) candidate for the West Portland by-election, Kenneth Rowe, is the holder of a Canadian passport is a bit of an indelicacy. It is untidy.

However, your editorial failed to make the significant point, which if overlooked, imperils the argument. It is that the justices of the Court of Appeal did not make a moral finding, they made a legal finding. What is at issue is law, not morality. Ineligibility of a foreigner to sit in our houses of Parliament is not a matter of morality, it is matter of law.

The letter and spirit of the Constitution were breached by the fact that the holder of an American passport, who is deemed by that to have sworn allegiance to a foreign power, became an elected member of the House of Representative in breach of the Constitution. Neither the letter nor the spirit of the Constitution is breached if a holder of a passport from a member country of the Commonwealth seeks to be elected.

Contradictions

The contradiction is with the Constitution, not so much the PNP in this instance. That is not the only contradiction, or rather the only way in which the Constitution is out of step with our current reality. It seems to me, the idea of swearing allegiance to Mrs Queen, the idea that we need to remain under judicial surveillance from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, and the idea that our governors general should be knighted under the order of St Michael and St George are the real contradictions.

The sad thing in all of this is the opportunity has been squandered. Rather than a by-election, a referendum should have been called to amend the Constitution fundamentally so that it becomes a document fittingly suited for where Jamaica sees itself at this time.

I am, etc.,

GARNETT ROPER

garnettroper@hotmail.com

Portmore

St Catherine