Darrien Ollivierre said...
While I agree with most of your argument. I believe you may have misinterpreted Cap 6 Section 68:
"A person shall be qualify to be elected or selected to be a representative if, and shall not be so qualify to be so elected or selective unless he is able to speak and, unless incapacitated by blindness or other physical cause , to read the English language with a degree of proficiency sufficient to allow him to take an active part in the proceedings of the national assemble."
My interpretation is that the section deals with communication in the assembly proceedings. It says that a person must be able to speak and to read the English Language with a degree of proficiency as required to take part in assembly proceedings. However it makes allowance for individuals who are not able to read if "incapacitated by blindness or other physical cause".
I do not interpret the section to be discriminatory I believe it makes concession for persons with disabilities to be elected. In essence, it says that the only reason you should not be able to read the English language well is if you are blind or have some other impediment.
All that being said, I dont think the whole review has been handled appropriately and a great injustice has been carried out by our politicians who have made it into a party political issue, thus seeking to pursuade the populace based on political affiliation.
Furthermore, "yes" campaigners have the nerve to say that persons who do not support the new constitution are unpatriotic!! As far as I am aware, being patriotic means doing what I feel is best for my Nation and it's People, whether that comes in the form of supporting a new constitution or maintaining the existing one.
Reply: Good day Darrien Ollivierre,
I appreciate you and your effort to continue the rational debate, as it relates to the constitution of St. Vincent; I also appreciate your interpretation of this piece of law; however, it is such ambiguity that contributes to the fattening of lawyers coffers and are the reason why they are able to make fools out of the ordinary man. For reason that is anything but honest, they fail to make their intent clear, hence the reason they attach tons of jumbles to their written and vocal expression. It is their intent to keep the ordinary man and woman in a state of confusion; for it is in our state of mental confusion we are forced to use their service.
Now let’s break down this piece of ambiguous writing together.
"A person shall be qualify to be elected or selected to be a representative if, and shall not be so qualify to be so elected or selective unless he is able to speak and, unless incapacitated by blindness or other physical cause, to read the English language with a degree of proficiency sufficient to allow him to take an active part in the proceedings of the national assemble."
The sentence starts with, “A person shall be qualify to be elected or selected to be a representative if,” however before it was state in plain English, all of the eligible factors, the second sentence began and thus began to outline all the characteristics that disqualify or make a person ineligible to be so elected or selected. It makes much sense to list of characteristic which will make a person ineligible for the reason they are few. To do otherwise will be to long and will only add to the congestion of the piece of legislation. So to avoid such congestion they went on to outline those characteristics that mad an individual ineligible.
Hence the reason why phase “and shall not be so Qualify to be so elected or selected unless he is able to” proceed the opening phase. What does this means? If an individual do not possess the characteristic that disqualify him form eligibility qualify you.
Now, let us take a little time to analyze the second portion of the paragraph. This paragraph outlined in detail the characteristics that disqualify an individual from being selected or elected to public political office and they are divided into two categories.
- The disable which is specified by disability
· “He must be able to speak” (none speakers are omitted)
· Incapacitated by blindness (any blind person)
· “Incapacitated by physical means” (anyone with a physical incapacity which is wide and vague) - And the other category that disqualifies an individual is illiteracy (English Language): ones inability to read or write.
Every person with an open mind is aware that Sign Language and brail are universal language and in this world with its educational and technological advancement have created an environment where a blind person may be unable to see and a hearing impaired person may be unable to hear but they are not disabled. In many cases they are more able then many who has all of their senses in tact.
What I will like to know why is the person who has a physical incapacity disqualify from holding an elected or appointed office?
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