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When King Charles III placed the crown of St. For centuries Edward, Jamaica, a member of the Commonwealth, is pushing ahead with plans to cut ties with the British monarchy – a decision scheduled for a referendum in 2024.
“The time has come. Jamaica is in Jamaica’s hands,” Marlene Malahoo Forte, Jamaica’s minister for legal and constitutional affairs, said in an interview with Sky News this week. “It’s time to separate.”
He was part of a 15-member committee of officials and experts that laid the groundwork for revising the Jamaican Constitution and removing the British monarch as the Caribbean island’s head of state.
Jamaica was also represented in a letter to King Charles this week in which campaigners from 12 Commonwealth countries urged him to use the coronation to apologize for the “horrific impact” of the British imperial era, including “racism, oppression, colonialism and slavery.” The letter demanded compensation and the return of all stolen cultural artifacts.
“Britain has a huge opportunity” to address colonial injustice, said Rosalea Hamilton, co-signer of the letter and founding director of the Institute of Law and Economics, a non-profit in Kingston, Jamaica’s capital. “After leading the world this cruelly for centuries, he can lead the world to repair the damage.”
Although its practical role in the island’s affairs was minimal, the monarchy has left an uneasy legacy. All the functions of the queen, and now the king, are performed by the governor-general who is his direct representative – approving all laws and determining who is the Prime Minister.
“Some people will say it’s too much of a ceremony, but I think that’s the wrong way around,” said Tracy Robinson, a professor of constitutional law at the University of the West Indies. “It represents the old prerogative power of the crown.”
On the part of the British government, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak refused to apologize for the country’s role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade or participate in discussions about paying reparations. “Trying to erase our history is not the right way,” lawmakers told the British Parliament in April, “and it’s not something we’re going to focus on.”
Still, the process of constitutional reform caused more people in Jamaica to think even beyond the British monarch.
“When we say we want to get rid of the monarchy, that tells us only the starting point,” Ms. Robinson said during a public panel this week. “It doesn’t tell you where to go or where to go.”
Among the questions that arose: If Charles III had not become Jamaica’s head of state, what political system would have been in place?
“We’ve never asked and answered that question before,” said Ms. Hamilton, who chairs the Advocates Network, an organization that encourages a national discussion about the transition to a republic. “Can we, for the first time in our history, plan to remake society in the interests of the majority?”
A clear answer is elusive. So far, the governing committee – which has said a draft of the bill will be presented to Parliament this month – has mostly met in private.
If the legislation is not drafted with significant public participation, said Maziki Thame, a researcher at the University of the West Indies, decision-making may end up in the hands of a few. That would be less than what Jamaicans want.
“Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s very important that you have power for the people,” he said. “At the same time, I want to have substance as a representative of the democratic movement.”
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