Business
Jamaica: Becoming a republic is just a start
Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller. PHOTO/Gilbert Bellamy/Reuters
Jamaicans don’t have a lot to celebrate as they mark their golden anniversary of independence this year. Their unemployment rate is almost twice that of the Caribbean region as a whole; their government is still reeling from a drug kingpin scandal that helped oust the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) from power last month; and the last they saw of their national hero, god-like Olympic gold-medal sprinter Usain Bolt, was his shocking false-start disqualification from the 100-meter dash in last summer’s world championships.
So for many Jamaicans it was a morale booster when new Prime Minster Portia Simpson-Miller announced in her inaugural address on Jan. 6 that she would “initiate the process of detachment” from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II this year. Although Jamaica won its independence from British colonial rule in 1962, the Queen has remained the island’s head of state. Making Jamaica a republic would sever that relationship. “I love the Queen,” Simpson Miller declared. “She’s a beautiful lady…a wise lady and a wonderful lady. But I think time come.”
Jamaica would hardly be first among the numerous former British colonies in the Caribbean to ditch Her Majesty. Trinidad & Tobago, which also won its independence in 1962, became a republic as early as 1976. Still, “the process of detachment” could be an important democratic exercise, not just for Jamaica but the rest of the region, provided Simpson Miller and the island’s political class show some leadership. Jamaica’s real governmental dysfunction doesn’t lie on the throne of England – it resides in the office of Prime Minister and the inordinate executive powers the position holds.
