The Tribune

WE WERE surprised, and yet not surprised that in the absence on medical leave of National Security Minister Dr Bernard Nottage, Prime Minister Perry Christie has added national security to his own portfolios. By the natural course of events, one would have expected Minister of State for National Security Keith Bell to have automatically stepped into Dr Nottage’s shoes.

We were surprised that he didn’t because it seems almost impossible for this government to make the right decisions when it comes to choosing candidates for sensitive positions. On the other hand, we were not surprised — even pleased — that on this occasion the Prime Minister showed uncommon good sense by overlooking his State Minister.

So far, our once outspoken State Minister for security has been kept in the background. We wonder what his job really entails, other than perhaps acting as goal keeper for his government on how crime — despite objective evidence – is decreasing.

When he seemed to get befuddled over the rising crime figures, which were supposed to take a dramatic dip once his government took over with its Urban Renewal programme – the cure for all social ills — he consoled the public with the thought that had they voted the FNM in as the government, crime would have been much worse. You must appreciate that our man Bell is really a deep thinker. This is probably why PM Christie has left him behind the scenes to be alone with his own thoughts.

When the PLP was the Opposition, the FNM was blamed for rising crime. The PLP plastered larger than life signs up along the highways — especially routes taken by our visitors — proclaiming our rising crime figures. In other words, welcome, dear visitor, to Crime City Bahamas.

Now that the PLP are the government, and crime is even more out of control anyone who talks about its rise is unpatriotic. Let’s bury the bad news, and twist up the crime figures to support the myth of decreasing crime.

Our Mr Bell went so far as to try to find excuses for our seemingly uncontrollable crime. Now that his party is the Government and he is the Junior Minister with responsibility for National Security, crime has become the fault of the US because “we don’t manufacture guns in this country”. He also blamed the US for deporting hardened criminals back to the Bahamas.

He didn’t bother to enlighten the public that these were our own criminals being sent back home, having served their prison terms for crimes committed in the US. They were now coming home to be under Mr Bell’s watchful eye. Why he thought the Americans should be responsible for keeping them is anyone’s guess. These unwanted criminals were also the FNM’s problem, but when it was the government it never used them as an excuse to squirm out of their responsibilities.

Mr Bell tried to suggest that most of these criminals were being sent back to the Bahamas because the Bahamas was their last port before entering the US.

After letting him vent for a time about the unfairness of the US for dumping their criminal problems on us, US Chargé d’Affaires John Armstrong had to put him straight.

The Bahamian government, said Mr Armstrong, is informed before any criminal deportee is returned to the Bahamas. The Bahamas also has to approve their re-entry into this country before they can be sent. And so if our officials are doing careful screening, they can weed out and reject any person who is being returned because the Bahamas was a port of convenience on their way to the US. In other words, they were not only informed of their return, but the Bahamas was only obliged to take their own Bahamian citizens. So, they were this country’s responsibility, not that of the US.

Unfortunately, they were a Bahamian problem and if the police were too shortsighted not to keep tabs on them after their arrival, it was indeed a tragic oversight.

So no matter how Mr Bell squirms, this is a Bahamian problem, and these Bahamians are in his portfolio. Their criminal history should be known, and it should also be known whether they are repeat offenders in this country. As they can’t be sent back to the US, it is for our police to arrest them, take them to court, and it’s the court’s duty to send them to Her Majesty’s rest home in Fox Hill.

Instead of pointing an accusing finger at the US, it is Mr Bell’s duty to marshall his troops and do battle with the criminal right in this small country.

And it would seem, according to Mr Bell’s reasoning, that as the US is dumping our unwanted criminals back on our doorstep, it is unfair of them to send out an advisory to their citizens that in visiting the Bahamas they should beware of this criminal element.

According to Mr Bell, there are more than 1,000 of these criminals “on our shores right now and you all wonder why crime is up? You all wonder why these guys would take your life without even blinking an eye?

“These are hardened criminals, murderers, rapists and the like, that we have amongst us,” Mr Bell warned.

He forgets that the FNM were dealing with the same problem. But, it was a different story when the PLP were in Opposition. Then it was an FNM problem. And the FNM were inept. The PLP was needed to save the nation. And if elected they were ready to govern and from day one solve the nation’s problems, especially crime.

Now, having inherited everything that the FNM were struggling with, it is no longer a PLP problem. It is now a community problem (which it always was before this PLP came to power), it was also America’s problem, which they unkindly thrust upon us by supplying the guns, and dumping our unwanted criminals on our doorstep.

When advised recently by Opposition Leader Dr Herbert Minnis that he should stop playing politics with crime, but come to the table in a joint effort with the Opposition to defeat it, Mr Bell’s reply was: “I don’t know how one could take politics out of that equation because it really is the politicians who determine what legal framework would be created to address crime and other social ills.”

“The fact is,” he continued, “it is unfortunate that the leader of the Opposition would seek to politicise this.”

In our opinion, Mr Bell is the one who has not let his political agenda step back from his crime fighting duties.

Unless, and until, he gets politics out of crime and this community comes together as one, the criminals will always have the upper hand. This is the first and most important lesson that our Crime Czar has to learn.

Until then, Mr Christie would be wise to keep Mr Bell behind closed doors.