The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

THE honeymoon period for the Free National Movement (FNM) is over and done with.

The real job for the PM and his crew is about to begin and the necessary heavy lifting will not, I submit, be a cake walk. It is a remarkable and unprecedented political phenomenon that the FNM was elected to high office without making a single concrete electoral direct promise.

Yes, during the never ending, seemingly, campaign, that party and its fragmented leadership cadre did refer, casually, to a number of issues which they had with the then ruling Progressive Liberal Party.

The vast majority of the voters simply wanted to see the backs of Christie & Company. Any political ‘rag doll’ would have been embraced.

The PLP and its then Minister of Foreign Affairs & Immigration were rightly roundly castigated and condemned for a drastic change in the long cockeyed public policy initiatives relative to the admission of children born in The Bahamas to parents of illegal migrants or undocumented individuals.

The powers that then were required voluminous documents and proof of legitimate residency within the nation.

Tens of thousands of Haitian migrants were, of course, unable to supply these documents, many of which were lost or destroyed by the 2010 earthquake which killed close to 100,000 persons and millions more homeless.

This would have been the ideal time for our politicians, across the board, to have sat down in a conclave and debate and determine the ‘best’ solution to the so-called Bahamian-Haitian Diaspora and the undocumented status of such ‘innocent’ children.

What did we do? Save and apart from former PM Ingraham (Papa) unilaterally and without the benefit of known law, released several raw born Haitians from The Detention Centre as a ‘humanitarian gesture’.

We have not seen or heard about them since. We should have moved to grant residency to all such children 18 years and older with a clear path to citizenship within five years subject to obvious requirements and national security concerns.

While we are able to appreciate and understand the offer made by the Minnis administration to take an unknown number of students from Dominica into our educational system, the people of this country have yet to be informed of the details. In fact, with different statements coming from several cabinet members, this whole proposal seems fraught with potential negatives.

If we wish to really assist Dominica, et al, let us mobilise a contingent of Defence Forces Officers; BPL lines men and technicians and some police officers and dispatch them to that nation to assist in the rebuilding and recovery efforts. This is a classical case of a bad public policy initiative 3.0

We have tremendous challenges in our educational system. After years of being ‘forced’ out of our schools, so-called Bahamian-Haitian students are still not being admitted on a timely basis or at all. In addition, we have scores of ‘homeless’ Bahamian children living at The Princess Margaret Hospital, for years in some cases! What is Minnis and crew proposing to do with these little “darlings”? In addition, PACE needs to be better funded and expanded. Whatever happened to proposals for a form of National Youth Service for our young men and women?

We are able to break the bank, so to speak, to take in Dominica’s students but are reluctant to do the right thing for our own?

To bring in these students is a bad public policy initiative and, obviously, not well thought out.

Minister Brent Symonette says that it is the Christian thing to do! I am not aware of his affinity and/or embrace of Christianity but he was silent for years when our Bahamian-Haitian students and adults were being denied access to education; the main stream economy and, of course, legal immigration status.

He and the rest of our politicians all know about the so-called Haitian communities throughout The Bahamas where residents live by stealth in the most inhumane, polluted and dangerous environment ever witnessed.

The Bahamas Christian Council says that it ‘supports’ the government’s proposal, even if it has little, if any clue, as to the details.

This is the same group which the FNM administration is demanding that the associated churches open up their accounts and financial reports for scrutiny. Mind you, the MPs still have yet to fully disclose and we will, perhaps, never know who or what contributed financially to the FNM and the PLP during the May elections. I am sure that the DNA got a little something also, but, will we ever know?

Minnis will live to regret the societal and political fallout from admitting students and, by extension, parents and guardians into our fragile environment, across the board.

It is well written that the inhabitants of a country must always be hospitable to the strangers within our gates. I have no problem with this, but, let us be clear, it refers to strangers within our gates not those whom we invite in willy-nilly at the expense of indigenous and first generation Bahamian-Haitian students and adults born in The Bahamas. To God then, in all things, be the glory.

ORTLAND H BODIE, Jr

Nassau,

September 26, 2017.