The Tribune

THE REPORT of the Constitutional Commission, appointed last year to recommend changes to our present constitution, contained a dire warning — a warning long overdue.

The matter of citizenship and the presence of so many stateless people in our midst must be dealt with urgently or else…

We only have to read history, or turn on the television to daily see thousands of raised fists, burning cities and citizens, marginalised for too long, demanding justice.

Edward Markham (1852-1940) in his poem, “The Man with the Hoe”, aptly described what happens when Man held in serfdom over the centuries, decides to raise his voice and declare: No more!

“O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,

How will the future reckon with this Man?

How answer his brute question in that hour

When whirlwinds of rebellions shake all shores?

How will it be with kingdoms and with kings —

With those who shaped him to the thing he is When this dumb Terror shall rise to judge the world

After the silence of the centuries?”

And so warned the Constitutional Commission in its report:

We “cannot overstate the enormous psychological, socio-economic and other ill-effects that result from leaving large groups of persons in limbo in relation to their aspirations for Bahamian citizenship. Not only are the affected individuals badly damaged and marginalised,” said the commission, but “the entire society is put at risk and its future compromised by having within its borders a substantial body of persons who, although having no knowledge or experience of any other society, are made to feel that they are intruders without any claim, moral or legal, for inclusion. Such feelings of alienation and rejection are bound to translate into anti-social behaviour among many members of what is, in effect, a very large underclass in our society”.

The Commission recommended that a special task force be appointed to examine the various citizenship issues and report back as soon as possible.

“This must be made a matter of high priority for the government,” said the Commission. “The future peace and internal harmony of Bahamian society may well depend on it.”

We have long been concerned about the mariginalisation of the ever growing Haitian population in our midst. We watched with increasing interest as the Haitian-Bahamian scene was being played out in Ceylon — now Sri Lanka. The problems there started long before the Bahamas even considered that the future might bring its own citizenship divisions. But the problems of modern Sri Lanka have spanned our lifetime allowing us to see a situation handled badly grow, worsen and finally end in bloodshed.

In Ceylon, it was tension between the Singalese and Tamils as Ceylon, controlled by the Singalese, became more nationalistic after it threw off the British yoke.

For some reason, the colonial rulers —Portuguese, Dutch and English, particularly the English — favoured the Tamils. They were smart, well-educated and when the Singalese came to the fore in the new government, it was found that the highly educated Tamils controlled the civil service, with several in the diplomatic corps. We considered the Tamils we met intellectually way ahead of their rulers. However, probably like the Haitians, rather than being smarter, they worked harder because they were the underdogs in their own country. Today, we hear Bahamian parents complain that Haitian children should not take up space in our schools. Obviously, it was because the Haitians usually headed their classes and walked away with most of the prizes on graduation day.

In Sri Lanka, the tension between the two races grew more serious as Singalese was made the official language – the Sinhala Only Act – knocking the Tamils and English-speaking citizens out of the employment market — many lawyers could no longer plead in the courts because of the language barrier. Many Tamils left the country, while the government deported Indian Tamil labourers. A rebellion by anti-Tamil youth was soon quelled. Under a new constitution, Buddhism was to have “foremost place” among Sri Lankan religions. The number of places held for Tamils at university was reduced. Gradually Tamils were being marginalised and pushed out of a country that they considered as much theirs as their Sinhalese brothers.

Eventually, Tamils took to the north and east of the country, formed the Tamil Tigers, demanded that the island be partitioned with them sovereign in their own state. Of course, it all ended in a terrible, and frightening blood bath as civil war broke out. The war only ended four years ago with the defeat of the Tamil Tigers, but not before a president was assassinated.

We are not suggesting that this will happen in the Bahamas, but it certainly could if wiser decisions are not made in the future than were made in the past.

And, as the Commission has emphasised time is of the essence — these decisions of citizenship have to be made now, not tomorrow.