As we com­mem­o­rate the first sit­ting of our re­pub­li­can Par­lia­ment to­day with the ded­i­ca­tion of Re­pub­lic Day, it is time to re­flect up­on the ab­sence of any trend in the wider Com­mon­wealth Caribbean to adopt re­pub­li­can­ism.

Guyana start­ed the trend in 1970 when it be­came the Co-op­er­a­tive Re­pub­lic of Guyana and al­so abol­ished the Privy Coun­cil. In 1976, T&T changed its Con­sti­tu­tion, be­came a re­pub­lic, and re­placed Her Majesty Queen Eliz­a­beth II as Head of State. Do­mini­ca fol­lowed and be­came a re­pub­lic with its in­de­pen­dence in 1978.

Af­ter Do­mini­ca, no oth­er coun­tries be­came re­publics un­til Bar­ba­dos in No­vem­ber 2021. St Vin­cent and the Grenadines at­tempt­ed to change its Con­sti­tu­tion to in­clude re­pub­li­can­ism in 2009. How­ev­er, the vot­ers re­ject­ed it in the re­quired ref­er­en­dum.

At the mo­ment, Ja­maica is con­sid­er­ing re­pub­li­can­ism and has ap­point­ed a Con­sti­tu­tion Com­mis­sion. The two-thirds ma­jori­ties re­quired in both the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives (which the Gov­ern­ment has) and the Sen­ate will be­come a chal­lenge for the Gov­ern­ment in the Sen­ate be­cause of the fixed po­lit­i­cal arith­metic there.

The cur­rent leader of the op­po­si­tion and pres­i­dent of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Par­ty (PNP) Mark Gold­ing made it clear at last week­end’s PNP An­nu­al Con­fer­ence that the PNP will not sup­port re­pub­li­can­ism un­less there is the in­clu­sion of a mea­sure to re­place the Privy Coun­cil with the CCJ as Ja­maica’s fi­nal court of ap­peal.

The Gov­ern­ment has in­di­cat­ed that it has not set­tled its po­si­tion on the shift from the Privy Coun­cil to the CCJ and so it is on­ly the Re­pub­lic Bill that is like­ly to come for­ward. If that is the case, the bill will be dead on ar­rival as the PNP will not sup­port it.

Such a bill will re­quire three months to elapse be­fore the com­mence­ment of de­bate on the Bill in Par­lia­ment and a fur­ther three months to elapse af­ter the com­ple­tion of de­bate in the Par­lia­ment. Af­ter that six-month pe­ri­od, the bill, if passed, must then be made the sub­ject of a ref­er­en­dum be­tween two and six months af­ter its pas­sage and, if passed at the ref­er­en­dum, then it can be­come law.

With the Op­po­si­tion not on board un­less their CCJ de­mands are met, the Re­pub­lic Bill is un­like­ly to go any­where. For the time be­ing, the Op­po­si­tion is hold­ing the trump cards on this re­pub­li­can de­bate in Ja­maica by virtue of the spe­cial ma­jor­i­ty and ref­er­en­dum re­quire­ments of the Con­sti­tu­tion.

Apart from Ja­maica, there ap­pears to be lit­tle en­er­gy in the Com­mon­wealth Caribbean to ad­vance the cause of re­pub­li­can­ism as King Charles III re­mains the Head of State of An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, the Ba­hamas, Be­lize, Grena­da, St Lu­cia, St Kitts/Nevis, and St Vin­cent and the Grenadines.

With the lack of en­er­gy to ad­vance re­pub­li­can­ism be­ing quite ev­i­dent in our re­gion, one must en­gage in some kind of in­tro­spec­tion as to why there is such lethar­gy on the is­sue. The fact that the Ja­maican Op­po­si­tion has bun­dled the CCJ mat­ter with the re­pub­li­can is­sue has ex­posed the in­de­ci­sion of the Ja­maican Gov­ern­ment on the CCJ.

Some coun­tries in the re­gion have cho­sen to re­tain their ac­cess to the British ho­n­ours sys­tem and, in some cas­es, have mod­i­fied the British ho­n­ours sys­tem in or­der to cre­ate lo­cal knight­hoods and dame­hoods. What is the un­der­ly­ing is­sue of retro­fitting knight­hoods and dame­hoods to be­come lo­cal na­tion­al awards in coun­tries of our re­gion?  

In T&T, the is­sue of na­tion­al awards was ad­dressed in 1969 when the Gov­ern­ment cre­at­ed the Or­der of the Trin­i­ty as a means of recog­nis­ing the ac­com­plish­ments of peo­ple in the so­ci­ety with the Trin­i­ty Cross, the Cha­co­nia Medal, the Hum­ming Bird Medal and the Pub­lic Ser­vice Medal of Mer­it.

The Or­der of the Trin­i­ty be­came the sub­ject of lit­i­ga­tion and was deemed to be dis­crim­i­na­to­ry to peo­ple of non-Chris­t­ian faiths in our plur­al so­ci­ety. Be­fore the mat­ter could reach the Privy Coun­cil, the Man­ning ad­min­is­tra­tion in­tro­duced The Dis­tin­guished So­ci­ety of Trinidad and To­ba­go in 2008.

Re­pub­li­can­ism is more than just chang­ing from the per­son of the British monarch to a na­tive-born lo­cal­ly-elect­ed pres­i­dent. Like­wise, the CCJ and re­pub­li­can­ism may not nec­es­sar­i­ly go to­geth­er as is the case in Be­lize and St Lu­cia which have the CCJ and al­so have King Charles III as their Head of State. T&T as a re­pub­lic has the Privy Coun­cil be­cause Er­ic Williams was not in­clined to re­move it in 1976.