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
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