The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

The recent pronouncements by Fred Mitchell, Minister of Immigration and Foreign Affairs, firstly, in a session of the United Nations Security Council on small island developing states (SIDS) held in New Zealand and then at an Emancipation Day observance in Fox Hill were both attempts to deflect the public’s attention away from the fact that the PLP has failed the Bahamian people once again and has put thousands of jobs in jeopardy.

The thrust of these pronouncements contained allegations that Sarkis Izmirlian, the developer of Baha Mar, was guilty of improper interference in the internal political affairs of the Bahamas and that if he did not cease and desist he faced the revocation of his permanent residency status.

In short if he did not become suitably pliant and submissive he would be kicked out of the country.

The UN Security Council was informed that Mr. Izmirlian was an existential threat to the Government of the Bahamas by the Minister. This is said to be due to the improper and deliberate political interference by Mr. Izmirlian using his status as an investor. In so doing Mr. Mitchell said he has destabilized the peace and security of the Bahamas.

Not only is this factually untrue it is baseless propaganda!

This is an internal dispute among the Government a developer and a builder.

The Minister was not content with this episode of embarrassment he then went a step further. In an address at a ceremony to mark Emancipation Day in Fox Hill he threatened Mr. Izmirlian with the revocation of his residency status unless he effectively falls in line.

Many Bahamians reject this false nationalism for what it is, an attempt by the Government to deflect attention away from its own ineptitude and mismanagement in this crisis.

If the Baha Mar dispute cannot be mediated it should be left to resolution with the assistance of the Bahamian Courts. That is the reason why the Government filed its winding up Petition in the Supreme Court, or so the public was informed by the Attorney General.

Indeed, it is the Attorney General who has contributed to the mess the Government has created for itself by asserting the role of impartial broker and mediator, yet finding the time to write the General Contractors on the 17th July 2015 thanking them for their efforts in the negotiations and enclosing with the letter the draft winding petition the Government intended to present against the Developer, even before the Developer had seen it.

The reality is that the Government has threatened an investor with whom it has a contractual relationship under a Heads of Agreement as amended and approved by two separate governments of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

Intimidation is not a recognized method of dispute resolution under International Law.

The PLP Government would do well to remember that in relation to this project it has no relationship with the China State Construction Company or the Export Import Bank of China other than as related agencies that would have been approved under its organs, the Central Bank and the Bahamas Investment Authority.

Again , the Government unless afflicted with selective amnesia will do well to remember that it was the Prime Minister in his last term who solicited Izmirlian and at least one member of the present Government who represented Izmirlian professionally.

Now in 2015 we have a Minister of the Government speaking venomously making these appeals to jingoism and xenophobia in an attempt to intimidate an investor in the exercise of his commercial rights.

Mr. Izmirlian’s permanent residency can only be revoked for cause, namely he is a threat to national security in an objective sense or is guilty of criminal behaviour.

Minister Mitchell’s statements are beneath the dignity of a Minister of the Government. Prime Minister Perry Christie should do the right thing and remove Fred Mitchell from the Cabinet forthwith.

PHOENIX

Nassau,

August 9, 2015.