Court Ruling On NIDS Ultimately A Minor Setback

EVERY JAMAICAN LOOKING TO LIVE OUTSIDE THE CARIBBEAN REGION HAVE TO GIVE BIO-METRICS TO FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS OF THE COUNTRY THEY WISH TO LIVE IN.
THEY NEVER COMPLAIN, WHY COMPLAIN ABOUT OUR GOVERNMENT ASKING THE SAME OF THEM?

In a unan­i­mous deci­sion, Jamaica’s Supreme Court struck down the
National Identification and Registration Act (NIDS) , which has been a source of debate and much con­tention since it was first insti­tut­ed.
In a suit brought by the People’s National Party’s General Secretary Julian Robinson on behalf of him­self, his con­stituents in St Andrew South East, and the mem­bers of the PNP, Robinson argued that the law was unconstitutional.

In explain­ing the deci­sion of the court, Chief Justice Bryan Sykes said: “It is the court’s deci­sion for the law to be struck down in its entire­ty because those aspects which did not infringe on the Constitutional rights of cit­i­zens were not enough to stand alone”. 
Justice Sykes went on: “The manda­to­ry require­ment of NIDS for per­sons to sub­mit bio­met­ric infor­ma­tion is indeed a vio­la­tion of the right to pri­va­cy, which is stip­u­lat­ed by the Constitution”.

This issue should not be viewed as a win for any polit­i­cal par­ty. Nevertheless, it is incon­ceiv­able that in light of Jamaican’s pro­cliv­i­ty to see cru­cial issues through green or orange lens­es, it will be viewed as a polit­i­cal vic­to­ry by those who did not want it.
Never mind that many who do not want it can hard­ly artic­u­late why they have a prob­lem with the idea of a nation­al iden­ti­fi­ca­tion data­base..
It is rather tempt­ing to talk about the PNP’s con­stant pop­ulist stance which is seri­ous­ly get­ting in the way of the nation’s advance­ment.
Likewise, it is just as tempt­ing to delve into the JLP’s habit of cre­at­ing leg­is­la­tion which tends to do more harm than good, even though the orig­i­nal intent of the leg­is­la­tion may have been right­eous. (see the INDECOM Act.)

If we allow our­selves to avoid the default polit­i­cal fall­back on these issues we can take a look at the rea­sons these meth­ods are rel­e­vant today even though they may not have Constitutional cov­er.
The Jamaican Constitution was craft­ed at a time when none of the issues affect­ing the Island today were present, par­tic­u­lar­ly on the crime front.
As such it is crit­i­cal that there either be amend­ments to the Constitution which allows the coun­try to keep up with the way the world is going or be left on the incon­se­quen­tial garbage-heap where failed states go to die.
This writer has no prob­lem with the deci­sion of the court. The court is tasked with deci­pher­ing exact­ly what is in the con­sti­tu­tion and how cas­es which come before it stand up to con­sti­tu­tion­al scruti­ny.
I believe that is exact­ly what the learned Justice Byran Sykes and his col­leagues did in arriv­ing at this unan­i­mous deci­sion.
Neither do I have any quar­rel with the peti­tion­ers of the court al ‑la Julian Robinson et al, out­side of the cumu­la­tive pile of cir­cum­stan­tial evi­dence which has become the PNP’s [modus- operan­di], as it relates to being obstruc­tion­ist in the fight against dan­ger­ous crim­i­nals.
It fol­lows that the Administration in office must forth­with brush this rebuke aside and pro­ceed with a nation­al edu­ca­tion cam­paign to bring cit­i­zens up to speed on the ways a nation­al Identification data­base is ben­e­fi­cial to and nec­es­sary for their pro­tec­tion.
At the same time, it must also seek to get a Constitutional amend­ment through the par­lia­ment where the Opposition PNP par­ty has decid­ed­ly staked out a stance that it will be an imped­i­ment and a hin­drance to any strat­e­gy aimed at deal­ing effec­tive­ly with the nation’s crime prob­lem.
It is also impor­tant that peo­ple yap­ping about their oppo­si­tion to a National iden­ti­fi­ca­tion Database do under­stand the ram­i­fi­ca­tions and con­se­quences of not hav­ing one. 

A National Identification sys­tem is a must for all Nations for all intents and pur­pos­es.
Here’s why.
If a nation does not know its cit­i­zens, it can­not give an account­ing of their actions„ what crimes they have com­mit­ted, if any.
As such, any account­ing, vis-a-vis police records for visas and green card is use­less and will not be viewed with any degree of def­er­ence. When a nation can­not be trust­ed to give an accu­rate account­ing of its cit­i­zens, that coun­try is deemed a failed state.
So now, every­one is unable to trav­el or engage in com­merce out­side the coun­try. This is not where the world is com­ing from it is where the world is going. This set­back is only a tem­po­rary block on the road. The PNP is an agent of oppo­si­tion to progress in Jamaica and so the present admin­is­tra­tion should through the par­lia­ment pur­sue a con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment, if not a reword­ing of the present piece of leg­is­la­tion before the courts. Ultimately, the Parliament is con­sti­tut­ed of the people’s rep­re­sen­ta­tives and that is where the pow­er lies.
Frankly, I have called for a new con­sti­tu­tion for years.
Now may be the time !!!!!!!!