Constitutional reform Pt. 1: ... ...After 39 years of constitutional practice in The Bahamas, it is now time that we examine our constitution ...to determine if it conforms to the demands and expectations of contemporary Bahamian society... ...Does the Bahamian constitution reflect the contemporary shared expectations and experiences of the Bahamian community today?

Constitutional reform Pt. 1

By Alfred Sears

On Wednesday, August 1, 2012, Prime Minister Perry Christie, in a communication to the House of Assembly, announced the appointment of a Constitutional Commission to review and recommend changes to the Constitution of The Bahamas, in advance of the 40th anniversary of Bahamian independence.  The commission is chaired by Mr. Sean McWeeney, Q.C. and the members include Mr. Loren Klein, a member and technical co-ordinator of the commission’s secretariat; Mr. Carl Bethel; Madam Justice Rubie Nottage (retired); Mr. Mark Wilson; Mr. Lester Mortimer; Mrs. Tara Cooper-Burnside; Professor Michael Stevenson; Dr. Olivia Saunders; Mr. Michael Albury; Ms. Chandra Sands; Ms. Brandace Duncanson and Mrs. Carla Brown-Roker.

The newly-appointed commission will be able to complete the constitutional review process that had been started by the Constitutional Commission, that had been appointed by Prime Minister Christie on the December 23, 2002, under the joint chairpersons Paul Adderley and Harvey Tynes, QC, but which process the government abandoned after the 2007 general election.

This series of 20 articles on constitutional reform in The Bahamas, parts of which were first published by The Nassau Guardian in 2000 and are now updated, is intended to engage the Bahamian community in public conversation about the constitution in a frank and constructive manner, in light of the changing shared experience and expectations of contemporary Bahamian society.

While I will examine the limitations of the constitution, I will also provide recommendations, informed by the experience of other constitutional democracies, to assist us in creating a more perfect democracy in The Bahamas.  It is my hope that these articles will encourage public discussion about our governmental structure, citizenship, fundamental rights, the independence of the judiciary, campaign finance reform, public contracts, the Privy Council, the death penalty, republican status and the need for more effective checks and balances in our system of government.

The Constitution of The Bahamas, framed during the early period of modernization in The Bahamas, concentrates too much power in the Office of the Prime Minister, discriminates against women; does not guarantee the right to vote, the freedom of the press, protection of the environment; and does not promote economic and social rights.

The American legal scholar, Professor Myres McDougal, asserted that a constitution should be “a living instrument, a dynamic and continuing process of communication, practices and decisions.  It is made and continually remade in response to the changing demands and expectations of the people under ever-changing conditions.  It should reflect not only the shared expectations of the original framers of the constitution, but also those of succeeding generations.  It should also reflect the contemporary shared expectations and experiences of community members today.”

The Bahamas Independence Order 1973, an act of the British Parliament, provides for The Bahamas to become an independent sovereign nation.  The constitution is actually the appendix to The Bahamas Independence Order 1973.  The representatives of the Bahamian people at the Constitutional Conference in London in December, 1972 comprised the following individuals: Sir Arthur Foulkes, Sir Orville A. Turnquest, Sir Lynden O. Pindling, Sir Clement Maynard, Arthur Hanna, Paul Adderley, Philip Bethel, George A. Smith, Loftus A. Roker, Cadwell Armbrister, Norman Solomon, Sir Milo Butler, Sir Kendal G.L. Isaacs, Mr. Carlton Francis and Mr. Henry Bowen.  These 15 men are collectively known as the framers of the Bahamian Constitution.  There were no Bahamian women represented at the Constitutional Conference of 1972.  Therefore, the review of the constitution will afford Bahamian women, for the first time in our history, an opportunity to be directly involved in the remaking of our constitution, as members of the Constitutional Commission, members of Parliament and electors in any referendum.

The form and structure of the Constitution of The Bahamas was patterned after the constitution of Jamaica of July 25, 1962, which was itself patterned after the Nigerian constitution of October 1, 1960, incorporating a bill of rights based on the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.  All of these constitutions were drafted under the supervision of the Colonial Office in London.  The heading of chapters, the numbering of the parts, and over 60 percent of the sentences, clauses, phrases and words used in the Bahamian Constitution are to be found in exact form in the constitution of Jamaica and the earlier constitutions of Nigeria and Sierra Leone.  Due to this Westminster constitutional model received by The Bahamas and other Caribbean countries, Professor Trevor Munroe, in his book “The Politics of Constitutional Decolonization: Jamaica 1944 to 1962”, argues that the real founding fathers of these constitutions were not the Nigerians, Jamaicans and Bahamians, but the British who promoted the model to their former colonies.  Similarly, the noted constitutional lawyer, Berthan Macaulay, QC, argued that the Westminster constitutional model is an attempt by the British to “implant the legal form, conventions and understandings and governmental history of an alien people into ex-colonial societies, and expect them to grow overnight without regard to the conventions, understandings and history of the local people... In their inflexible form these constitutions leave much room for those who seek absolute power, or whose goal is the achievement of almost unlimited power, in short, dictatorship.”

The present constitutional review will provide the entire Bahamian civil society an opportunity to shape and model a constitution in our own image.

As we review the Constitution of The Bahamas, we should learn some lessons from the constitutional practice of the United States of America.  The Constitution of the United States, adopted in 1789, is the oldest written constitution in our hemisphere.  It is a living document, given new meaning and vitality under ever-changing conditions through Supreme Court decisions and formal amendments.  It extends its protection to all persons in the territory of United States, citizens rich and poor as well as aliens.  In establishing a national government, the United States’ constitution sets up three branches and provides mechanisms for them to check and balance each other.  It balances central federal authority with dispersed state-reserved power.  It protects the citizenry from the government and gives the power of judicial review to the judicial branch of government.

The limitations of the original United States constitution are very apparent from a brief historical review.  In 1789 when the constitution was founded, African Americans were still in slavery and, as property, were not considered as full citizens.  However, there has been a continued process of correction, through constitutional amendments, judicial decisions, legislation and executive measures to create a more perfect democracy in the United States, as the society moved from an agrarian to an highly industrialized nation.  The first 10 amendments of the United States constitution were passed in 1791.  The 13th Amendment, adopted in 1865 immediately after the Civil War, abolished slavery.  The 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868, gives citizenship to all persons born in the United States and guarantees due process and equal protection of the laws.  Bahamians who had children in the United States, such as the parents of Sir Sidney Poitier, were and are the beneficiaries of this provision.  The 15th Amendment, adopted in 1870, guarantees the right to vote irrespective of race, color or previous condition of servitude.  Up until 1971, the United States constitution had been amended 27 times.

Similarly, our sister Caribbean countries have also been trying to bring their constitutions in line with the shared expectations and aspirations of their contemporary societies.

Constitutional reviews have been undertaken and amendments proposed or effected, for example, in Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.  Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago have totally replaced their independence constitutions.

After 39 years of constitutional practice in The Bahamas, it is now time that we examine our constitution to determine if it conforms to the demands and expectations of contemporary Bahamian society.  Does the Bahamian constitution reflect the contemporary shared expectations and experiences of the Bahamian community today?

 

• Alfred Sears is an attorney and a former minister of education, and chairman of the Council of The College of The Bahamas.

Aug 16, 2012

thenassauguardian

Community policing, Urban Renewal and The Bahamas' crime problem

tribune242 editorial



ANY POLITICAL party that tells a community that Urban Renewal, whether it be Urban Renewal 2.0 or 4.04, is a quick fix for this country's crime problem is fooling the people by encouraging them to clutch at moonbeams.

This is not to denigrate Urban Renewal, which is a long-term solution, the effects of which will probably not be able to be properly assessed until the next generation.

However, for those who want to see the ugly head of crime crushed with the utmost speed, community policing is one of the many answers. In fact, community policing - the initiative of the Royal Bahamas Police Force - morphed into Urban Renewal and, unfortunately, into the arms of politicians during the Christie administration.

We have been told that the Urban Renewal programme received an international award. In fact, it was not Urban Renewal that received the award from the International Association of Commissioners of Police (IACP). Rather, it was the Royal Bahamas Police Force. And this was how their community initiative was described in the IACP's 1999-2006 report: "The Royal Bahamas Police Force worked with area residents to form a community task force comprising officers, members of local churches, the business community, residents, and reformed gang members. The task force patrolled the streets on foot, and in vehicles 24 hours a day, seven days a week, leaving criminals little time or space in which to operate."

Now this is where Urban Renewal came in: "The task force," said the IACP, "also worked with the Departments of Social Services, Housing, Environmental Health, and Public Works to improve living conditions."

One of the award winners was Farm Road's marching band, started by the police with the assistance of business persons. There was no political affiliation with this programme. The boast today of the Eastern Division's marching band, again a police creation, is that they are of award-winning standard. When Urban Renewal came along, the police continued their community policing programmes, but got diverted to add muscle to the work of social workers who government had introduced into the various communities under the name of Urban Renewal. Of course, things moved more efficiently when backed by a police officers' orders.

For example, if an Environmental department employee gave instructions for the removal of derelict cars, they could expect some "lip". But for the order to come from a police officer, it was a "yes, suh" and a shuffle into speedy action.

However, one of the many criticisms of what is now known as Urban Renewal was that the workers who were attached to the programme were especially selected by PLP politicians. It was soon discovered that serious people were sitting around a table having discussions with persons who could hardly read or write.

It did not take the Ingraham administration long to understand how community policing had been hijacked. As a result, the police were removed from the social services side of the programmes and sent back to doing what they did best and for which they had won an international award -- community policing. That does not mean that if needed the various social services cannot call on them for assistance. They are called on, and they do respond.

According to Mr Christie, the urban renewal programme established by his government offered people hope. It had had noteworthy results in communities in which it had been established. He promised that if returned he would renew Urban Renewal with a stepped-up programme -- Urban Renewal 2.0.

"There is a compelling need in this country for us to recognise that we are out of control with crime and that we do know the influences that are affecting the young people," Mr Christie told members of the House in discussing the various crime bills then being debated.

Meanwhile, the police are continuing with their community programmes - among them after-school programmes for young people. There are the after-school programmes in the Eastern Division, highlighting Fox Hill, the Western Division, and the Central division with the 242 model programme for young people with behavioural challenges. The Southern Division has included in its programmes a Crime Watch Group for business persons to assist them in patrolling their businesses.

And so social services -- a branch of Urban Renewal -- continues with its programmes in the communities, while the police are now free to step up their community programmes in addition to tracking down criminals.

November 01, 2011

tribune242 editorial

Caribbean Blog International

The only way that we can rid ourselves of crime is to get back to basics -- discipline, good manners, hard work, respect and love for our God, our parents, ourselves, our neighbours, our community

tribune242 editorial



WHEN WE first joined The Tribune more than fifty years ago, there were no files that contained a business contract anywhere in the then small building. All transactions were the result of a gentleman's agreement sealed with a handshake. It seemed to work fairly well.

Today progress has brought written contracts, but there are times when they are not worth the paper they are written on. Recently, when we spoke with someone on behalf of a person who was having difficulty collecting payment for work he had completed, we were informed by the person who was dealing with the payment that if the matter went to court, the company would be closed and the complainant would get nothing. That's justice and honest business dealings for you, but it is also progress ... after all we do have written contracts. However, in the interim we have lost integrity, honesty, and a sense of responsibility.

We have graduated from the age when children were "seen, but not heard" to a society of vocal, often rebellious and destructive youth. They respect no one -- not even themselves-- many believing that whatever they want they can steal from a hard working neighbour. After all during the narco years, when drugs were the going currency, didn't a cabinet minister in the heat of a public gruelling, blurt out that it was nobody's business how he made his money -- whether he worked for it or t'iefed it? School essays expressed the ambition of many children that they wanted to follow the career path of their fathers, uncles or brothers as drug dealers. In those years drugs seemed to open a magic door to wealth and upward social movement. Man's lofty spirit was debased by materialism.

Need we wonder why crime is out of control. Today we are being held hostage by the products of those years.

We have problems in our schools, and we wonder why. Discipline, common courtesy and respect have all but disappeared from the schoolyard. Why, we ask? We remember a time when if a child were disciplined at school he took his punishment and made no complaint at home, because he knew that more punishment would follow for disrespecting his teacher or breaking school rules. Not so today. The precious little darlings trot home with a tale of woe and the next day a rowdy parent marches to the school to beat up the teacher. No need to wonder what's wrong with today's youth -- just look to the parents. There are no longer rules for them, discipline has gone out of the window, the child gets what he or she wants.

They looked down on honest labour. We recall a day when a mother telephoned asking us to do a story about a hotel whose manager had the effrontery to ask her daughter to scrub a dirty floor. She had called the wrong person for sympathy. The only way that we knew how to get a dirty floor clean, despite all the modern gadgets, was to get on hands and knees and give it a good scrubbing. Having done it ourselves while at school in England, we saw nothing wrong with it. No wonder in those years the government-owned hotels looked so distressingly shabby.

The late Sir Lynden Pindling lived long enough to accept that his beliefs in making life too easy for the youth was their undoing. "We are falling backward with sophistication, because we have got slack and we've got lazy and we've got sophisticated over these last 20 years and that's our fault. I accept responsibility for that," he said.

He might have accepted responsibility, but today we are suffering from those years of over indulgence when good manners, hard work, honesty, and discipline was undermined.

Sir Lynden lived long enough to understand why Haitians had to be employed to do the work that Bahamians once did. He was distressed when told by the "new" Bahamian that "Haitians supposed to do that."

"We told them that they were too good to be gardeners, too good to be sanitation men, too good to work with their hands..." Sir Lynden admitted.

"But, I didn't know then what I know now, that any work breeds character. Too many young men lack character today; too many, too often shirk responsibility because they have never been held accountable for their actions at home, in school or in society. Therein may lie the heart of the problem," he admitted.

The only way that we can rid ourselves of crime is to get back to basics -- discipline, good manners, hard work, respect and love for our God, our parents, ourselves, our neighbours, our community.

We have to dust off the Ten Commandments and teach them to our children from the cradle.

In other words our misplaced progress has led us astray. As a community we have to start all over again.

We cannot afford to wait. Now is the time.

August 09, 2011

tribune242 editorial

Caribbean Blog International

A Message From Branville McCartney - MP - Bamboo Town

A Message From MP McCartney



...That all elected officials may respond to the needs of their community and serve the common good – we pray to the Lord – Lord hear our prayer.


We are so very fortunate to be blessed by God with such a beautiful country and, indeed, for the most part, beautiful, kind, generous and God fearing people. I, just like so many other persons, am convinced that there is no other place in this world like the Bahamas! But what are we doing or not doing to our beloved country? Are we settling for mediocrity and accepting it as the best we have?

Are we letting politics get in the way? I have no doubt that The Bahamas ought to be more than a “Little Switzerland” in the Atlantic, but are we doing our part?

A few weeks ago, while at church, I listened intently to the intercessory prayer – “that all elected officials may respond to the needs of their community and serve the common good – we pray to the Lord – Lord hear our prayer”. This intercessory stuck in my mind and I wondered if our elected officials, including me, respond to the needs of their community. Now I take that to mean the community of the Bahamas and its welfare. For the most part, I think we respond, but in the wrong way and for the wrong reasons. In my humble view, I think that we have become so polarized/political/partisan that we lose sight of what is the “common good” of the community; what is indeed the common good of The Bahamas and the Bahamian people. We tend to put PLP and the FNM and their respective colours before the people of the Bahamas. This should not be! We should be at a stage where we have moved beyond petty politics.

Now do not get me wrong, there is a time and a place for politics, but the interest and the welfare of the Bahamian people must be priority number one! I am not sure we, as politicians, appreciate this notion.

In Bamboo Town, my theme colour is the olive green – not red and white,not yellow, but the olive green. That colour signifies that I am extending the olive branch to all members of my constituency, inclusive of – FNMs, PLPs and ABCs. You see, if I were to have the FNM’s colours, the odds are, only the FNMs will participate in the many programs we have in the community. What then happens to those who are not FNM or those who do not vote, perhaps became of religious or other reasons? The idea, put simply, is for ALL to participate! It does not matter to me what political persuasion you are. I am the representative for all and my aim is for the common good. As a result, I have had the good fortune of persons of different political persuasions, and quite pleasantly surprisingly persons who do not participate in the political process for one reason or the other, join and assist in programs that we have in Bamboo Town. That is because we are about community not politics.

I do pray to the Almighty that we do not become like some of our neighbouring countries to the south where violence is the order of the day when it comes to politics. Let us not follow in their footsteps.

In my resignation statement, I said that I fear that we are going in the wrong direction politically. This is what I meant. It is time that we respond to the needs of our respective communities and serve the common good – Lord hear our prayer.

Taken from: REPRESENT!
Your voice in Bamboo Town
Vol. 1 Issue 15
January 2011 Edition

Bahamas Blog International

Theresa Moxey-Ingraham is on the money!

By Dennis Dames:


I am so proud of the Hon. Theresa Moxey-Ingraham, and her recent public remarks regarding gambling for all adults in The Bahamas who wish to do so. She in on the money when she pointed out the waste of police resources in raiding web shops where peaceful and personal activities take place in a licensed environment.

It is a joke, and has always been - as the late Mr. Percy Munnings – a former chairman of the PLP, and others were allowed free reign in their day to sell numbers to a peaceful number-buying Bahamian community. There were few police raids then that made no sense - as they do jokingly today.

I agree with all Ms. Moxey-Ingraham had to say in this regard; and indeed - the time has come for us to amend our gambling laws so that Bahamians and other residents alike could gamble freely without having to look over their shoulders. We deserve it, and it is long over-due in my view.

The only thing that I do not agree with Ms. Moxey-Ingraham with - is her early retirement from Bahamian politics; especially in light of her ongoing crusade to fight for equal opportunities for those of her sex.

March 15, 2010

Bahamas Blog International

College Of The Bahamas COB President, Dr. Leon Higgs has Relinquished His Bid to Renew His Contract with The Institution.

Since his appointment as President of the College Of The Bahamas in November 1998, Dr. Leon Higgs has faced opposition from some members of his executive team, who had applied for the top post after the resignation of former President Dr. Keva Bethel

Leon Higgs Pulls Out Of Race For COB Presidency

By Candia Dames

candiadames@hotmail.com

Nassau, The Bahamas

01/07/2004

The Council of the College of The Bahamas announced yesterday that COB President Dr. Leon Higgs has given up his bid to renew his contract with the institution.

This follows many months of speculation that there was a move afoot to remove Dr. Higgs from the top post. Prime Minister Perry Christie also indicated in May that the COB President might be invited to take up another post.

Several months ago, Dr. Higgs told the Bahama Journal, “I believe that there is much work to be done in this institution.  I think this is an important institution in the life of this country and I would like to continue to be a part of its development.”

But the Council’s statement yesterday indicated an apparent change of heart.

The statement, which was signed by Council Chairman Franklyn Wilson and Secretary Patricia Glinton-Meicholas, said Dr. Higgs has informed them that he has been offered, and has now under active consideration, other opportunities for national service elsewhere in the public domain.

Dr. Higgs’ contract expires at the end of August.

Since his appointment in November 1998, Dr. Higgs has faced opposition from some members of his executive team, who had applied for the top post after the resignation of former President Dr. Keva Bethel.

Dr. Higgs told the Journal in an earlier interview that the college has been able to achieve a number of successes over the last five years under his leadership.

He said they include: a five-year strategic plan; an agreement with Microsoft Corporation to provide cheap software to students; a new automated system; improvements in the registration process; and plans to break ground for a Northern Bahamas campus in Grand Bahama.

The college also planned to open a poultry research unit on Gladstone Road and expected to be producing around 24,000 birds every seven weeks.

“I also believe that the improved image within the community is also a success, although some people would disagree with that,” he said.  “I believe the College of The Bahamas is here to serve our people and our community.”

The Council statement yesterday said, “At this time, the Council records its deep appreciation for Dr. Higgs’ tenure and contributions at the college and has decided to manifest its gratitude in the celebration of the institution’s second President’s Day on July 8, 2004, the first having been held at the retirement of the first President, Dr. Keva Bethel.”

“As is worthy of the stature of the president, in terms of the nature of his responsibilities at the institution and his extensive involvement in the life of the community in that capacity, President’s Day will consist of a full day of events, which will give the College family and the wider community of alumni, former College and Council members, patrons, government officials and community leaders an opportunity to interact with and express their gratitude and best wishes to Dr. Higgs,” it continued.

The day will begin with a service of thanksgiving at Hillview Seventh Day Adventist Church. The church service will be followed by a luncheon and presentations at the Radisson Cable Beach Resort and the official celebrations will conclude with a reception for the college community and closely connected persons at the college.

“Dr. Higgs takes with him the best wishes of the Council for his continued success,” the statement said, “and the Council is satisfied that, given the character of Dr. Higgs’ professional formation, the next stage of his career will provide him with continued opportunities to influence and contribute to the quality growth of the College of the Bahamas.”