Value Added Tax (VAT) Implementation: A Titanic Failure

The Democratic National Alliance:



The first week of Value Added Tax (VAT) implementation has been a proverbial nightmare for both businesses and consumers around the country. As expected, this Christie administration has again failed at the execution of a major policy initiative; and has, in effect, betrayed the confidence of the people of this country, yet again!

After being promised a reduction in the cost of living, Bahamians now face drastic increases on even bread basket items while seeing no increases in their salaries and no economic improvement. After being promised Mortgage Relief, thousands of already struggling homeowners are waiting with bated breath for confirmation on whether or not VAT will also be added to their mortgage payments. After being promised transparency in governance, Bahamians are forced to navigate this new environment without one very critical legislative element: A FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT!

The last seven days have proven that this government was ill-prepared for the implementation of the new tax regime. Since January 1, both social and traditional media outlets have been flooded with complaints ranging from the apparent lack of consumer protection to the lingering confusions and frustrations felt by a business community struggling to find its footing in the still murky waters of the country’s Value Added Tax laws.

Rather than a seamless, well executed application of the new tax, incomplete and sporadic explanations from government officials have left many to interpret the laws as they see fit. In fact, what few mechanisms were put in place to educate the public and mitigate against the challenges surrounding the new regime have failed miserably. The Democratic National Alliance has received countless complaints from Bahamians who have reportedly been unable to reach anyone at the government sponsored VAT hotline, both here in New Providence and on Grand Bahama Island. And what happened to the proposed government agency that is to be responsible for the collection of VAT revenue? Or the naming of the VAT Comptroller? Certainly, these administrative issues should have been addressed long before the implementation date. Unfortunately, recent media commentary from the Minister responsible indicates this LATE AGAIN government is still working to finalize those details.

While disappointing, the government’s handling of the entire VAT process is unsurprising. From the very beginning, the legislation governing the process was challenged, overly complicated and faced countless delays. Instead of using those delays to its advantage the government squandered the additional time, releasing the still UNFINALIZED DRAFT of the VAT Regulations just days ahead of the actual implementation.

Without question, VAT implementation thus far has been a failure of titanic proportions and this government which claimed it was ready to govern ON DAY ONE, is allowing our country to slowly sink.

January 08, 2015

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Fred “Botha” Mitchell and the Birth of “Apartheid in The Bahamas”

An open letter from Fred Smith, QC to Nicki Kelly in response to her column appearing in The Punch on December 22, 2014

Dear Ms. Kelly,

At the outset, let me state, that I agree with Ms. Nicki Kelly. Both Fred Mitchell and Fred Smith QC plead guilty as charged; we are damaging the reputation of The Bahamas internationally. I love my country of citizenship, and I too regard this as regrettable, but sadly it is inevitable. There are always casualties in war and I lament that the reputation of The Bahamas is crumbling in this war of words.

But the reputation of The Bahamas is not what is at stake here; the Rule of Law and Human Rights are. I'm sure Ms. Kelly agrees that Human Rights matter more than reputation.

It is Fred Mitchell who has declared an all-out illegal war on the Constitution of The Bahamas by his November 1, 2014, Ministerial Edict against “foreigners”, in particular targeting Haitians and Bahamians of Haitian heritage.

Ms. Kelly’s summary of the “newly-devised policy” is simply inaccurate. Firstly, no new policy is necessary to stem “the flow of illegal immigrants into” The Bahamas. All that needs to happen is for the Immigration and Defence Force to do their jobs and to seal our porous borders. Secondly, Minister Mitchell does not have the lawful power to simply create new laws by policy edict. Only Parliament can pass new laws. Thirdly, the execution of this new policy has been outrageously illegal and unconstitutional measured by any democratic yardstick. Fourthly, there was, in any event, no need for it; it is a transparent political red herring.

Minister Mitchell has, without any shadow of doubt, cried “havoc, and let slip the dogs of war” on the The Bahamas and in so doing opened a Pandora's Box overflowing with xenophobic lynch mob mentalities. Minister Mitchell has ironically given birth to “Apartheid in The Bahamas” by singling out Haitians/Bahamians as objects of abject and acceptable state promoted institutionalized discrimination. Hats off to Fred “Botha” Mitchell!

It seems to be simply accepted in The Bahamas that “might makes right” and that ministers of government can just issue new laws by policy dictate. Perhaps, because many are presently clothed in the protective mantle of citizenship, they welcome and support the government’s propagandist use of the Immigration Department in making the “Haitian problem” the scapegoat for the ills which otherwise challenge our nation and contribute to the collapse of good governance.

I urge Ms. Kelly to recall however, that successive governments have used the touchstone of anti-foreign sentiment to keep the embers of xenophobia burning and to institutionalize discrimination (“Bahamianization”), abuse,oppression and complete disregard for most of the Fundamental Rights and Freedoms guaranteed to all “persons” regardless of their place of origin,under our Constitution. The very Constitution that protects her Citizenship and her rights; in fact all of our rights!

You see, Ms. Kelly, thankfully, we do not have the tyrannical luxury to pick and choose those who do and those who do not have rights. That would be to accept the tyranny of the majority! Our Constitution protects the rights of all “persons” in The Bahamas; not just born in these islands of Bahamian citizen parents. In the process of British decolonization, the drafters of all the Constitutions in The British Commonwealth sought to protect the rights of minorities in the aftermath of independence by securing the protection of the Rule of Law to all persons; so that minorities or individuals would be protected against for instance, racial or ethnic purges. Despite these penned protections, in many former colonies, there were holocausts with savage genocidal results.

In the Bahamas, the word “Bahamianization” has been our sanitized epithet for state generated and sustained racial and ethnic discrimination. Our schizophrenic attitude towards, but ultimate hatred of foreigners, our racism, our xenophobia, our increasingly strident nationalism, our acceptance of discrimination, our blaming of Haitians or Bahamians of Haitian heritage for all our social ills, have increasingly lead to more inflexible divisions and appear to have fomented and justified state violence against the current Haitian scapegoat! Violence, takes many forms.

So before there is blind acceptance of Minister Mitchell’s illegal policy; the unlawful,vicious and inexcusable actions of some Immigration, Defence Force and Police officers in the execution of this Imperial Mitchell Ministerial Edict, I urge a study of Chapter 3 of our Constitution, as one would, being no doubt a Christian nation, study The Bible. So, please be assured, that my hearkening to that Constitutional script has nothing to do with my alleged “Haitian Heritage”(which I will address later). It is simply about being a Bahamian who has studied his Constitution, like our Christian nation studies The Bible. The Constitution is my Political Bible, as it should be for all persons in The Bahamas.

Yes,The war of words is regrettable. But in a civil society, if citizens are not to take arms up against a coercive or abusive government, they are left with only the pen; and thankfully, as history has often shown in the long run, the pen and word are mightier than the sword, as Jesus Christ, above all others has shown us. You, Ms. Kelly, are a consummate wordsmith and know well, the Power of your Plume!

I find it therefor regrettable that Ms. Kelly would seek to trivialize and devalue my freedom to express my views by attributing to them ill informed and false personal motives and thereby holding them to public scorn and ridicule.

Like Ms. Kelly, I too believe in the power of the pen. Yes, I am a Queen’s Counsel; and yes,my status may accord my words great currency. I chose my descriptions very carefully and very deliberately. I do not resile from any of my words. My descriptions of the government’s (for this is not about any personality fight between Fred Mitchell and Fred Smith; he is simply the envoy) actions are correct and accurate. Only, by minuscule degrees, are they qualitatively different from the worst aspects and perceptions of “terrorism, Auschwitz, similar interment camps, and Ethnic Cleansing”. But I believe in calling a spade a spade, and I will not be an international apologist for any government, FNM or PLP. Forty years of my professional life attest to that!

To me, the Constitution comes first, before nationalism or international reputation.

And, if my own Bahamian government is assailing rights internally, then as Minister Fred Mitchell glowingly did in leading the charge internationally against South African Apartheid and protecting Nelson Mandela, who together with Fred Mitchell and Sir Lynden Pindling, cried out to the international community from his South African jail to Boycott South Africa, then I too will use my pen and any pulpit which presents itself to call on the international human rights community to help prevent abuse within The Bahamas. I find it ironic that Fred Mitchell, the “Minister of Immigration”, would condemn and heap abuse on Florida Sate Representative Daphne Campbell when Fred Mitchell, the “Human Rights Activist” of a bygone era, also called for a Boycott of South Africa to stop Apartheid.

Joseph Darville and I are doing no more and no less that many freedom fighters have done over the centuries in condemning national abuse and seeking international help. If our reputation suffers during challenging times, so be it. Such internecine wars can be easily avoided by our governments if they respect fundamental rights. Good international reputation comes with good governance; and bad international reputation comes with bad governance. It’s as simple as that. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil in this world is for good men to say and do nothing. You, Ms.Kelly, as a “Lady of Letters” knows that!

Thank goodness we are a global economy and words now have greater international repercussions.

Minister Mitchell’s minions would better serve the reputation of The Bahamas, save tax dollars, earn tax dollars and respect the rights of thousands of people in The Bahamas by trolling through the tens of thousands of files at the Immigration Department on Hawkins Hill instead of creating high political drama with this manufactured immigration crisis. Document first; hunt the rest later!That approach would send a very clear, positive and good message to the world that The Bahamas is serious about human rights and the Rule of Law!

I note that Ms. Kelly assumed that there was no “scintilla of evidence” to support my criticisms. I am sure she simply did not have the facts at her disposal which I had. I am a citizen of integrity. I have been at the forefront of fighting for human rights for decades. I have never uttered a word without evidence in support. I am not a fool. I am not an alarmist. I am a lawyer. I am, as she says, a Queens Counsel. I am responsible.

Minister Mitchell did not have “the entire country behind him”; and even if he did, I have the Constitutional right to be the one dissident voice if I so choose. It’s called freedom of expression, guaranteed by Article 23 of our Constitution.

My expressions, as distasteful as the truth may be, do not make me a “traitor”. And neither do the weekly, strident and often singularly individual views expressed by Ms. Kelly in her columns. I read her column weekly; precisely because her views are different. Indeed, that is the only reason I buy The Punch! I respectfully embrace and celebrate her right!

Yes I do, thankfully, have flashbacks of my childhood in Haiti. And she is correct: The Bahamas is not Haiti. But thankfully, my early experiences have given me subjective, and my 40 years of training as a lawyer, objective perspectives. Hence the 40 years I have fought, to prevent The Bahamas from becoming a Little Haiti. I have no “vested interest” in maintaining any status quo. Despite the radio rantings of Ortland Bodie and Wendell Jones and their call-in guests, I am not Haitian and never was! I will come to that later.
I do not subscribe firstly to the idea that there is a "Haitian problem"; and even if there was one, I do not subscribe to the theory of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Ms.Kelly, in her nationalistic fervor and zeal, appears to be blind to the evidence which over the last few weeks and continuing has embarrassingly unfolded and been publicly and internationally paraded.

Perhaps a recap may persuade her that my utterances have not been “hysterical hyperbole”. Indeed, the fact that Minister Mitchell was driven to fly to appear before the Human Rights Commission of the OAS in Washington to defend his government in the face of the GBHRA’s expressed outrage over the abuses also attests to this.

I have been dealing with the Haitian Diaspora in The Bahamas since 1977. And I have not been alone. I am a part of The Grand Bahama Human Rights Association. Joseph Darville and I speak as one. Our Tactically Launched Hyperbolic Scuds (TLH Scuds) are informed by evidence derived from personal testimonies, observations, reports and testimonials from a host of victims and others who believe in protecting rights and who are out in the field fighting this abuse.

Let us examine what has been happening here.

In summary; spontaneously by ministerial combustion and without cause or necessity, the government publicizes an illegal Ministerial Policy that causes panic, with no basis in law for its creation (it was not enacted by Parliament) or the manner in which it is to be executed. A crisis is created! Apartheid is proclaimed; foreigners, especially Haitians, have less or no rights; people, including Bahamians, must carry original identity and immigration status papers around with them!

Instead of focusing its energies constructively on the thousands of applications for status and documenting thousands entitled to be registered as citizens, the taxpayers money is to be squandered and a reign of terror imposed. Confusion is to abound! The government threatens to repeat the many earlier painful pogroms. The collective memory of the persecuted is once again awakened. People are unnerved. Fright sets in. As has so often happened before,the message of terror has been proclaimed by Ministerial Edict. Yet again; a new policy! This time it’s Mitchell making his mark instead of Roker the Wrecker!

The Institution of the Government of The Bahamas has again declared war on an ethnic minority segment of the population: those of Haitian origin.

This is illegal. It is in breach of Articles 15 and 26 of the Constitution.

But that does not phase the government! After all, they are only “Haitians” and as Ms. Kelly says, Minister Mitchell “had the entire country behind him”; so who would care?

It was the politically appropriate time (two years before the next election) to declare “open season” on Haitians. Indeed, even Her Majesty’s Official Opposition, the FNM, and the DNA were marching in vigorous and strident goose-step declaring that they stood “shoulder to shoulder” with the government! Thus emboldened, Immigration and Defence Force officers simply wore green shirts instead of brown shirts!

People are indeed terrified. They know what is coming. It is not the first time. This is simply Roker Revisited! They fear for their families. They fear for their personal well-being. They fear for their freedom. They fear for their property.They are told that shantytowns are to be demolished. The Ministry of Works begins “marking” homes for demolition, just like the Nazis did to the Jewish homes, except the MOW painted red numbers and not red Stars of David on the doors to signal the imminent invasion. Homes, some of which have been there for decades, are illegally bulldozed to let them know that the government means business.

The initial Blitzkrieg is swift; highly effective, well publicized! Minister Mitchell, the consummate public relations man, knows how to play the media to his audience! People, even those with “papers” hide in the forests and bushes; families are torn asunder; they leave their children. They flee in overladen boats from Abaco; they are shot at by the Defence Force, and made to return. Raids (sorry “exercises” as Minister Mitchell calls them; certainly not “roundups” either) in the dead of the night, by dozens of Immigration and Defence Force Officers clad menacingly in battle fatigues as if going off to war or hunting terrorist guerillas. Daily raids (“exercises”) continue; well publicized. People who look too black (or too white for that matter) are seized; detained; illegal roadblocks are set up (sorry, I believe Minister Mitchell calls them “checkpoints”; that’s what they were called in Haiti as well under the dictator, Papa Doc).

With no scintilla of reasonable suspicion, as required by law, people are randomly questioned in public, hauled off public buses, homes invaded and searched, and if they have a foreign sounding name are seized and detained. Even white Bahamians in vehicles stopped at red lights are interrogated. The government proclaims (illegally) that people must be documented; people are required (illegally) to have “papers” on them; if they don’t they are hauled away like cattle cuffed in buses, cages and pens.When they do present them Immigration take all; refuse to give copies. Poor, underprivileged, often uneducated and politically powerless people are traumatized. Overnight, Apartheid in The Bahamas is born!

All of this is of course illegal. I urge Ms. Kelly to read the cases Smith vs. Commissioner of Police; Iffil; Merson;Tynes; Jean; Taylor; Mercidieux Exavier; Barlatier, Takitota and many others; some of which wended their way for affirmation of rights all the way to the Privy Council.

I am not making up the law when I speak or write. I am merely repeating what the law has been since Magna Carta and before! It is Minister Fred “Botha” Mitchell and his Shock Troops who are acting illegally, and shredding the reputation of The Bahamas as a country governed by the Rule of Law.

Imagine what foreign investors think? Recall that last year, the CEO of UBS Bank was a target of Bahamian Apartheid, seized at a “checkpoint”, “undocumented”, hauled off to our Concentration Camp, detained and eventually released.

The result? UBS Bank shut down! A small but affluent circle of employment and opportunity for dozens of Bahamians within the financial services industry evaporated!

This treatment has also been meted out to many other “foreigners” and indeed many Bahamians. I continue to emphasize that this is, of course, illegal. But I suppose, Ms.Kelly, that as long as it continues to happen to “others”, it is justified?

With the initial strike, 400 persons of suspected Haitian heritage, documented or not, legal or illegal, are hauled off. Over 300 are subsequently “processed” (a word which does not appear in our laws) and released; only 70 are “detained” at the Carmichael Road Detention Center, itself an illegal facility operating for years, since its FNM inception, without basis in law. It is not a “prison” under the Prison Act (governed by law), and is not a “Correctional Facility” (under the Correctional Facilities Act). It exists against every penal norm or international precept, managed and maintained by the accusers, i.e. the Immigration Department and the Defence Force, neither of whose Parliamentary Acts of creation give lawful warrant to run a prison or a Concentration Camp (the accepted definition of which, this facility fits).

There are no prison officers; there are no rules, no regulations; in fact no laws at all to govern activities there. This is so even according to Minister Mitchell himself. In fairness to the PLP, it was the FNM who created this monster. But they are both to blame for perpetuating its illegal and inhumane existence.

Conditions are harsh, inhuman and degrading; people are beaten in its barbed wire confines; property is stolen; rules are made up as they go along; the public are not allowed to approach to take pictures; there is a thriving black market in existence for bare necessities; people are kept in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions; it is winter and cool; there are no blankets; women and children crowd on top of each other on disgusting smelly urine stained mattresses on the dirty floors; for the men, there are often not even floor coverings to lay on; the toilets, such as there are for, at times, over 500 people are clogged, disgusting, overflowing and unusable; there is no toilet paper; human waste and filth slops around; the stench is appalling; a pregnant woman hemorrhages and gives birth in the camp, she hides; people have been held there for years without being taken before a court; they effectively disappear because there is no due process provided by law; a woman (married to a Bahamian citizen, with a spousal permit) is extracted by a senior immigration officer and repeatedly raped and forced to perform fellatio to be graced with freedom; people are fed scant and inedible food; the water is undrinkable; bottled water becomes expensive currency; friends and family must bring food and supplies for bare necessities and sustenance. Children are kept in the “Carmichael Concentration Camp” (CCC); a young lady, born in The Bahamas, who has her application in for her Certificate of Citizenship under the Constitution, is unlawfully arrested, shackled, manhandled, beaten, humiliated, detained, ridiculed and eventually released. But unlike the many victims, she speaks out! And for this she is, two weeks later again assaulted on the street, beaten, phone seized, and hauled away to the Concentration Camp, where I am now trying to obtain her freedom.

These are tips of the many icebergs! Minister Mitchell and his cohorts, of course, hold and maintain the official line and simply Deny! Deny! Deny!

None of the detainees are taken before a court of law as required by The Criminal Procedure Code or the Constitution. In breach of every known law they are illegally held over 48 hours, some for years! None are charged with any offence in a court of law; none are tried; none are sentenced. They are simply “detained”; as if that word invested the exercise with some lawful warrant! And then deported en mass in breach of the provisions of the Immigration Act; often without regard to the individual merits of any case.

Those who are released are made to feel it was by a miraculous act of God; and in the true spirit of the bullying,victimization and abuse, told not to make trouble or complain or speak out, lest their next permit is denied; or their permanent residence or citizenship application be rejected; or a family member or friend suffer the same fate. And when one does complain or cry out because of a rape, or a beating, one is publicly scorned and ridiculed in social media or by the Immigration Department PR machine – impliedly accused of prostitution, as if even that would justify the inhumane and criminal treatment. The public applauds! Thus are the victims and their families silenced; thus are the disappearances maintained; thus is the Fred “Botha” Mitchell Reign of Terror sustained for "the entire country behind him” to applaud it in all its manifest glory!

But make no mistake; whether I call it “Auschwitz in The Bahamas”, thus evoking the Nazi Camps, or The South African Concentration Camps for Blacks under Apartheid, or the USA Internment Camps holding American Citizens of Japanese heritage during the Second World War; the fact is, the Carmichael Detention Facility is a “Concentration Camp” with all the associated trappings of ethnic discrimination and cleansing, evoking terror in the persecuted by inhuman and degrading treatment and fracturing their community ties through intimidation, abuse and or mass deportations.

As Ms. Kelly well knows, the term “concentration camp” refers to a camp in which people are detained or confined, usually under harsh conditions and without regard to legal norms of arrest and imprisonment that are acceptable in a constitutional democracy. I am glad that my reference to “Auschwitz in The Bahamas” has had the desired effect of evoking emotion and thereby attention to this abomination and blight on the democracy of The Bahamas. Even Minister Mitchell recently acknowledged it was a concentration camp in a press release published in the Tribune on December 18, 2014. That was decent of him.

“Institutional Terrorism”, “Ethnic Cleansing”, “Auschwitz in The Bahamas” – hysterical hyperbole? I think not!

The Bahamas just hasn’t started killing Haitians yet; as happened to minorities in former European colonies like Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa.

But wait – perhaps Ms. Kelly may subscribe to the divine urgings of a Christian man of the cloth; Bishop Simeon Hall; who encourages the government to arm the Immigration officers; then we will see if I am an alarmist.

These recent Immigration and Defence Force raids have been nothing less than a “shock and awe” invasion of our body politic by Fred “Botha” Mitchell and his Storm Troopers!

I will continue to use every weapon in the craft of my penmanship to launch TLH Scuds in an effort to resist this unconstitutional, illegal and inhuman and degrading policy. The GBHRA does not have a force of hundreds of Immigration, Defense and Police officers at our arbitrary whim and disposal to dream up arbitrary new policies, conduct illegal raids and roundups; to beat people; to rape them; to separate families and children, to detain in the Carmichael Concentration Camp.

I am a proud Bahamian Citizen. I do not carry the passport of any other country. I have nowhere else to go. I intend on using my pen to the best and most effective means to protect my Bahamas and to prevent it going slowly but inexorably into a dictatorial slide.

As Ms. Kelly and so many others seem to take a delight in doing, I turn to my heritage; as if all of my efforts in promoting human rights in The Bahamas for 40 years can be thereby relegated to biased in consequence and thereby devalued of their merit.

Ms.Kelly is incorrect; my mother was not a Haitian Citizen. My mother was British having been born in Trans-Jordan in the Middle East. Her father’s family are descended from the proud Bedouin Hashemites; her mother from Armenia, the land of Noah! Her father and family emigrated to Haiti at the end of the Second World War. My mother never sought nor was given Haitian citizenship.

Like Ms. Kelly when she was born, both my parents were British Subjects. Ethnically she is an Arab. During my childhood years in Haiti I was raised in an Arabic social milieu of Syrians, Palestinians, Jordanians and Lebanese. I am proud of my Arabic heritage.

My Father met my mother in Haiti. She was at that time engaged to a Syrian. Singing the beautiful Bahamian lullaby, Big Big Bamboo Bamboo; he wooed her into his arms. He made sure my sisters and I also kept in touch with our British and Bahamian Colonial roots.I was not raised in a Haitian social environment. Not that there is anything wrong with that even if it had been so. Haiti has a proud heritage of culture and freedom. I consider myself privileged to have spent my childhood in Haiti.

I say the foregoing to dispel Ms. Kelly's suggestion that my “loyalty” should be suspect and that I am a “traitor” to The Bahamas. I grew up as an Arab and “blanc” foreigner, not a Haitian. As such we suffered discrimination at the hands of the Haitian social elite, military and Ton Ton Macoutes. My first cousin, who was the head of a human rights NGO, was assassinated for promoting human rights in Haiti.

So Ms. Kelly, you know not of what you speak. I hold no brief for the “status quo” or for “Haitians” in The Bahamas. As my 40 year track record shows, I hold a brief for human rights for all persons in The Bahamas – not just some! The Haitians just happen to be a repeat target and, having grown up in Haiti, I speak Creole and French fluently. This gives me a facility and ease in garnering hundreds of scintillas of evidence to permit me to know that of which I speak!

Like Ms. Nicki Kelly, when the Bahamas became independent, my father and I became citizens of The Bahamas, and not withstanding early application for immigration status by my mother, it took decades before she was granted permanent residency, despite the fact that her husband, daughters and son were citizens of The Bahamas.

That in and of itself is a scandal which successive Bahamian governments continue to perpetuate against people who have applied for immigration status. Ms.Kelly knows full well the interminable abuse visited upon thousands and thousands of people in The Bahamas over the last 40 years by the PLP and to a lesser extent the FNM, simply by having their files lost etc. Indeed Freeport, where I live, is dramatic testimony to that catastrophic folly of policy!

But let me put a marker here. I hold no personal grudge against the PLP on any immigration issues or otherwise. My criticisms have been as strident against the FNM as the PLP. Truth be told, over the decades the PLP governments have accorded me, my families and businesses respect and sensible accommodations on most immigration applications I may have made. And on the contrary, the FNM much less so. And I must also say that that such treatment of me by the PLP bears testimony to the fact that they respect freedom of expression, and despite all of my public criticisms of their activities they have not, to my knowledge, sought to silence me by victimization.

That being said, I urge Ms. Kelly to likewise respect my right to freedom of expression and reconsider her characterizations of my utterances as “traitorous attacks”. I am as Bahamian as they come!

I also urge Ms. Kelly to please re-read the Constitution, the Criminal Procedure Code, The Penal Code, and the Immigration Act – she will see who is acting illegally and who is indeed creating the real international damage to the reputation of our beloved Bahamas.

As I said, I have nowhere else to go and I will use every legal power within my means to support our Immigration officers and protect OUR Bahamas from illegal invasion by Haitians, but also, most importantly, from people in government who are willing to take people’s liberties, rights and freedoms away.

I am most grateful to Ms. Kelly for expressing her views, a right which I respect and which she continues to have but one which she may not have for long if those who have the power of the pen do not use it to check dictatorial tendencies, abuses of the rule of law, illegal actions by a government, and unconstitutional encroachments on our liberties at every turn

Thank God for people like Ms. Nicki Kelly, Mrs. Eileen Carron, Joe Darville, and in a past incarnation Fred Mitchell (the human rights activist with whom I had the privilege of working in years past) myself and others who continue to use the pen to show that it is mightier than the sword.

I urge Ms. Kelly to help to guard our rights jealously. For too long it has been the “foreigner”; today it is the Haitian foreigner and Haitian/Bahamian; tomorrow it may be you! I remind her of the words of Pastor Niemoller in Nazi Germany;

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

I hate saying negative things about my country. I love OUR Bahamas. I firmly believe it is Better in The Bahamas than almost anywhere else in the world. But reputation abroad, does not trump Human Rights at home! Hence I will continue to fight for OUR Bahamas, to use my pen and to use hyperbole as and when I can to try and stop government illegality, abuse, and dictatorship.

Make no mistake: “policy” actions are dictatorial executive edicts with no warrant in statutory law passed by our legally elected Parliamentarians. Remember, Parliament passes laws and the Executive executes them. I repeat, there is no lawful authority for this "policy".

Here is a positive suggestion. Why not focus enforcing the Immigration Act with effective border enforcement? Immigration Officers are well within their rights to turn vessels away or escort them back to Haiti. What they do not have a right to do is violate the Constitutional rights of people who are already here, in a strategy that cannot solve the problem so long as the border remains porous.

Accordingly, why not start with improved border enforcement,whilst dealing with the thousands of outstanding applications for citizenship etc.in a deliberate, rational and humane fashion, while identifying alleged illegals on a case by case basis, as the Police do with any other alleged lawbreaker, and as the Constitution demands? Immigration officers have no greater powers than the Police. Immigration law, is like any other law on our books. It is not the Supreme law! The Constitution is.

The Immigration Department would face no criticism if they simply performed their duties according to law. There would be not a “peep” from the GBHRA!

Sincerely,

Fred Smith, QC
President, GBHRA
Human Rights Bahamas on Facebook

CUBA-US RELATIONS: TIME WAITS FOR THE BAHAMAS NO MORE

By Gilbert Morris:

 


Actually, time never had time for us because we are too wasteful. Now, after all this time, in what state are we to face whatever blows in from this Cuban-American possibility? Whatever comes has already happened. It is the realisation of what it has done and will do to us that will come slowly; because we will be in our habit of denial for decades to come. You should note that the in the Bahamas, there has not been a significant investment from an American investor in 25 years.

The analysis on us is that The Bahamas is where investments go to die. We had our chance 30 years ago. And when our mojo was lost, we responded by saying "Its Better in The Bahamas", even as we erected further impediments to good investment. And as usual, we will not innovate to meet the challenge caused by our venality, self-indulgence and plain stupidity. Instead, our cronyocracy will act to snatch every opportunity to reduce potential broad economic activity to personal 'fee collection'.

They will not respond with strategies to correct decades of slothfulness. Instead they will react to protect their personal hides; sighing that our shrinking economic prospects is from the impacts of "globalisation". They will send itinerant fools to evangelise this nonsense and our people, (swaddled with bad education, holding politicians high with such 'messianic fervour' that a basic job is now a political favour ), will prove unable to be that check in democratic terms, to force their hopes for, or vision of themselves upon those who presume to govern them.

Soon the offices of the state will be used openly to secure personal advantages against any striving Bahamian with ambition. These forebodings are not unique to The Bahamas. This is the road to the death of prosperity and the result of cronyist lackeynomics, poor education and societal malaise that fuels the engine of criminality that ensures the efficient destruction of generations upon generations.

It is the result of decades of bumptious tomfoolery and convoluted excuses masquerading as a concept of life. In one real sense Cuba has already 'eaten our lunch'. A nation under a half century embargo by the largest economic power in human history and yet, they surpassed us in tourism - an industry we pioneered - a decade ago, and, disgracefully - we are sending our students to them for education.

Our country does not appear on a single world leading benchmark. (Oh dear, I made an error. We have amongst the highest homicide rates in the world. I do not wish to diminish our accomplishments). Our Ministers of the cloth cling to every vice as the nation rots; the lights are on in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan and we cannot keep power in Nassau; a city named after the Prince of the most efficient country in the world; our young people wail concerning the incompetence of their governments, only to find their governments, which do not have time for governing, with all the time in the world to counterattack them for expressing their fears; we have placed our entire birthright in the future value of beachfront property, which is more likely to lose value in the next 20 years; we are capitulating to join a trade organisation - the responsibilities of which will increase red tape and the slow pace of governance processes - when our greatest economic opportunity in 50 years is in services; our government Ministers are trading on their positions in the very face of the public, whilst imposing draconian rules to punish poor Bahamians for failing to meet tax obligations they themselves have not met, despite a stranglehold on the nation's resources through their crony networks. What of vision and the future?

I wrote in 2012 that the Bahamas and Cayman Islands should be to Cuba what Singapore is to China. But of course, we are too busy busting up, shoving down and undermining fellow Bahamians - under two lunacies called PLP and FNM - as we run down our true potential for deals like Baha Mar, or pursing foolishness such as VAT, WTO and rescuing Bank of The Bahamas. As usual, we will have convenient excuses...even where none are possible. And we will twist ourselves as if in the Exuma wild oceans currents, to explain our only resilience: wutlessness as worthfulness.

Gilbert Morris - FaceBook

Fred Mitchell totally discredits misinformation about The Bahamas’ new immigration policy at the Organization of American States (OAS)

From Oswald Brown:

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister the Hon. Fred Mitchell totally discredited the malicious misinformation circulated nationally and internationally about The Bahamas’ new immigration policy during a major address at a Special Permanent Council Meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) on Tuesday, December 16, 2016.


Addressing ambassadors from OAS-member countries and a number of guests assembled in the ornate Hall of the Americas in the OAS main building on 17th Street, N.W., Mr. Mitchell made direct reference to the misinformation being circulated about the new policy by Attorney Fred Smith, President of the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association.

“There are three allegations that have been made that bear addressing in this forum which go to the heart of the matter: our country’s reputation,” Mr. Mitchell said. “There is a Queen’s Counsel in The Bahamas who heads a human rights organization which is connected around the world and whose allegations have made headlines in the hemisphere and around the world. The specific charges must be refuted.”

Attorney Smith has recklessly accused the government of “institutional terrorism,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “running Auschwitz in The Bahamas,” referring to the Carmichael Road Detention Centre.

“The latter statement alleged in particular that this minister was responsible for Auschwitz in The Bahamas,” Mr. Mitchell said. “Madame Chair, words have meanings and when a Queen’s Counsel makes such a statement he must be put to proof. Certainly the government of The Bahamas is bound to respond. Let me be clear: there is no institutional terrorism, no ethnic cleansings, no Auschwitz in The Bahamas. No group is being targeted for elimination in The Bahamas, no mass murder is occurring in The Bahamas and certainly none which is sponsored or sanctioned by the state. There is no evidence anywhere that this is the case and we refute it absolutely. We once again repeat the invitation to the human rights bodies to inspect at any time and without notice.”

Mr. Mitchell emphasized that the United Nations Human Rights Commission has a representative in The Bahamas and “they have been to the detention centre and can say whether or not we are operating gas chambers and engaging in mass murder in the Carmichael Road Detention Centre.”

“The remarks are so outrageous and absolutely irresponsible and I condemn without reservation,” the Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister emphatically stated.

Earlier in his address Mr. Mitchell said that on “behalf of Prime Minister Perry Christie, the government and Peoples of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, I appear here today to deal with a serious matter: the reputation of The Bahamas.”

“Nothing is more important to us than that in the international arena, whether in the hemisphere or in the sub region or around the world,” Mr. Mitchell said. “Reputation is everything. The respect which we have around the world, depends upon our reputation. My nation of less than 400,000 souls thrives off its reputation. Tourism is our main business. People come to The Bahamas as tourists because they believe and perceive that it is better in The Bahamas, and it is.”

Noting that The Bahamas is paradise and “we work very hard to maintain that reputation,” Mr. Mitchell said thousands of business people and “non-Bahamian residents live in our country because it has a stellar reputation as a safe place for investment and wealth management: a well regulated, transparent jurisdiction.”

“What we know however is that we must be eternally vigilant in protecting our reputation: correcting untruths and misperceptions where they exist and of course ensuring that within our borders and in our external relations we so conduct ourselves that we to the extent that our resources permit adhere to the highest standards and best practices as set by the international community,” the Foreign Affairs Minister said. “I am here today to reaffirm our commitment to the principles of the rule of law, due process, the international treaties on migration and all the instruments to which we adhere in the Inter-American system. Please be assured of that.”

He added, “This assurance goes out to friend and foe alike and has become necessary because of the misinformation that has been circulated by two innocuous administrative measures that were announced by The Bahamas, which took effect on 1st November 2014. The policies were contained in a one page document which advised the public that work permit applications would not be accepted for those people who did not have legal status in The Bahamas without them first being certified as being seen by one of our consular officers in their home country or in the nearest office to their home country.

“The second was that all non-nationals who live in The Bahamas would have to get and hold the passport of their nationality and obtain a residency permit, which would be evidence that they have the right to live and work in The Bahamas.”

Mr. Mitchell said these policies should not have been a surprise to anyone, adding that the political party “to which I belong announced that we would be perusing immigration reforms prior to our election to office in 2012.”

Mr. Mitchell pointed out that on an official visit of the President of Haiti to The Bahamas on July 28, “we advised the Haitian government that we proposed to do so and sought their advice on whether they could meet the expected demand for passports at their embassy.”

“The President indicated that they could,” Mr. Mitchell said. “This was followed up with a similar exchange at the margins of the United Nations in September with the Foreign Minister of Haiti, my distinguished colleague. We have since spoken with the Minister in the margins of the summit in Havana Cuba last week and the Haitian government has indicated that they will take measures to meet the demand. I thank them.”

The Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister stressed that the Department of Immigration, which is charged with the responsibility for executing the new policies, has an enforcement unit and each day, they go out and do immigration checks.

“The press both at home and abroad keep referring to these as round ups or raids,” Mitchell emphasized. “There are no round ups in The Bahamas. Round ups are for cattle not people. Words make a difference.”

On November 1, Mr. Mitchell added, they did what they usually do “and in the course of one of these checks, parents abandoned their children and left the children unaccompanied in their homes. This was later borne out by the parent in the press who indicated that he ran and told the children do not to open the door.”

“The constitution of our country empowers officers to arrest people who are committing offences on the following standard: a reasonable suspicion that an offence has been committed, is being committed or is about to be committed,” Mr. Mitchell said. “Officers are briefed on that standard and reminded of their responsibility in law to treat everyone with respect and with dignity and to afford everyone due process. So far as I am aware they have stuck to that standard. The government does not sanction any deviation from that standard.”

He said the International Human Rights Commission is invited along with the Organization for American States “to come at any time and inspect our procedures and facilities and see whether what we are saying is correct.”

“We are open and transparent and have absolutely nothing to hide,” he insisted. “Where there are shortfalls, we are committed to ensuring that those are corrected.”

December 16, 2014

Oswald Brown - FaceBook

Ryan Pinder resigns Perry Christie's Cabinet for Deltec Bank and Trust Limited Big Payday

Pinder Abandons Public Service for Private Sector Payday

Christopher Mortimer

Like Bahamians around the country, I too was taken aback by the sudden resignation of the Minister responsible for Financial Services Ryan Pinder. According to a statement from Government officials Pinder will relinquish his position as a cabinet minister to take a prominent position at Deltec Bank and Trust Limited.

Many Bahamians will remember the somewhat dubious circumstances under which Pinder first entered front line politics in this country. A former US tax attorney, Pinder renounced his US citizenship and in doing so pledged his commitment to public service in this country and specifically to the residents of the Elizabeth constituency who supported him wholeheartedly and elected him to office twice, first as an opposition MP and then again into government.

After pledging his commitment in the service of the country, and ascending to the post of cabinet minister, Mr. Pinder has chosen to turn his back on that commitment in favor of what he is calling the opportunity of a lifetime. Clearly for Pinder, Deltec’s offer trumped the opportunity to serve his country, shape policy and influence the economic and financial future of the nation.

The sudden resignation of Financial Services Minister Ryan Pinder to rejoin the private sector raises a number of serious concerns and is once again a reflection of the self-serving interests of members of this PLP administration.

Firstly, there are serious ethical implications which result from his resignation. Whose interest does it serve for a former cabinet minister, formerly responsible for regulating the financial services sector, to then join one of the very companies he had been mandated to regulate? Further, did Deltec court the minister for this position while he was still serving in cabinet? While he still had access to sensitive government plans for the sector, and if so were they given a preview of those plans? If so, this would not only be unethical but would also seemingly give Deltec and illegal advantage over its competitors.

Secondly, what will become of the many important initiatives which Pinder was overseeing? Among them, the country’s accession to the WTO? For Months, Pinder has spearheaded the talks with international officials and has been responsible for the – albeit – limited public proclamations on the issue.

Pinder’s resignation also highlights the need for discretion when choosing individuals to serve in public office. Such a decision should never be taken lightly. Taking on the responsibilities of public service often requires great personal sacrifice including giving up more lucrative positions in order to affect change. It is a commitment that is also taken on by that individual’s family as well. While the final decision is indeed Mr. Pinder’s to make, it certainly seems to send the message that he was no longer prepared to make the personal sacrifices necessary to fulfill his original commitment. I encourage any and all individuals considering public life to fully weigh the decision beforehand.

And what of Mr. Pinder’s decision to remain in parliament? How will his new duties affect his ability to serve his constituents? These answers are owed to his constituents and to the wider Bahamian public.

What this country needs are leaders who understand the idea of sacrifice. Leaders who are prepared to go without so that the entire country can benefit, leaders who are in it for the long haul, and not easily swayed by the offer of a big pay day.

Democratic National Alliance on Facebook

The Bahamas supports the movement to end the United States embargo against Cuba

Christie courts Cuba partnership

By K. QUINCY PARKER
Guardian Business Editor
quincy@nasguard.com

The Bahamas affirmed its support for a move to end the United States embargo against Cuba, as the heads of state of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Cuba adopted the Declaration of Havana on Monday at the close of the fifth CARICOM-Cuba Summit.

Prime Minister Perry Christie asserted that CARICOM and Cuba have always been able to overcome challenges and to develop strategies for mutual advantage.

“In fact, our forty-one years of diplomatic relations have been markedly fruitful as a result of functional cooperation in the areas of health, education, sports, culture, agriculture, disaster management, energy and construction,” Christie said, addressing the summit in Havana on Monday.

“We must continue to support each other in international fora, always providing reciprocal support for our initiatives, whether it is in advocacy for the rejection of any blockade against Cuba; support for the reclassification of middle income economies; negotiations for a strong post-2015 agenda that favors small island developing states; support for Cuba’s leading role in the CELAC process; and support for candidacies for election or appointment to multilateral bodies,” he said.

The prime minister said that The Bahamas and Cuba must continue dialogue on facilitating joint ventures in the tourism industry, particularly in concretizing the concept of multi-destination marketing initiatives and packages.

“This would surely make our region more competitive with other regions in the global tourism market,” he said.

Noting that transportation is key to national and economic development and the travel routes of both countries’ national carriers, Christie said Bahamasair and Cubana need to be further expanded to facilitate tourism, travel and international trade.

“The Bahamas, like Cuba, is also interested in seeking out new strategic partnerships for investment in renewable energy; partnerships that will facilitate access to new capital, more efficient technologies and new markets,” he said.

Christie also welcomed ongoing progress towards the finalization of a CARICOM-Cuba trade agreement, and said that at a bilateral level, negotiations for two Bahamas/Cuba Agreements for Cooperation in Animal Health and Plant Health are now well advanced.

Those issues and more were enshrined in the Declaration of Havana adopted on Monday, wherein CARICOM and Cuba committed to strengthen South-South cooperation as an expression of solidarity and the promotion of bilateral and regional programs as well as triangular cooperation for development.

In the declaration, heads of state - citing the cooperation between Cuba and CARICOM in health, the development of human resources, construction and sports - reiterated a commitment to continue promoting social initiatives as well as the implementation of projects to improve air and sea infrastructure and connectivity, and to broaden economic and trade relations through the implementation of the revised trade and economic cooperation agreement between CARICOM and Cuba.

The declaration also hails progress in the negotiations to expand market access and improve economic cooperation under the trade and economic cooperation agreement. Heads of state noted a desire to conclude negotiations by the end of the second quarter of 2015.

December 10, 2014

thenassauguardian

Who Is This Fred Smith, QC Fella?

And Who Is Fred Smith, Qc?

Tribune 242 Editorial:

Mr. Fred Smith, QC

“WHO IS dis Smith fella…let’s pick him up!” bellowed an angry Loftus Roker in a Side Burns cartoon published in The Tribune on August 21, 1986.

Loftus Roker, then Immigration minister in the Pindling government, was notorious for his Haitian round-ups. In the cartoon, “Cowboy Roker” is drawn with a pistol at his side and a bandolier around his waist. He holds a telephone to his right ear as he shouts the “pick him up orders” while reading a letter from Amnesty International complaining that “Smith say yinna is mistreatin’ Haitians.”

In fact, in Mr Roker’s day, five Immigration officers did “invade” Fred Smith’s law office in Freeport to check on his status.

Recently, Mr Smith, in describing himself, said that he became a Bahamian citizen in 1973, which seemed to confirm the opinion of those who dismissed him as just a “paper Bahamian”. Rather than confirming him as a “paper Bahamian”, it confirmed the ignorance of many Bahamians, who today consider themselves the “true, true Bahamians”, forgetting that each and every one of us came to these islands in different centuries either by boat or by plane. Not one of us is indigenous to the Bahamas. Therefore, there is not one among us — regardless of race – who can claim original ownership of these islands, although a PLP Minister once took leave of his senses and declared from a public platform that “God gave this country to the PLP”.

In fact, if gaining Bahamian citizenship in 1973 is what created a “paper Bahamian”, then we are all “paper Bahamians” because it was in that year that we ceased being citizens of Great Britain and her colonies, and became citizens of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. This is what Mr Smith meant when he said he became a Bahamian citizen in 1973. In fact, that applies to all of us who claim to have been born in these islands.

On Friday night, a demonstration was arranged on Bay Street, among the demonstrators was a black Bahamian, wearing a white shirt on which was imprinted the image of a Klu Klux clansman carrying a burning cross with the words - BACON-KKK. In our photograph this Bahamian carries a large placard declaring that Fred Smith is a “Haitian Infidel!”

Now let’s examine this Fred Smith, “Haitian infidel”, and discover why he is such a passionate human rights advocate, and why many Bahamians are trying to disown him as fully one of them.

In fact, Fred Smith is more of a Bahamian than any one of us, because on his Bahamian father’s side he can trace his roots to an original Cherokee Indian who was one of the few to survive the Spanish purge after Columbus discovered these islands in 1492. A photograph of his great great grandmother shows a very beautiful Cherokee woman.

Fred Smith’s family has been in the Bahamas at least since 1648 – a year after King Charles 1 of England in the 23rd year of his reign granted to the company of Adventurers for plantation and cultivation the island of Eleuthera and “all the surrounding islands known as the Bahamas”.

Mr Smith’s family arrived in ships filled with Puritans and others seeking religious freedom from England. The indigenous population of Eleuthera was almost entirely decimated in the wake of the Spanish discovery. However, of the few who were left was a man whose last name was Sims — eventually the family added another “m” to turn the name into Simms. This first Sims was Fred Smith’s great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather. One hundred and fifty years later, his descendant William Simms had a daughter named Arabella Simms. She was Fred Smith’s great, great grandmother.

As the family grew and spread, they acquired such additional branches to the Simms tree as Smith, Knowles, Cartwright, Deal and Bowe. They were born in various islands, among them Exuma, Long Island, Eleuthera and New Providence.

Fred Smith’s father, born in Nicholls Town, Andros, was Frederick (Freddie) Charles Smith, Freddie’s older brother was Wilfred (Pemmy), who had a crawfish import-export business on Prince George Wharf, and their only sister, Mrs Mary Doris Stevenson, was an accomplished interior decorator, who operated “Interiors”.

Mary Doris’ husband, Carl, operated a venetian blind company in Twynam Avenue.

Among Mr Smith’s cousins still in Nassau are Lester and Leonard Smith. He even has second cousins in the PLP camp – former PLP MPs George and Philip Smith.

Fred Smith’s father, Freddie, operated a mailboat between Nassau and Gonaive Haiti, where he traded with Izaac Richards (Arabic name Ghiscian), and befriended his daughter, Julia Richards. Julia was born in Madaba, Jordan, the Christian capital for Middle East Catholics. Her father was a Bedoin and her mother Armenian. They married.

They had four children — Norma, Gladys, Joyce and after a few years Fred Smith, QC. The four children were born in Port-au-Prince and registered with the British consulate as citizens of Great Britain and her colonies. They became Bahamian citizens — as did all of us — on July 10, 1973. Although they lived in Haiti, they were frequent visitors to their home and family in Nassau.

But at an early age, Fred knew what discrimination and round-ups meant. He was eight years old when his father was summarily put on a plane and deported to The Bahamas by the dictatorial “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his evil Tonton Macoute. The Tonton Macoute was a paramilitary force answerable only to Papa Doc. They were authorised to commit systematic violence and human rights abuses to suppress political opposition. They were created after a failed coup d’état against Papa Doc in 1958.

“I recall us living in terror,” said Fred, “whispering at night clustered around candlelight so that the housekeepers could not hear us, frequent roadblocks during the day. Our home being invaded and torn apart by Tonton Macoutes and the Gendarme. My mother being seized and spirited away and disappearing in some dictatorial prison system where she could not be found for three days.”

He recalls his father hiding his mother and sisters in the mountains, while he and his father were barricaded in his father’s bedroom with “all sorts of shotguns and hunting guns while in the background they were tearing our house apart”.

The family returned to their home in the Bahamas in the 1960s, and established Eddie’s Department Store. Young Fred went to school at St Thomas More, Xavier’s, St Augustine’s and then off to school in England, eventually studying law and being called to the English Bar.

Not only is he a noted lawyer, but he is a fierce human rights activist, who having had his own experience, understands the plight of Haitians being rounded up in The Bahamas.

Mr Smith recognises that this country has a Haitian crisis that has to be solved. But he is determined to see that it is solved with humanity.

And to answer the question: Who is Fred Smith? He is a true Bahamian descended from the original stock, whose family has suffered human rights violations. He is now dedicated to making certain that those abuses are not continued in the Bahamas. He is also determined to see that the rights of Haitians are not abused during the exercise of determining their citizenship. And if abused, he will face the government in court on their behalf. 

December 08, 2014

Tribune242