Is Minister Chuck promoting a mirage?

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Regrettably, the justice minister Delroy Chuck is not exhibiting inspirational stewardship of the constitutional affairs portfolio.

Recently, he affirmed that goals which would undeniably enhance Jamaicans' general well-being will not be pursued because that would foremost be regarded by the government as bowing to the demands of the Opposition. 

He now extends that regressive self-satisfying governance approach by inviting the people, including the less privileged, long denied access to final justice, to follow blindly down a path leading to the mirage of a local final appellate court. 

In doing so, he discretely bypassed the massively uncomfortable question of why, Jamaica's financial obligation fully met, the globally-acclaimed CCJ should be shunned, with the authorities facing a formidable, certainly unanswered, challenge to construct a sorely needed parish courthouse anywhere. 

Does he not consider that they should explain the new genius-thinking that propels the exhortation for Jamaicans to jettison the unquestionable attributes of the regional court, conceptualised near 80 years ago?

Where did colonial governors go wrong in recommending from their 1948 Bridgetown meeting that there should be free movement throughout the region, creation of a regional university, and establishment of a regional final court to replace the Privy Council? 

Should Chuck not indicate the misdirection of regional barristers in convincing the Hugh Shearer-led government, in 1970, to embrace the landmark decision that Jamaica would, in time, accede to a regional final court? 

There was, then, no suggestion of a local final court nor when Jamaica, under the Seaga-led government, urged the regional heads of government at their 1988 St Johns, Antigua, meeting to expedite the creation of the regional court. 

The Preparatory Committee for the Establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice recognized that, added to irrefutable resource constraints, an implacable obstacle to the establishment of final courts in these small island states was the insurmountable challenge of insulation from political and other influence within that geographically confining space.  

Urged on by the Jamaican Bar Association and Chuck's own political party, this was a matter for which the Committee found a widely-applauded creative mechanism which guarantees the secure operations of the regional court.  

This Government's awkward anti-CCJ posture, coupled with haughtily scoffing at suggestions from every source, has caused them to choose reckless pathways, prompting ungracious promotion of a mirage.

Lack of access to justice is a hallmark of the unjust society: the self-satisfying approach to governance must be shelved, Minister Chuck. There is no alternative to the Caribbean Court of Justice!

A.J. NICHOLSON