JLP urge Golding to disclose British citizenship status
Vanassa McKenzie / Our Today
Deputy General Secretary of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Senator Charles Sinclair, is calling on the Opposition leader Mark Golding to provide a direct answer on his British citizenship status.
There have been calls from several stakeholders for Golding to disclose his citizenship status following calls from the opposition for the government to severe ties with the Privy Council as Jamaica’s final Court of Appeal in its transition to full independence.
Sinclair has described Golding’s silence in providing answers to calls from stakeholders as hypocritical, unacceptable, and disgraceful. He said an answer is necessary because Jamaica’s aspiring head of government being a citizen of another territory would raise questions of loyalty and allegiance regardless of whether that territory is a member of the Commonwealth.
“The concern would apply to the constitutional role of the leader of the opposition. Given that the Government of Jamaica is attempting to move Jamaica towards Republic status, the leader of the opposition is clearly conflicted, and his motive for blocking the move, now open to significant question,” he said.
Sinclair also urged Golding to indicate whether he is prepared to do right by Jamaica by renouncing his British citizenship.
“The PNP president should immediately indicate whether he is prepared to do right by the Jamaican people by renouncing his British citizenship which his spinning and equivocation have compelled many now conclude that he conveniently retains, ” the senator said.
Golding in a statement on Saturday, May 18, insisted he is a born Jamaican and have a Jamaican passport.
“I’ve never hidden the fact that my father, who came to Jamaica from the UK, had got me a British passport when I was a young child. From before first serving in government, I travel on my Jamaican passport when I go abroad. Like other Jamaicans, I apply for visas from countries such as the US and UK to go there. I man born yah, but the local government elections and recent polls seem to be driving some to grasp at straws,” Golding noted.
He further argued that the current constitution require Commonwealth citizenship in order to be eligible to be a parliamentarian, allowing candidates with Commonwealth passports to serve as Member of Parliament or sit in the Senate.
“On the other hand, the current constitution prohibits non-Commonwealth citizens (who have pledged foreign allegiance) from being parliamentarians. The constitutional reform process should reconsider the current rule, and make it accord with the realities of the Jamaican experience,” Golding wrote.
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