The Tribune

THE announcement of The Bahamas’ willingness to deploy 150 personnel to Haiti to support a multi-national force there is remarkable in many ways, and with ramifications both locally and internationally.

First, on the international front, the announcement was soon reverberating around the world on major news networks – picked up by organisations such as Reuters and Al Jazeera.

The move follows word last week that Kenya is willing to send 1,000 police officers to Haiti to help tackle gang violence – and on Monday, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Haiti’s neighbours to join the effort.

The Bahamas’ name is being spread around the world as being seemingly the second country to commit to putting boots on the ground.

The dangers overseas personnel face in Haiti is clear – to the extent that last week the US government ordered embassy personnel and their families to leave Haiti due to deteriorating conditions, and issued a “do not travel” advisory for the country.

The Bahamas ordered the withdrawal of its own diplomatic personnel from Haiti in January after staff were stopped by Haitian police and stripped of their vehicle and weapons.

In Haiti itself, the latest protests by citizens have followed the kidnapping of an American nurse and her daughter. Meanwhile, there is still no elected government, and a search for a Haitian-led solution to the situation remains unresolved. The CARICOM Eminent Persons Group tasked with exploring options for a way forward – which includes former Prime Minister Perry Christie along with his counterparts Dr Kenny Anthony of St Lucia and Bruce Golding of Jamaica – has not made very positive noises about its progress so far.

So in the absence of a clear solution, or even a clear target for what a successful intervention would look like, it is unusual to hear that we are not just willing to put troops into that situation, but have committed to doing so.

Or have we? Look at the statement and you will see the following: “For our part, The Bahamas has committed 150 persons to support the multi-national force once authorised by the United Nations Security Council. We now urge the passing of a UN Security Council Resolution in support of this force.”

In other words, “if” the UN says yes. What is the likelihood of that yes? Well, given the state of international politics at the moment – or ever – that is far from a given.

So this may be a commitment to nothing. Or it may be a commitment that puts Bahamian personnel in a precarious situation.

Of course, if that is what must be done, then that is what must be done – but we are a long way short of that being a decision that would gain wide support from the Bahamian public.

Then there is a local issue – and for a moment we are going to praise the former Prime Minister, Dr Hubert Minnis.

As politically unpopular as he presumably knew it would be during the pandemic, Dr Minnis was the one who stood in front of a TV camera and announced lockdown measures that angered and frustrated people.

Yesterday’s announcement of the possibility of 150 Bahamian pairs of boots on the ground came instead in a press release. No national address from Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis.

Curiously, even the Royal Bahamas Defence Force Commodore, Raymond King, said that he had “not been advised from the government on the matter as purported” although he said that of course the force “prepares for all eventualities”.

Does that lend credence to the thought that this is a promise that we may never have to deliver? That its dependence on the UN resolution that may never happen means our troops are going nowhere?

That we shall see, but regardless if it does or does not, it would have been appropriate for this announcement to have come directly from the leader of the nation who might have to send Bahamians into potential harm’s way.

Even the possibility of such a move deserves more than an announcement in a press release – and should be treated with the weight that such a decision must carry.

Perhaps this is all to put pressure on others for actual progress to be made towards a solution – but surely first of all we have to decide what that solution is, and we still seem very far from that.