The Tribune

By NICOLE BURROWS

Envision this. It is 2017. A new Bahamian government has come to office. It is not a government of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP). It is not a government of the Free National Movement (FNM). It is a government of all the people, rising from the remains of its predecessors, and transcending party lines and party affiliation.

Finally, by the time the year 2016 had ended, the Bahamian people had fully united in their agreement that they were grossly unhappy with where they were as a people and what they saw on the horizon ... for the future of their once beautiful nation … for those who could remember it … an imperfect land, but one nevertheless filled with unlimited potential.

Bahamians finally understood that, if they were to change the trajectory of their fate, they would have to be unified, truly as one people, in love and service to one another and to their homeland.

And so, at long last, the Bahamian people rose up for their country, for their future, for their children and their children’s offspring. They chose, as some described it, the “least of evils”, to guide them on a new path, more firmly grounded by the stronger, more resilient framework of a new constitution that represented each and every person as equal, and they did it without loss of life or a drop of blood from anyone fighting for the cause. Though, some can and do argue that the results of years of crime, the murders, the shootings and stabbings, over ten to 20 of The Bahamas’ most recent years, amounted to the same violent bloodletting as would occur in a revolutionary war.

Some argue, in retrospect, that for years we were having a civil war, fought between otherwise aimless people lacking self-identity, purpose, and inclusion. And if that were so, then it would be beyond a shame that those who walked these limestone surfaces before us could not see the headlock in which they placed their own people.

But, no more.

For all those lost in the battle to get us here today, we take a moment of silence for the lives they could have lived. We are hopeful, finally and truly, that their descendants will know true representation, inclusion, freedom, equality, productivity and prosperity in a now more vital society.

It is late 2017. And the new leaders of The Bahamas, the ones you elected to give you the best representation in the short history of our country, free of routine corruption and political and family patronage, have formed a new system of government to guard against historic abuses as occurred in the previous, more fragile regime.

Along with the old regime, they — we — have discarded our ties with the British monarch as our head of state; dispensed of a Governor General as her representative; discarded the Westminster system of government (with its too powerful executive and practically no separation of powers); declined the Privy Council as the highest court in The Bahamas and chosen in its place the Caribbean Court of Justice; and disposed of the title ‘Commonwealth’ in our name. We no longer require the trappings of spectacle and ceremony; they are merely celebratory veils which disguise our emptiness, serving no useful purpose and adding no value, ultimately, to our existence. Still, we won’t completely discredit, or regret, our time as a constitutional monarchy … it was, in hindsight, a step we needed to take to make this transition a smoother one.

It is the end of 2017. The Commonwealth of The Bahamas is now the Republic of The Bahamas.

In this brand new republic, under a presidential-parliamentary system, there is a new, directly elected President Smith, who has named a new Prime Minister Rolle and a cabinet of equal numbers of women and men, all of whom are eager to honourably serve their fellow Bahamian people. Unlike France, which transitioned through an empire, a constitutional monarchy, a republic, another empire and a few more republics, over 150 years, and now on its fifth republic with 66 million people, and a fine example of freedom, equality, and enterprise, the Republic of The Bahamas drew together its mere 400,000 people to decide that, after only 40-odd years of a progressively failing system of government and nearly all branches attached thereto, a new republic was the only way forward.

In this new Republic of The Bahamas, Prime Minister Rolle and the entire ministerial cabinet are accountable to President Smith and to the Parliament of elected representatives who have already demonstrated their leadership ability and commitment to all Bahamians prior to their election to the Assembly.

In this new republic, there is a new constitution, upon which the Republic of The Bahamas bases its government. In this constitution, President Smith is specifically mandated to take charge of foreign policy and defence policy and Prime Minister Rolle is responsible for domestic and economic policy, with oversight by President Smith and a watchful Parliament of Bahamian patriots.

In this new constitution, where there is express equality for all women and men, there is also a mandate for the transparency and accountability of government, by way of The Bahamas’ first effective Freedom of Information Act, which is immediately voted on and approved by the Assembly, and enacted as the first order of business to ensure the Bahamian people will immediately and always know, when required, what their government has done, said, spent or agreed to on their behalf. Because, in this new republic, the people hold the sovereign power as equals.

In the new republic, there is freedom of thought, and also freedom of religion, solidified in the text of the new constitution of the new Republic of The Bahamas. Your government does not obstruct your intellectual ability or academic achievement, your primary doorway to success, nor does it choose your personal, religious beliefs.

In your personal life, your educational attainment is your choice and provided by your government at no cost, and your religion is also your choice, with your morality at your own cost.

In the public life, equality of citizenship is the foundation of all things, academic, religious, economic … there is no right way of thinking other than that which is forward and productive, and all people, of lofty ambition or not, regardless of their religious faith, financial possessions, or social or political associations, are equal and protected under the First Constitution of the Republic of The Bahamas. As such, education, economy, religion, and all opportunities connected to these are equally provided and protected from political interference … and vice versa.

We needed a republic because we wanted to place stronger reins on the executive branch of government … to prevent another one of our deified leaders from exerting any type of ambiguously dictatorial rule … to prevent the abuses of power and gateways for corrupt practices within the government and civil service and amongst our elected representatives.

Our new constitution, though filled with equal opportunity, is now a top-down chastity belt on executive power, so that our leaders would act always in our interest ... the Bahamian people’s interest. And whenever they decide not to, we shall (thank you England) swing down on them like a guillotine.

We are a republic to achieve a clearer separation of powers between each arm of government (the executive, the judiciary, the legislature) and to provide the necessary checks and balances on those branches of government and on our new president and our new prime minister, so we would never again have to chop down the tree and dig out its rotten roots and plant another seedling.

We chose a republic in order to put greater emphasis on the rights of every Bahamian individual under the rule of our new constitution, instead of always only following the rule of a majority which often marginalizes the minority and is at times and too often not right or just.

A democracy is not always right or fair. It embraces the rule of a majority of citizens, but our new constitution offers greater safety against even the most subtle tyranny, placing, more securely, the power of this nation in the hands of each one of its people.

Our new republic protects the individuals within our majority and our minority. That is equality.

Our republic provides for the rule of the majority as a protection against rogue leaders, autocrats, theocrats and absolute monarchs, while allowing each Bahamian individual a defence against the herd mentality, an unfortunate by-product of our old model of majority rule and democracy.

The tool of absolute monarchy is religious doctrine. That is how you keep your people obedient. They question nothing if you say it is all divine. That is our history. And that is why we almost didn’t get here.

We almost didn’t do it. We almost didn’t become a republic because it seemed like we loved nothing better than to have a supreme human leader to worship … one person to tell us what to do and to fix us in every aspect of our lives. But we broke free of that unliberated thinking and one more Bahamian patriot was all we needed on election day 2017 to change what was a national failure in only four decades into a national success after four failed decades. Our glass is half full. This is our new perspective.

It is July 10, 2018. We are the Republic of The Bahamas.

This is a presentation give to the two-day Future of Democracy Conference on Friday at the College of the Bahamas. Comments and responses to nicol at fastmail.com