 The National Identification and Registration Bill, which seeks to establish a reliable identification

system for Jamaicans, was passed in the Senate on Monday (November 13) after 12 hours of

deliberations.
 A National Identification System (NIDS) is intended to provide a comprehensive and secure structure

to enable the capture and storage of identity information for all Jamaicans.

 Leader of Government Business in the Senate and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade,

Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, said the Government intends to put the infrastructure and

systems in place over the next 12 months.

The National Identification and Registration Bill, which seeks to establish a reliable identification
system for Jamaicans, was passed in the Senate on Monday (November 13) after 12 hours of
deliberations.

The legislation was passed with 168 amendments and will return to the House of Representatives
today (November 14) for approval.

A National Identification System (NIDS) is intended to provide a comprehensive and secure structure
to enable the capture and storage of identity information for all Jamaicans.

Each citizen will be provided with a randomised nine-digit National Identification Number (NIN),
which they will have for life.

Leader of Government Business in the Senate and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade,
Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, said the Government intends to put the infrastructure and
systems in place over the next 12 months.

“The pilot would begin in January 2019, and the national roll-out is intended to commence in
September 2019 (and will be undertaken) over a period of three to four years. NIDS is not an event;
it is a journey, a transformation of how we do business,” she pointed out.

Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, Senator Donna Scott-Mottley, urged the Government
to ensure that the public education programme that is to be developed will be “designed in such a
way, that it will get full participation of the public, who can make their thoughts heard”.

She argued that the number of amendments to the Bill, including 100 from the Lower House, is an
indication that it should have been put before a joint select committee.

Senator Johnson Smith, in response, said, “I believe that it is actually the converse. We have
demonstrated that with focus, with energy, and with cooperation, we can make changes in a timely
manner.”

The layered roll-out and management of the NIDS will be handled by a new agency, the National
Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), which will replace the Registrar General’s
Department (RGD) and provide more enhanced services.
The House of Representatives on Tuesday (November 21) approved the 168 amendments made by
the Senate to the National Identification and Registration Bill, which seeks to establish a reliable
identification system for Jamaica.

A National Identification System (NIDS) is intended to provide a comprehensive and secure structure
to enable the capture and storage of identity information for all Jamaicans.

Each citizen will be provided with a randomised nine-digit National Identification Number (NIN),
which they will have for life.

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, in his remarks before the passage of the Bill, sought
to allay concerns regarding the enrolment of persons and the penalties for those who do not comply.

He noted that there is a maximum fine of $100,000, “but the judge can use their discretion, and I am
expecting that the judge would. We have removed the option of imprisonment, totally removed it,” he
said.

The Prime Minister also cited Clause 41, which requires citizens to present their national
identification (ID) number/card in order to receive goods or services from any public body.

Mr. Holness argued that currently, persons have to present an ID to get any service from the
Government.

“But we have made sure to write in a protection in the event of health or something that is life-
threatening or a natural disaster or a national emergency. Then, the system of presenting a national
identification card would be suspended. So, we are not here trying to deprive the citizens of Jamaica
of their rights,” he pointed out.

“We cannot continue to look at the Jamaican State as the enemy of the people. I am not the enemy
of the people, and it is time that we reject that idea. Yes, there must be strong voices to ensure that
Government does not go astray, but we cannot start on the assumption that when we stand here to
pass legislation we are passing legislation to deprive people of rights,” the Prime Minister added.

The layered roll-out and management of the NIDS will be handled by a new agency, the National
Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), which will replace the Registrar General’s
Department (RGD) and provide more enhanced services.

Roll-out of NIDS is slated to begin with a pilot project in January 2019, focusing on civil servants.
Human Dignity in the Biotech Century by Charles Colson 

The national identification systems (NIDS) has occupied the pages of the newspapers and dominated the
airwaves and social media for some weeks now. It has inspired late-night sessions in the House of
Representatives and a walkout by the parliamentary Opposition . There has been a lot of heat but not
much light.

First thing first: What is NIDS exactly? According to the Office of the Prime Minister website the NIDS is “a
unique, reliable and secure way of verifying an individual's identity. It will establish a reliable database of
all Jamaican citizens and will involve the issuance of unique lifelong national identification number to
every person.”

It goes on to say, “The Government of Jamaica is designing and developing a national identification
system (NIDS) that will provide a comprehensive and secure structure to enable the capture and storage
of personal identity information for citizens and persons ordinarily resident in Jamaica. The NIDS will
become the primary source for identity assurance and verification and will result in improved governance
and management of social, economic and security programmes.”

On the face of it, it could appear to be simply a streamlining of all the various numbers that we now have:
birth entry number, National Insurance Scheme number, taxpayer registration number (TRN), passport
number, and voters' ID number. This current multi-source information system is evidently clumsy and
disjointed.

The added layer of disjointedness that affects many people in Jamaica is that they not only have several
different numbers, but they have different names associated with the different numbers. Sometimes this is
just a variation of spelling, but sometimes it is more than that, a completely different first name or even a
last name.

This is not only an issue of genuine mistakes. There are, of course, those who defraud the various
systems. We have much evidence of people having multiple driver's licences and TRN cards. This has
posed different kinds of problems for government and private sector agencies. One lifetime number, it
would seem, should bring a lot of streamlining and eliminate some of the bureaucracy that we often
complain about.
Attorney General Marlene Malahoo Forte yesterday struggled to rebut allegations that at least one aspect of the

National Identification System (NIDS) will treat Jamaicans unfairly in comparison to non-Jamaicans who try to access

goods and services on the island.

Attorney-at-law Michael Hylton, QC, who is heading a People's National Party (PNP) challenge of the NIDS Act,

argued that Section 41, which deals with the mandatory registration under NIDS in order to access goods and

services, puts Jamaicans at a disadvantage.

"The act requires Jamaicans to be registered under the act and to provide their registration in order to access goods

or services from a public body. It does not make the same requirements for non-Jamaicans," Hylton outlined to the

Supreme Court yesterday.

"So a Jamaican falling sick and who goes to a public hospital could not be treated, or the public body could refuse

treatment if the person cannot provide proof of registration," he argued. "A non-Jamaican who is visiting Jamaica and

falls sick would not have to provide it to be treated. That's one example of the kind of discrimination that the act

causes, which we say is unconstitutional."

When it was time for Malahoo Forte to respond to the allegation, however, it seemed the attorney general was

unclear of the arguments being made, despite repeated explanations by Justice David Batts and Chief Justice Bryan

Sykes, two of three judges presiding over the matter.

'DETRIMENTAL TO J'CANS'

"If a Jamaican wants to get a copy of his birth certificate, he has to have a NIDS card. The non-Jamaican who wants

to access those same goods and services doesn't need to produce the NIDS," noted Sykes. "The argument by Mr

Hylton is that it will be detrimental to the Jamaican who must do that much more to access the services."

The judges highlighted that there was nothing in the act to prevent a public servant from arbitrarily declining to render

goods and services to a Jamaican who is not on NIDS, and that having gone through the legislative process the issue

is difficult to addressed.
The matters sparked an almost hourlong back and forth with Malahoo-Forte, who attempted to rebut the challenge

based on utterances made by the Government as opposed to the text being examined before the court.

"The contention, as I understand it, is that someone going to applying for a birth certificate would be required to

produce a NIDS ... a non-Jamaican ... and that it is discriminatory ... and the non-Jamaican is applying on behalf of

someone else? Because I'm not understanding," said a confused Malahoo-Forte, to whom the argument was again

explained by the judges.

LAW NOT YET IN OPERATION

After the hearing, Malahoo Forte explained to reporters that "some of the issues raised will be taken care of in the

regulations. The law is not yet in operation and the regulations are to come to look at the workings of it."

The NIDS legislation was passed by Parliament in the face of a walkout by the Opposition, when the Government

failed to refer the bill to a joint select committee for further deliberations.

The court action is being brought by PNP General Secretary Julian Robinson on behalf of himself, his constituents in

St Andrew South East, and the members of the PNP. The Opposition is arguing that the act breaches the rights to

equality, public liberty, and the security of the person, among other things.
Financial Institutions Look Forward To
Implementation of NIDS
By Denise Dennis August 10, 2018
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Photo: Adrian WalkerProgramme Director of the National Identification System (NIDS), Warren Vernon, addresses a
Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’ on July 24.

Story Highlights

 Financial institutions are looking forward to the implementation of the National Identification System

(NIDS), which is expected to improve their ability to identify consumers and reduce associated risks.
 Programme Director for the NIDS, Warren Vernon, said the NIDS implementation team has been in

dialogue with a number of financial institutions that have indicated their support of the programme,

which aims to capture and store identity information for all Jamaicans.
  “They are of the view that if they are able to identify individuals adequately, that will significantly

reduce their risk, so the reception is very good. There are some financial institutions that are

anxious for the relevant regulations to be in place, so they can make use of the system,” he said.

Financial institutions are looking forward to the implementation of the National Identification System
(NIDS), which is expected to improve their ability to identify consumers and reduce associated risks.

Programme Director for the NIDS, Warren Vernon, said the NIDS implementation team has been in
dialogue with a number of financial institutions that have indicated their support of the programme,
which aims to capture and store identity information for all Jamaicans.

“They are of the view that if they are able to identify individuals adequately, that will significantly
reduce their risk, so the reception is very good. There are some financial institutions that are anxious
for the relevant regulations to be in place, so they can make use of the system,” he said.

Mr. Vernon was addressing a recent Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’ at the agency’s
head office in St. Andrew.

The NIDS team is collaborating with the Bank of Jamaica to examine the existing legal framework for
financial institutions, in particular the Know Your Customer regulation.

“We want to see what type of changes are required in order to adopt the national ID and use it for
address verification and identity,” Mr. Vernon said.

Meanwhile, the NIDS team has also been engaging in information sessions with civil society,
community groups and service clubs.

“We will continue to raise awareness and help the public understand how it will benefit them and
how it will be utilised,” Mr. Vernon said.

Meanwhile, Chief Technical Director, Evaluation, Planning and Monitoring Division in the Office of
the Prime Minister, Jacqueline Lynch Stewart, said there have been some 120 speaking
engagements conducted since 2017.

“Once people understand the system and understand the benefits of the system, I find the majority
will no longer fear it. It will assist us as Jamaicans to be able to, firstly, identify ourselves in a very
straightforward way and, secondly, move us to the next level in terms of a digital economy and,
thirdly, it will protect us as individuals,” she said.
 Martin Henry | NIDS And The Intrusive
State
Published:Sunday | November 19, 2017 | 12:00 AM

Donald De La Haye

Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade and leader of government business in

the Upper House, has been bullish about the implementation of the NIDS legislation. Also pictured is government

senator, Kavan Gayle.

NIDS is here - to stay. And there is more to come. The indecent haste with which the National Identification and

Registration Bill was rammed through the Senate is clear evidence of the Government's grim determination to have

the law on a timetable not dictated internally by the Jamaican State. The 168 amendments in the Senate, the

opposition by the Opposition, and the mild civil protest actions are weak and ineffective rearguard actions.

NIDS is about a lot more than identification. The prime minister plainly told us that the National Identification System

into which US$68 million of loan money has been sunk is necessary and needed to fight corruption. He has

propositioned that people cannot be held to account if the authorities are unable to identify them.
Anti-corruption efforts, he said, require a process of establishing, verifying and certifying identity and the practice of

using several databases of identity with different standards, without a means of cross-matching information does not

facilitate transparency. It allows a corrupt person to escape accountability. It creates ... dark corners in which

corruption hides and thrives. Who is not against corruption? Not a single hand up.

With 1,400 Jamaicans already murdered this year, who is against crime-fighting strategies using cross-linked

computer databases holding personal information? Hardly any hands up.

We must listen to our hearts of government very carefully. As management guru Peter Drucker once famously

pointed out, "The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said." The Government intends to

use powerful joined-up electronic databases to fight the big ills of society. Crime qualifies. The law now disallows the

sharing with law enforcement of the voter registration and identification system, holding personal information on 1.8

million citizens. That forbidding will not continue to hold. The pressure to join up for an obviously worthy cause is too

great.

We've not had a suicide bombing or terror attack (yet). When we do, we'll take the American response to 9/11 and

create a massive system of 'homeland security' under which even more rights, including privacy rights, will be

(quietly) sacrificed for security. American counter-terrorism and national security actions have changed the face of

how government in every country in the world controls their citizens. And tighter ID requirements, let no one be

fooled, are control tools.

When we weren't looking, the relationship between government and citizens has fundamentally and progressively

shifted from the citizen being regarded by the State as law-abiding and innocent until proven guilty to the citizen being

viewed as law-breaking, corrupt, a security threat, and guilty until proven innocent, and who must constantly

demonstrate that they are clean.

 
NEW PREMISE

 
A whole body of law has sprung up on this new premise. Tens of thousands of public servants must now, for

example, demonstrate that they are not corrupt by filing annual statutory declarations if they earn over the paltry

trigger amount of J$2 million. And the crooks among us, increasingly sophisticated and using the same power of the

computer which the Government is trying to catch up with, are driving the escalation of this phenomenon.

Something as simple as opening a bank account has been made an ID nightmare. In principle, anyone with a dollar

who wants to put it into a financial institution, even a crook using a consistent pseudonym has a right to do so, unless

the authorities can unequivocally demonstrate that that dollar is dirty money or was stolen. The burden of proof now

rests upon the user of financial services. And this is to weed out dirty money and money launderers, with the starting

assumption that everybody is a crook unless they can prove otherwise.

Cash transactions over a million dollars have now been made criminal on the premise that anyone with that much

money in the country's own legal tender must have acquired it illegally. Citizens are forced into the financial system

for these very good reasons but which also gives the State greater power to spy on them, and, ultimately, to control

them.

Jamaican citizens already have a range of identification instruments. To avoid be a non-person, everybody is

required to have a birth certificate. Children need one to be registered in school. Everyone is required to be

immunised and there is an immunisation card. Everyone is required to have a taxpayer registration number (TRN),

without which business with the Government cannot be transacted. On top of these mandatory but separate IDs,

many people have National Insurance Scheme identification, voter identification, a driver's licence, or a passport.

Such a scattered system does not suit the Government in this 21st century of insecurity, crime, corruption, money

laundering, and terrorism - and vast state power. They want a single joined-up system which allows not just

identification but centralised population control. Pushed by massive forces that protests at Parliament cannot control,

the entire world is swinging this way.

Section 41 of the NIDS Bill stirred up the heaviest resistance. Section 41 of the bill requires that, "A public body shall

require that a registered individual submit the National Identification Number (NIN) assigned to him or the National

Identification Card (NIC) issued to him to facilitate the delivery to him of goods or services provided by the public

body and the registered individual shall comply with the request ... ."
This is consolidating the absolute control of the modern totalitarian state. No, 'totalitarian' does not have to mean

undemocratic. In its basic sense, 'totalitarian' just means having total, absolute control over the lives of citizens, even

with majority consent. At its rawest, lowest level, the Jamaican State, armed with this law given a little twist, could

arrange to exclude certain categories of citizens from receiving state services. For the moment, it will be those who

refuse to be registered. Tomorrow, it will be those designated undesirable for whatever reason.

And considering the weight of the NIN, the assigned National Identification Number, the associated card, in short

order, is going to become a pass law document that citizens must have on their person at all times available to show

to the authorities, or else ... . In free, democratic Jamaica, no one intends this now. But the stage is set for future

developments under pressure with an irresistible inevitability.

It's been coming for a while. On November 11, the world marked the end of the First World War, 99 years ago in

1918. British historian Paul Johnson in A History of the Modern World from 1917 to the 1980s tells us that, "The

effect of the Great War was enormously to increase the size, and therefore the destructive capacity and propensity to

oppress, of the state. Before 1914, all state sectors were small, though most were growing, some of them fast.

The war demonstrated both the impressive speed with which the modern state could expand itself and the

inexhaustible appetite which it thereupon developed both for the destruction of its enemies and for the exercise of

despotic power over its own citizens."

The world has never looked back. People have generally welcomed the providing, paternalistic state and quietly

surrendered to its increasing demands. Alexis de Tocqueville, a Frenchman who toured the young United States in

the 1830s to study its prison system and wrote up his political observations in Democracy in America(1835), saw

this coming even in that bastion of democracy and freedom.

De Tocqueville coined the phrase "soft despotism", which describes the state into which a country "overrun by a

network of small complicated rules might degrade".

He explains how soft despotism develops: "... After having thus successively taken each member of the community in

its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It

covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform ... .

"The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided ... . Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents

existence; it does not tyrannise, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is

reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.
"I have always thought," de Tocqueville wrote, "that servitude of the regular, quiet, and gentle kind ... might be

combined more easily than is commonly believed with some of the outward forms of freedom, and that it might even

establish itself under the wing of the sovereignty of the people.

"[People] are constantly excited by two conflicting passions: they want to be led, and they wish to remain free. As

they cannot destroy either the one or the other of these contrary propensities, they strive to satisfy them both at once.

They devise a sole, tutelary, and all-powerful form of government, but elected by the people ... . Every man allows

himself to be put in leading-strings, because he sees that it is not a person or a class of persons, but the people at

large who hold the end of his chain.

"By this system the people shake off their state of dependence just long enough to select their master and then

relapse into it again. A great many persons ... are quite contented with this sort of compromise between

administrative despotism and the sovereignty of the people; and they think they have done enough for the protection

of individual freedom when they have surrendered it to the power of the nation at large."

Jamaica joins the rest of the 'democratic' world in the march to soft despotism, and the now necessary NIDS is not a

minor step.