Monarchy vs a Corrupt Republic : Part 1

 

The following is part one of a speech is was presented by yours truly at a town hall meeting discussing corruption in Jamaica and how it should affect our view of a republic.

“I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong”

These words were spoken by the then Princess Elizabeth (who later became Queen Elizabeth II) on the occasion of her 21^st birthday.

It would be hard pressed to hear any president of any republic legitimately make a similar pledge because this might be indicative of his ambition to rule for life, such a notion which is normal and expected of a monarch would be alarming for a president since it would go against the very idea of what a president is meant to be which is a temporary guardian of the highest office of the state. Indeed, during the Trump years, some in the US media who were hostile to him kept referring to him as the “occupant of the White House”. In a way they were correct, but this is not limited to Trump but is fact applicable to all US presidents ever since George Washington and that is exactly the point of what a president is supposed to be.

A key argument used to republicans is that a republic is a “modern” form of government while monarchies belong only in the past or in stories such as popular medieval drama Game of Thrones. This of course is misleading as the truth is republics are quite old, going all the way back to classical Greece. If anything a proper historical understanding only proves that monarchies are a longer lasting form of state. E.g. When Jamaica was captured by England in 1655, England for the first time in its history was a republic led by Oliver Cr0mwell. But a mere 5 years later, the republican experiment was ended lasting only 11 years. Clearly republicanism didn’t work out then. But I have yet to have anyone to prove to me that if the republic did last then colonialism or slavery would not have happened. In fact, the history not only of Cromwell’s republic but also of the Dutch Republic and the pre-civil war USA all prove that a republican form of government didn’t necessarily mean freedom for all. What is my point exactly? To downplay slavery or colonialism? Not at all, people are flawed in every age and the idea that a republican form of government is somehow more virtuous must be expunged.

Many republics claim virtue as an exclusive right but in the same vein they also claim an exclusive hold on democracy but of course one doesn’t need to look very far to see that for the lie that it is.  Why mention this? An important part of integrity is the ability to tell the truth and the reality is that many republics that give lip service to democracy are hardly democracies. Just take one look at the democracy index, at the very top of this list is  Norway, followed by New Zealand, Iceland, Sweden and Denmark (note that of the countries I just mentioned only Iceland is a republic). Compare that with the very bottom of this list i.e. the least democratic countries. Well there is Afghanistan (for obvious reasons) followed by North Korea, Myanmar and Central African Republic, not a single kingdom among them.

But in addition to this even in cases where republics are more democratic, the element of dishonesty remains. This is more so in parliamentary republic than a presidential one. In a presidential republic, the president is truly a representative of the people as he is elected by the people and whoever wins the overall national vote wins the election (an exception to this is the US where the election is determine by not by national vote but by state vote and thus the candidate that wins the most states also wins the most electoral college votes).

A parliamentary republic also gives lip service to popular sovereignty but in many cases the president is not chosen by the people but rather is nominated by the prime minister and rubber stamped by parliament. Indeed, just a few weeks ago, our neighbor Trinidad and Tobago installed Christine Kangaloo as the 7^th president of the republic. It should be noted that while the media kept referring to it as an election, it was really an appointment. Kangaloo’s appointment was not without controversy as the official opposition party was thoroughly opposed to her nomination, but PM Rowley having the majority in parliament just pushed it through anyway. As we all know, the latest announcement from the Ministry of Legal and Constitutional Affairs states that the republican model being considered for Jamaica is similar to the one used in Trinidad. What is point of this stating this? Contrary to the very ideal of popular sovereignty, the head of state is not at all the representative of a sovereignty people but rather a creature of the head of government which belies the notion of democratic legitimacy or apolitical neutrality.

I for one am not necessarily here to argue for a presidential type system as that too comes with a host of political problems least of all is gridlock as is exemplified by government shutdowns in the US when the White House and Capitol Hill are controlled by opposing parties. The parliamentary system serves us quite well but such a system is not going to allow a directly elected president. Nor will I ever advocate for one, I am after all, a deeply devout monarchist, one who would have sided with George III in the American Revolution, supported the Shah in Iran’s 1979 revolution or backed Emperor Selassie against the Derg regime. My point is this, the very nature of the presidential office in of parliamentary republic is dishonest because it claims a legitimacy that it does not truly possess. Why is monarchy not the same? Simple…monarchy does NOT claim to have democratic legitimacy in and of itself, the primary exercisers of royal authority (King and G0vernor-General) are not elected, this is known and accepted by all as simply part and parcel of a monarchical system. But what the Crown does do is provide a framework for elected officials to function in the various officers under our constitutional arrangement. As the late Queen once puts it “My Job is not to govern, but to ensure that there is a government”. This is a far more honest setup than one in which an unelected president is masking as an elected one simply by virtue of their title.

This was seen not only in Trinidad but also in Barbados where upon being selected in 2021, news items both locally and overseas kept referring to Sandra Mason as the first elected president of Barbados, that too was patently false, the truth is that Mason was nominated and appointed by Mia Mottley with the House of Assembly (which had a supermajority for the government) rubberstamping her choice. Incidentally enough 3 years earlier when Mason was appointed as governor-general upon the nomination of PM Freundel Stuart, none made the claim that she was elected because indeed she was not, but change the vice-regal title to a presidential one and replace Queen with parliament and all of a sudden an appointment is being confused for an election. There is clear disparity between what the presidency is purported to be and what it actually is.

This is important as too often the concept of republicanism has often been conflated with what it means to be a democracy. This comes mainly from an influx of an Americanized culture which makes the two somewhat indistinguishable regardless of what Democrats and Republicans will tell you. But in truth democracy refers to above all else right of the people to participate in determining their own development and future. Yet it should be noted neither of the two classical forms of government is by nature linked with democracy. Democracy as well as autocracy can exists with or without a monarch. This argument applies not only to democracy but overall development. Last year, The PM told the Prince of Wales (then Duke of Cambridge) that Jamaica would be moving on from the monarchy and become a developed country. This conflation was celebrated by those not paying attention as often republicans love using the monarchy as a scapegoat for why Jamaica is not a first world country. But objectively speaking there is nothing in having a King that would indicate a lack of development. If anyone is holding us back, it is not King Charles or the late Queen Elizabeth but our own corrupt politicians.  The last thing we need is but another politician added to the mix. The Spectator in 1997 puts it this way “The monarchy is a political referee, not a political player, and there is a lot of sense in having a referee different from the players. It lessens the danger that the referee might try to start playing.”

Stay Tuned for Part two