The Tribune

EXTENDING emergency powers for another six months may be necessary – but the manner in which it has been done is questionable at best.

First things first, there is no doubt that we are in the middle of another surge, with the number of cases particularly in New Providence showing the extent of the infection in our country at present.

Sadly, three more deaths have been confirmed over the weekend – bringing the total number to 220 deaths in The Bahamas.

Consistently, around the world, the methods of reducing the number of infections has been to carry out the kind of measures covered by the emergency powers. We know the routine of wearing masks, keeping our distance, washing our hands regularly – though we also now have the vaccine to help reduce the number of cases.

So, were these kind of measures still needed? Probably. Could this have been done another way?

Well, only last month, Attorney General Carl Bethel said the government was working on legislation that could allow the government to respond to COVID-19 rather than declaring a state of emergency. Where’s that gone? A six-month extension suggests that has very much taken a back seat.

Worse, the Attorney General seems to be shifting the blame for the extension to the Governor General. He said: “The view that counts is that of the Governor General and I believe that he has cited the third wave of infections and low vaccination rates as being factors that he considered.”

Excuse us for saying so, but that’s a lot of nonsense. No one elected the Governor General, we elected a government. The decision to extend curfews and criminal orders and so on doesn’t lie in the hands of Sir Cornelius Smith. He may be needed in his ceremonial capacity to rubber stamp the orders, but we sincerely doubt he is busily overruling the Prime Minister. And if he is, that would be worse still.

This looks very much like an attempt to say well, you know, we didn’t really want to extend the emergency orders, but the Governor General made us do it.

An appointed, unelected representative of the Queen should not have any part in deciding whether or not to extend the emergency rules.

If the government believes in these emergency measures, it needs to stand by them. It needs to say so loud and clear. When people are hauled before the courts because of these rules, they need to know the government introduced them for a reason. When curfews are imposed, we can’t shrug and go out saying the government didn’t even want this curfew, what’s the Governor General going to do?

We live in a democracy. These are our elected representatives. And they must stand by their actions if they want these rules to be upheld.

Measures to restrict the virus are indeed still needed, in one fashion or another, and will be until we increase the number of vaccinations that have been administered or driven down the number of new cases to ones and twos rather than 50 or 60 each day. But even if the emergency extension is the right choice – this was not the way to do it.