The Tribune

By TANEKA THOMPSON

Tribune News Editor

tmthompson@tribunemedia.net

LAST week, Minister of National Security Dr Bernard Nottage walked past a group of protestors in Rawson Square who are fed up with the rising murder count and the almost daily bloodletting that occurs on the streets of New Providence.

As the group pleaded with him to listen to their cries, the man tasked with charting this country’s course for national security reportedly flashed the disgruntled group a thumbs up sign, as he quickly left the area.

A Tribune reporter chased after him, hoping he would say something about the culture of crime that has our country in a vice grip. The Minister refused.

He has not spoken about the issue since July 8, when he announced that the government had received a $20 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to aid the fight against crime.

At that time, he said the Ministry of National Security would outline its new crime fighting policies the following week. More than a month later, we are still waiting to hear from him on these initiatives.

Dr Nottage was also notably silent in the 2015/2016 budget debate, allowing the proceedings to wrap up without giving the nation his customary breakdown of the work his ministry has done over the last fiscal year and plans for the future.

It seems that our Minister of National Security thinks by ducking his head in the sand over crime and refusing to answer questions from the media about the issue, it will remove him from the glare of this administration’s failure to make this country safer.

Reporters should not have to chase Dr Nottage for full disclosure on such an important issue. His aversion to the media is indicative of what’s wrong with politicians, who court the press and the public to get elected only to duck and dodge once they are in office.

Startling figures

Under the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) watch, there have been 403 murders to date.

From May 7, 2012 - the day the PLP was elected - to December 31, 2012, the country recorded 70 homicides (the total for the calendar year was 111).

In 2013, police recorded 119 homicides and, in 2014, 123. As I write this, our small island nation has already recorded 91 homicides for this year, most of those killings confined to New Providence.

Based on this year’s homicide trends, we are on track to beat the bloodiest year on record, 2011, which saw 127 murders.

For the first seven months of 2015, there have been at least 10 or more murders each month, according to The Tribune’s records.

There were 10 murders in January; 15 in February; 12 in March; 12 in April; 14 in May; 11 in June and 15 in July. As I write this, police have recorded two murders in August.

While in opposition, the PLP put billboards around New Providence that screamed that there were more than 490 murders during the last Ingraham administration.

With two years left in this administration, I can only wonder what the party will say once we surpass that figure under their tenure.

In June, former Minister of Works Neko Grant said the PLP will “forever curse the hour” it erected those infamous signs and made crime such a polarising issue.

On the government’s performance on crime, he said at the time: “Hardly a day goes by when a shooting, armed robbery or stabbing does not occur. We have heard of no concrete plan to stop the senseless murders in the days, weeks and months ahead. It is not enough to say we are building a ‘Safe Bahamas’ when nothing done over the past three years shows that.”

A ‘Safer Bahamas’ is a pillar of the government’s ‘Stronger Bahamas’ marketing campaign, which was launched several months ago.

On the Stronger Bahamas website, it notes that the government is responding to crime with initiatives like Urban Renewal 2.0, Shock Treatment, Project Safe Bahamas and community crime watch. While these initiatives might be a good start, the government needs to realise that they have not worked, at least not in the short term, to solve the problem.

Most right thinking people in this nation understand that crime is not the fault of politicians, but a social problem brought on by poverty, lack of education, the breakdown of the family and poor conflict resolution skills. We are still grappling with the social decay brought on by the drug era of the 1980s.

Passion and fire

But the politician is tasked with putting in place policies and measures to curb the problem. Dr Nottage has not exhibited the passion and fire he once had to fight crime and help its victims.

Where is the man who stood on his feet in Parliament and pledged to fight for the lives of exploited children by enacting a missing children alert? Where is the man who said this government would create a sex offenders’ register that would catalogue those convicted of sex crimes so that the public would be aware of who there are and when they are released?

While amendments to the Child Protection Act and the Sexual Offences Act were passed in the House of Assembly in 2013 to effect these changes, the new laws and accompanying regulations have not been enacted.

When the MP for East Grand Bahama Peter Turnquest brought the matter up in the House of Assembly last week, Dr Nottage appeared offended and accused the opposition member of being misinformed on the issue.

Dr Nottage and others in his ministry continue to boast that major crimes, with the exception of murder, are down. He, along with Minister of State for National Security Keith Bell, repeatedly refers to police statistics that show crime is trending down.

They brandish these statistics like a medal of honour, as if to say, ‘look at what this PLP government has done for you, look how we have kept you safe’.

Meanwhile, it has become commonplace for men to be shot dead in their cars, and for children and women to be maimed with bullets while standing on street corners.

Their tragic stories grab headlines and fill many inches in newspaper columns, but it seems after the harrowing news is told, we as a society are content to push the violence out of our minds, until word of the next vicious attack happens.

The government is understandably fixated on the Baha Mar controversy and working, one would hope, diligently to get the $3.5 billion resort on a path to be finished and open as soon as possible.

But if this country’s citizens continue to maim, kill, rob and rape each other with abandon and without fear of repercussion, we will soon be known for our violence rather than having the largest resort in the Caribbean in our jurisdiction.

Since coming to office, this administration has not been honest about its leadership on the issue.

The government would have the country believe that crime is under control and any fear citizens have about being robbed, assaulted or murdered is irrational. Our politicians would have us believe that crime is confined to poor, ghetto hot spots and that those who abide by the law have nothing to worry about.

This posture is insulting to those of us who are increasingly afraid of the hostile environment that New Providence has become.

What do you think? Email comments to tmthompson@tribunemedia.net.