EDITOR, The Tribune.
Among the “YES Bahamas” propaganda commercials being run on various radio stations in an effort to encourage a blanket “yes” vote on the four Constitution Amendment Bills is one that talks about a girl named Rachel who can’t open a bank account because she’s not a Bahamian.
The reason given is that Rachel’s Bahamian father was not married to her foreign mother. The commercial, which seeks to encourage voters to vote yes to Bill 3, is spreading two pieces of factually false information.
First, we’re told in the commercial that Bill 3 seeks to enable an unmarried Bahamian man to pass his citizenship to his children like Rachel who were born out of wedlock to a foreign woman. That is partly true.
What the producers of the commercial failed to say is that Rachel’s father could have also been married to another woman when he fathered Rachel out of wedlock with the foreign woman.
Yes, Bill 3 also seeks to enable married Bahamian men who commit adultery with foreign women and father children by them anywhere in the world to be able to pass citizenship on to those children, once paternity is proven. But, conveniently, this additional information that would help to inform how some voters would vote is withheld. I wonder why?
Second, we’re told in the commercial that Bill 3 will enable Rachel to apply to be a Bahamian. That is totally false. Bill 3 offers nothing to Rachel and those who also find themselves in her predicament.
If Bill 3 is approved by voters, it will only benefit children conceived under circumstances like Rachel and who are born AFTER Bill 3 comes into effect. Therefore, it is totally false to give people like Rachel (and her Bahamian father and foreign mother) false hopes about what Bill 3 will do, if approved by voters.
If the government was really concerned about people like Rachel, it would have long ago used its power to grant citizenship under Article 13 of the Constitution to grant them whatever citizenship rights it deemed appropriate. But nothing has been done because they do not really care about people like Rachel.
It’s all about politics and using Bills like Bill 3 to serve as distractions for Bill 4, which is the crown jewel “yes” that they really want. Yes, the success of Bill 4 is what the government wants most, and here’s the reason: they want to set the stage for same sex-marriage to be imposed on us by the Privy Council.
My own view is that a far better approach is to give children like Rachel an entitlement to Bahamian citizenship when they turn 18, provided they meet the national security requirements and renounce any other citizenship held.
And until then, caring policy decisions by the government can make their lives easy so they can do simple things like open a bank account and attend College of the Bahamas at the same cost as a Bahamian citizen. What’s so hard about making these simple policy decisions?
PASTOR CEDRIC MOSS,
Nassau,
May 18, 2016.
Comments
Economist 8 years, 5 months ago
You complain about Bill 3, yet I do not see you urging people to vote "Yes" for Bill 1.
At the moment the only way for Bahamian woman who has a child is born outside The Bahamas, to get that child automatic Bahamian citizenship, is to have the child out of wedlock.
If she is married then we deny the child automatic citizenship and punish the mother for having a child in wedlock.
EasternGate 8 years, 5 months ago
Vote No!
Pastor_Cedric_Moss 8 years, 5 months ago
Economist, you clearly have not been paying sufficient attention. The public record is replete with my support for Bill 1. Bill 1 is the only Bill that I support. If you wish to provide an informed commentary on why I support Bill 1 and oppose Bills 2, 3, and 4, please visit www.thinkbahamas.org.
Economist 8 years, 5 months ago
I stand corrected, thank you.
Pastor_Cedric_Moss 8 years, 5 months ago
Not a problem. Thanks for being gracious and further responding. Sadly, many move on without any acknowledgement. You've distinguished yourself from them.
Well_mudda_take_sic 8 years, 5 months ago
Re-post: The first 3 bills are fatally flawed and wide open to abuse......the door will be opened to many foreigners obtaining Bahamian citizenship in exchange for agreeing to vote PLP down the road. Our country will be flooded with cheap foreign labour at a time when Bahamian families are having great difficulty feeding, clothing, educating and buying medicine for their children. The PLP can't provide us with decent paying jobs yet they want to let thousands of foreigners into our country so that they get more votes to stay in power. Go figure! As for the fourth bill, it's all about breaking down the institution of marriage to satisfy the divide and conquer policies of the political elite and their favored cronies. The loud voice of the very few is being used to tear apart the fabric of our society by destroying the institution (and sanctity) of marriage as we have all along known it. Wake up Bahamians.....it's important for all of us voters to get to the polls on June 7th and vote a resounding "No" to all 4 of these bills. These bills and the referendum are not about gender-equality at all; don't let the corrupt Christie-led PLP government pull the wool over your eyes!
sheeprunner12 8 years, 5 months ago
Pastor Moss and the other Vote NO pastors should take ZNS to court because I have not heard one Vote NO ad or song on the national radio or television since this organization was launched ......... Yet you see and hear a Vote Yes add on every other minute ........ this is clearly a return to the Pindling tactics used by ZNS to smother free speech and expression ..... And I would bet a million dollars that the Vote No group would have placed ads with ZNS ... but William Thompson, BJ and Obie gat ZNS o Vote Yes lockdown .......... NO DEMOCRACY!!!!!!!
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