Back in November 2021, when Barbados threw a glittering ceremony to ditch the British monarchy and become a republic, it stirred up a whale of emotions among its regional neighbors, with calls for authorities in nearly every Caribbean Community (Caricom) member state to follow suit.

Broadcast live to the world and attended by Prince Charles, then heir to the British throne, millions of people around the world—Caribbean citizens in particular—watched as the eastern Caribbean island completed what officials had said was the full circle of independence and decolonization as a local ceremonial president replaced then-Queen Elizabeth as the nation’s head of state.

Among those making the loudest noises was Jamaica, with patriots and nationalists bemoaning the fact that the island had not made any concrete steps to dump the British monarchy and then Queen Elizabeth in more than 60 years as an independent nation.

Now, Jamaica’s latest efforts to join fellow Caricom member states Guyana, Trinidad, Barbados, and Dominica as a republic have hit a major snag: The main opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has reminded all and sundry in the past week that it will not vote in parliament to support the move unless and until the governing Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) agrees to a full decolonization process all at once by ditching the British Privy Council at the country’s final court. 

The PNP wants the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to be the island’s apex court. Unless this is done, the PNP will not support any moves to republicanism because it describes ditching the monarchy but not the Privy Council as a half measure that it does not agree with. 

The JLP says the Privy Council will disappear in phase two of the decolonization process, but the PNP has suspicions about this because the JLP has traditionally been steadfast in opposition to the CCJ. It still prefers that white, British, bewigged law lords hear appeal cases from Jamaica despite legal and administrative costs, as well as logistical challenges.

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To become a republic, both parties need to support each other, because the requirements involve a complex web of constitutional moves, including a referendum and a two-thirds majority vote, among other rules.

Late last week, the PNP announced that it had instructed its representatives on the national constitutional reform commission not to sign off on the report about republicanism until the government agrees to its demands to also quit the British court as the nation’s final level of appeal.

“For us to say goodbye to the monarch, we need a consensus—a solid agreement between government and opposition—before the people are asked to decide,” said Legal Affairs Minister Marlene Malahoo Forte over the weekend as Opposition Leader Mark Golding reinforced his party’s opposition to the phased or piecemeal approach to republicanism. “The committee from the outset agreed to work by consensus, knowing that our founding fathers envisioned that attempts to reform the constitution, especially those deeply entrenched provisions, would fail unless the two political parties forming government and opposition sing from the same hymn sheet.”

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