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The Andrew Holness Administration has given the clearest indication yet that it intends to start work to change Jamaica's constitutional monarchy status.The hint came from viceregal head of state Governor General Sir Patrick Allen in the annual Throne Speech at Gordon House on Thursday, as he outlined the Government's goals and plans for the new fiscal year.The governor general noted the Government's recent creation of a Ministry of Legal and Constitutional Affairs, which has been assigned to comprehensively revisit the country's laws and constitutional infrastructure.The mandate has been touted to be the first such since Jamaica gained Independence 60 years ago.The ministry, headed by former Attorney General Marlene Malahoo Forte, has been tasked to reform the laws of Jamaica, start the process of reviewing the constitution, and "the process to shift Jamaica's status as a constitutional monarchy", Sir Patrick stated.At the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) annual conference last November, Prime Minister Holness said his Administration was intent on pursuing a review of the constitution this year.Successive governments have, over the years, dangled the idea of severing ties with the British monarchy, effectively removing The Queen as head of state. The hopes of many Jamaicans have again been roused by the move made by Caribbean neighbour Barbados last November to cut away from Britain.The other Caribbean territories that have taken that step are Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Dominica.Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley had championed abolition of that country's constitutional monarchy, and claiming republic status has renewed scepticsm about whether the Jamaican Government is serious about making a similar decision.At a virtual forum discussing the event, historian and vice chancellor of the regional University of the West Indies Sir Hilary Beckles said it represented a magnificent moment that reflected the history of Barbados, and was historic for the people of the region, the Diaspora and all post-colonial societies that have been journeying from imperial rule to independence and nation-building.In the 1970s, Jamaica's then Prime Minister Michael Manley led a campaign to cut ties with the British monarchy, but that debate was eroded due to an ideological divide on democratic socialism adopted by the ruling People's National Party (PNP), and capitalism advocated by the the then Opposition JLP.Again in the 1990s, the PJ Patterson-led PNP Government saw recommendations by a joint select committee of Parliament convened in November 1999, which focused on constitutional reform. Patterson had set a 2007 timeline for Jamaica to be free of one of the last vestiges of Britain's rule.Then in 2012, Jamaica's seventh prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, also promised that the island would abandon the monarchy, announcing at her inauguration that January that her Government would make plans to remove The Queen as head of state. The promise came ahead of the 50th anniversary of Jamaica's Independence.Simpson Miller had said her Administration would not be thrown off course, not even by the caution issued by a member of then British Prime Minister David Cameron's camp that Jamaica should tread cautiously in its mission to abolish ties with the monarchy, as the move could have far-reaching implications for the island.