Trevor Munroe | Restore and strengthen, not weaken accountability

I am glad that at that the first working meeting of the newly elected House of Representatives, the Leader of Government Business, Floyd Green, decided to suspend, and not pass the motion to constitute the members of the sessional committees and to name Government members of parliament (MPs) to chair these committees (with the exception of the Public Accounts Committee and the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee).

The suspension of the debate gives all of us who genuinely want to preserve and to strengthen Jamaica’s democratic system – including MPs on both sides of the aisle – an opportunity to understand why the motion further undermines the accountability of the executive to Parliament. The suspension also gives us a chance, therefore, to insist that the government restore the practise instituted by Prime Minister Golding (incidentally while now Prime Minister Holness served in his cabinet) to have Opposition members chair sessional committees and to recognise the right of each committee to select its chairperson.

FAR MORE

Let me say at the start, that I agree with an observation made by Pearnel Charles Jr in the debate that these “past arrangements” do not rise to the level of “constitutional obligations”. However, they are far more than what the minister described as “political consideration”. The record makes it clear that a main reason for this practise of Opposition members chairing sessional committees, being initiated by Prime Minister Golding in 2007 and continued by Prime Ministers Simpson Miller and Holness (between 2016 and 2020) was that the practice formed part of a menu of measures designed, to check and to balance executive power with accountability and transparency. These measures did not arise out of thin air. They constituted considered recommendations for constitutional, institutional and legislative reform, not just “political considerations”, to strengthen accountability arrived at during a decade and a half of deliberations, inside and outside parliament, prior to the Golding initiative of 2007.

These deliberations included over 160 written and oral contributions both to the Constitution Commission established in 1991 and to three successive Joint Select Committees of Parliament (on two of which I served as a Senator). It should be carefully noted that this Constitution Commission of 1991, unlike the Constitution Reform Committee established by Holness administration in 2023, was chaired not by a Cabinet Minister, but by eminent jurists Jim Kerr and subsequently, Dr Lloyd Barnett.

The 39 members of this Constitution Commission included 23 representatives from and chosen by 12 citizen organisations among them trade unions, youth organisations, women associations, the private sector, teachers, church, etc. These representatives of citizens bodies sat alongside, senior personalities chosen by the People’s National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), including former Prime Minister Edward Seaga, to represent the parties on the Commission. The activities of the Constitution Commission and the Joint Select Committees included a serious programme of genuine public education on the contents of the Jamaican Constitution and meaningful public consultations between 1991 and 2006 in parish forums across the island.

MENU OF LAWS

Alongside this activity, and clearly influenced by these deliberations, came the menu of laws, institutions, and initiatives aimed at checking and balancing the power of the Executive, and in particular the power of the prime minister, described as “dictatorial” in 1961 by members of the very committee making Jamaica’s independence Constitution which we still have. To strengthen accountability, increase transparency and protect rights of the citizens came the following:

• The Office of the Public Defender (2000)

• The Corruption Prevention Act (2001)

• The Code of Conduct for Ministers (2002)

• The Access to Information Act (2002)

• The Office of the Political Ombudsman (2002)

• The Electoral Commission of Jamaica (2006)

• The Independent Commission of Investigations (2010)

It is in this context, to carry forward the consensus to increase the accountability of the executive, that Prime Minister Golding initiated the practice of Opposition members, who would have an obvious interest in probing Governmental policy and operations, chairing Parliamentary Sessional Committees. It was therefore no accident that following the passage of the legislation and the establishment of the independent institutions mentioned above, that Prime Minister Golding informed the Parliament on June 10, 2011 that a Bill would shortly be tabled to give Constitutional protection, and shield from manipulation by any parliamentary majority, the Electoral Commission of Jamaica, the Office of the Public Defender and the Office of the Political Ombudsman.

It is in that same year, that cross party consensus, including agreement between the Prime Minister and Leader of Opposition, as well as agreement from civil society and citizen bodies produced the they path breaking Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms to replaced chapter 3 of the 1962 independence Constitution. This charter established new rights for the Jamaican people, including the right to a healthy and productive environment, non-discrimination on the grounds of being male or female and removed the authority of the Government to unilaterally declare and maintain a state of emergency, allowing for citizens’ detention, of up to 12 months.

REMOVED THE POWER

This charter explicitly removed the power of Government to take away our rights as the Prime Minister or the Parliamentary majority would see fit. The charter states in part “Parliament shall make no law and no organ of the state shall take any action which abrogates, abridges or infringes rights … save as demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” The authority to make that determination is no longer in the hands of any Prime Minister, Cabinet, or Parliamentary majority but firmly in the hands of an independent Judiciary.

Of course, we Jamaicans should learn from recent history that while our rights may be guaranteed on paper in the Constitution, ultimately, it is we the citizens who have to stand up if and when there’s a threat of erosion. Our judiciary learnt and practised this lesson well.

It was on February 12, 2018 that for the first time, and hopefully the last time in our history, all 97 judges from the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and the Parish Courts of Jamaica found it necessary to do a “meet-out” instead of presiding over the court as normal “to publicly register … grave concern regarding some statements made by the Honourable Prime Minister [as] “rationale for recommending an acting instead of a permanent appointment for the post of Chief Justice”. In a historic statement the judges declared “the Doctrine of Separation of Powers on which the Constitution and our democracy rests, recognises that the concentration of absolute power in one person, body, or entity risks the corrosive dangers of corruption, exploitation and tyranny. As Judges we stand resolute to do our part in avoiding such an eventuality.”

Significantly, then acting Justice Bryan Sykes was appointed chief justice a few days after, bodies like the Bar Association took this public stand. We, all who sincerely wish to strengthen Jamaica’s democratic system should do our part to insist that the government to entrench the chairmanship of parliamentary sessional committees’ members of the Parliamentary Opposition by of durable regulations rather than pass the motion to have Government members chair these bodies to oversight the Government own actions. Our Prime Minister needs to be reminded of the commendable declaration which he made on being sworn in to head the Government on March 2, 2016. “Significant numbers of Jamaicans have lost hope in our system … Jamaican people want to see action in building trust” and again on being sworn in for the second term on September 7, 2020 “we must seek to prevent the reoccurrence of actions, which weaken public trusts and damage the integrity of the Government.”

Prime Minister in your third term, we the citizens ask that you take action not just to suspend but to transform this motion now before Parliament to restore the Golding practice (2007-2020) thereby building, rather than weakening public trust in the integrity of the Government.

Dr Trevor Munroe, is emeritus professor of Government at The University of the West Indies, Mona and founding director of National Integrity Action. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com