The Tribune

BAHAMIANS are as protective of their waters as they are proud to be Bahamian.

So when news broke last week that the government had signed a letter authorising the Bahamian Ambassador to China, Paul “Andy”’ Gomez, to negotiate contracts with Chinese for 10,000 acres of Crown Land in Andros and certain rights to fish and farm, it was met first by an outpouring of stunned disbelief and - in what seemed like only moments later - an uprising of absolute fury.

That outrage continues. On Thursday evening, environmental activist Sam Duncombe posted a petition urging the Prime Minister not to give away fishing rights and to reserve Crown Land for farming. In 36 hours, it had garnered 2,773 signatures. It is now up to 5,000 signatures. And this from a population that is usually if not apathetic, certainly laid back and accepting of authority.

By the weekend, plans were underway for a Black Friday March scheduled for November 25. The march was being organised by people who normally work quietly behind the scenes to make life better for others, humanitarians like Golden Heart Award winner Shelagh Pritchard. HeadKnowles Group was all over it. Social media was abuzz. Hours before the American presidential election, Hillary and Trump might have been trending in the United States but on social media in the Bahamas it was all about whose right is it anyway. Facebook blew up in numbers. Radio talk show hosts hardly mentioned another subject. Even the dawn of a new day with the College of the Bahamas becoming a long-awaited university was overshadowed by widespread fear that this was a country for sale and the purchase was being rung up at the cash register.

The response was instantaneous. Never had we seen a stronger, greater, more united fighting spirit. Mess with a Bahamian’s inalienable rights to Crown Land, conch, crawfish and fish and you unleash an energy that had lain dormant for decades.

What are the issues that underlie the current crisis and what are the real consequences?

The first issue is that the people of The Bahamas were not asked about something as precious as the waters that make the country what it is. They were not invited to participate. In fact, there did not appear to be any intention of even telling the people what was going to happen. The government should be reminded that it was elected to represent the people of The Bahamas, not to act as a board of directors of a privately held company with responsibility only to the family members who sit at the table.

This is not private. The public has a right to know the public’s business. That is the essence of what often sounds like a dry and boring subject line, freedom of information, but such legislation is the only legal vehicle to assure the public that it has a right to information.

The second issue is comprehensive environmental protection of land, wildlife, natural and marine resources. The children of tomorrow deserve to reap the benefits of the richness of the coral reefs, the beauty and majesty of what we hope will soon be named The Lucayan Sea. The track record of Chinese fishing leaves little in the way of sustainability and much to be desired. Side product catches trapping and killing unintended by-swimmers, scooping up schools of fish, ships with processing plants onboard - large-scale commercial fishing could literally wipe entire species out and deplete stocks in the blink of an eye. Surely we can learn from other islands that did not practice sustainability, islands that today look at The Bahamas with envy because we do have a closed season for Grouper and crawfish and are working on preservation of conch with a programme called “Conchservation”.

But there are three other important consequences that this furore has aroused. First, it has called attention to the importance of Crown Land. It has been reported that there are some 30,000 applications, most from Bahamians, for Crown Land. In one of the saddest stories we have heard, a man named Joe Thomas applied for Crown Land grant for 10 years. He had been a local councillor in Grand Bahama and a highly respected citizen. Neither a Free National Movement government which he served nor a Progressive Liberal Party government would approve the small grant he wanted. He died last year and the dream of land ownership died with him.

The second consequence is that it has taken environmentalism out of the realm of elite people who have “nothing better to do than hug trees” to a level where everybody cares. It is about what they eat, how they live, the pride and the ownership. It is about their waters and reef and fish and their inalienable rights. Much of the message is what Save The Bays and other environmental groups have been saying all along - environmental protection legislation, freedom of information, an end to unregulated development. It mirrors what organisations like Friends of the Environment, the Bahamas National Trust, The Nature Conservancy, Earthcare, reEarth have been fighting for.

Third, if the government does not listen to the people now, it is very likely that it will cost the PLP the election. And that could be the death knell of the party whose founding father, the late Sir Lynden Pindling, said would never sell Bahamian land to a foreign government.