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EDITORIAL - Mrs Hay-Webster's futile evasiveness
Published: Tuesday | August 4, 2009
Sharon Hay-Webster, the People's National Party (PNP) Member of Parliament MP for South Central St Catherine has come to recognise the improbability of eating her cake and still having it.
She is taking steps, she says, to renounce her United States citizenship with the clear intent, assuming the voters will have her, of remaining as a member of the Jamaican Parliament.
It has taken Mrs Hay-Webster over 15 months to get to this point. Despite her protestations to the contrary, we believe the threat by Prime Minister Golding to institute legal action to have her thrown out of the House had something to do with it.
Mr Golding's jamaica Labour Party (JLP) intends similar action against another PNP MP, Ian Hayles, in the tit-for-tat between the parties over who is eligible to sit in Parliament. In Mr Hayles's case, he claims to have renounced his US citizenship prior to the 2007 general election. The question remains as to whether he was properly nominated if his renunciation was formalised before Nomination Day.
Mrs Hay-Webster, and the PNP's handling of her case, is altogether another matter, stripping them of moral authority in the dual-citizenship issue.
Mrs Hay-Webster was born in the United States to a Jamaican parent. She has lived in the island pretty much all her life, but has a US passport, which she claims not to use.
At the time of the general election, when the PNP's Abe Dabdoub was objecting to Daryl Vaz's eligibility for election to Parliament from West Portland because he was an American citizen who sometimes travelled on a US passport, Mrs Hay-Webster would have been aware that similar questions could be raised about her. She did say that she received legal opinion that she was safe.
However, Mrs Hay-Webster would have been in no doubt about the view of the judiciary on the matter after both the High Court and the Court of Appeal earlier this year held that by acquiring a US passport as an adult, Mr Vaz was "by virtue of his own act under ... acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience (and) adherence to a foreign power". Mr Vaz was, therefore, ineligible for membership of Parliament. It has been months since Mr Vaz renounced his American citizenship and has been re-elected, as have Gregory Mair, another JLP MP who ran afoul of the Constitution.
Moral responsibility
Yet it is now, after the court ruled that Michael Stern, the JLP parliamentarian for West St Catherine was ineligible, that Mrs Hay-Webster has, publicly at least, stopped looking askance at those who long ago insisted that she had a moral responsibility to step down.
She may argue that Shahine Robinson, the JLP's North East St Ann MP, against whom the PNP has also initiated action, is in the same boat, or worse, given that she has ministerial responsibilities. But it is Mrs Hay-Webster's party that has insisted on the sanctity of the Constitution. In the circumstance, the greater moral burden is on them to do the right thing, rather than engage in a political chess game.
Given that Justice Hibbert, despite the rulings in the previous cases, entertained pleadings that Mr Stern's seat ought not to go to by-election but awarded to his opponent, Mrs Hay-Webster could discover that evasiveness has a price.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.
EDITORIAL - Mrs Hay-Webster's futile evasiveness
Published: Tuesday | August 4, 2009
Sharon Hay-Webster, the People's National Party (PNP) Member of Parliament MP for South Central St Catherine has come to recognise the improbability of eating her cake and still having it.
She is taking steps, she says, to renounce her United States citizenship with the clear intent, assuming the voters will have her, of remaining as a member of the Jamaican Parliament.
It has taken Mrs Hay-Webster over 15 months to get to this point. Despite her protestations to the contrary, we believe the threat by Prime Minister Golding to institute legal action to have her thrown out of the House had something to do with it.
Mr Golding's jamaica Labour Party (JLP) intends similar action against another PNP MP, Ian Hayles, in the tit-for-tat between the parties over who is eligible to sit in Parliament. In Mr Hayles's case, he claims to have renounced his US citizenship prior to the 2007 general election. The question remains as to whether he was properly nominated if his renunciation was formalised before Nomination Day.
Mrs Hay-Webster, and the PNP's handling of her case, is altogether another matter, stripping them of moral authority in the dual-citizenship issue.
Mrs Hay-Webster was born in the United States to a Jamaican parent. She has lived in the island pretty much all her life, but has a US passport, which she claims not to use.
At the time of the general election, when the PNP's Abe Dabdoub was objecting to Daryl Vaz's eligibility for election to Parliament from West Portland because he was an American citizen who sometimes travelled on a US passport, Mrs Hay-Webster would have been aware that similar questions could be raised about her. She did say that she received legal opinion that she was safe.
However, Mrs Hay-Webster would have been in no doubt about the view of the judiciary on the matter after both the High Court and the Court of Appeal earlier this year held that by acquiring a US passport as an adult, Mr Vaz was "by virtue of his own act under ... acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience (and) adherence to a foreign power". Mr Vaz was, therefore, ineligible for membership of Parliament. It has been months since Mr Vaz renounced his American citizenship and has been re-elected, as have Gregory Mair, another JLP MP who ran afoul of the Constitution.
Moral responsibility
Yet it is now, after the court ruled that Michael Stern, the JLP parliamentarian for West St Catherine was ineligible, that Mrs Hay-Webster has, publicly at least, stopped looking askance at those who long ago insisted that she had a moral responsibility to step down.
She may argue that Shahine Robinson, the JLP's North East St Ann MP, against whom the PNP has also initiated action, is in the same boat, or worse, given that she has ministerial responsibilities. But it is Mrs Hay-Webster's party that has insisted on the sanctity of the Constitution. In the circumstance, the greater moral burden is on them to do the right thing, rather than engage in a political chess game.
Given that Justice Hibbert, despite the rulings in the previous cases, entertained pleadings that Mr Stern's seat ought not to go to by-election but awarded to his opponent, Mrs Hay-Webster could discover that evasiveness has a price.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.
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