PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis.
By EARYEL BOWLEG
Tribune Staff Reporter
ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said that addressing citizenship inequalities is a priority for his administration next year.
During the Junkanoo Boxing Day parade, he told reporters the issue must be rectified.
The Tribune reported yesterday that some people affected by a landmark Privy Council ruling earlier this year are frustrated waiting for the government to finalise protocols for those requiring DNA testing.
Attorney General Ryan Pinder said in June 2022 that the administration would push legislation allowing Bahamian men and women to pass citizenship in all circumstances. He later said this would happen after the Privy Council ruled on the status of children born out of wedlock to Bahamian men.
He reiterated last month that officials are working on legislation to address citizenship inequalities. People born outside The Bahamas to a Bahamian mother and foreign father are not automatically citizens, and Bahamian women do not have the same rights as men to get citizenship for their foreign spouse.
“We have to correct that,” Mr Davis said early on Wednesday. “Wherever inequality and equities exist, it is my mission to ensure they are eliminated, and so what is necessary to eliminate all inequalities amongst our citizenry will happen. That too will be part of our legislative agenda.”
Mr Davis noted that officials have spent years saying they will address the issue, but that other matters have been prioritised ahead of it.
He said his administration would pursue an aggressive legislative agenda in 2024.
“Next year, we have a plan, a very ambitious and aggressive legislative agenda, all designed to relieve the challenges that the least amongst us have, particularly tackling the cost of living and issues relating to crime.”
“It’s very aggressive, and the issues will be legislation dealing with energy, cost of living, and crime. Of course, there are other legislative issues that we will deal with to protect some of the other economic initiatives that we have. For example, the building of our orange economy, the intellectual property legislation to ensure that we protect what we build in the orange economy.”
Comments
ExposedU2C 10 months, 4 weeks ago
Big spender Davis and his doofus AG Pinder want to tear up the Constitution of The Bahamas by having you believe the government as opposed to the Bahamian people have the final word in determining who is entitled to receive Bahamian citizenship.
Let's not forget that Perry "Vomit" Christie tried to make changes to the citizenship provisions of our Constitution through a national referendum which the Bahamian people rejected. On learning the majority vote under the national referendum was against all of the major changes proposed, the Vomit led PLP government refused to honour the outcome of the referendum and instead started calling the duly held national referendum a mere survey of the sentiment of the Bahamian people. Vomit found out the hard way that most Bahamians rightfully did not trust the motives and objectives of the government. Bahamians demonstrated their great distrust by either voting no to the proposed changes or not bothering to vote at all.
Since then, the PLP government has become even more corrupt and wishes to simply tear up the Constitution. Numbskull Davis and doofus Pinder just can't understand that it is the Bahamian people and not the government (or the privy council for that matter) who have the exclusive right to determine who is entitled to receive Bahamian citizenship by way of the citizenship provisions of the Constitution. It is therefore a matter for the Bahamian people to determine, by way of a duly held national referendum, sesired changes to the citizenship provisions of the Constitution.
The intellectually dishonest in the PLP hierarchy, like Ruby Nottage and Sean McWeeney, have been trying for decades to twist the intended meaning of the Constitution's citizenship provisions in their quest to have the provisions changed to fit the "new" PLP political agenda that is so obviously not in the best interest of the vast majority of Bahamians. Thank heavens most Bahamians are not as stupid as these pseudo-intellects would like to think and are well aware of what is going on here.
Bottomline: The grant of Bahamian citizenship should never be made subject to political patronage and should remain exclusively determined by the intended meaning of the citizenship provisions of our Constitution at the time it was adopted by our country.
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