Bahamians are quick to label a decision unconstitutional if it goes against their grain. But they seem to have no conscience when daily so many of them ﾗ including government departments ﾗ are in breach of section 26 of the Constitution, which says “thou shalt not discriminate”.
Bahamians have a fundamental problem with their nationality ﾗ that is why they have such an anti-foreign phobia. As far as they are concerned there are “real” Bahamians and “paper Bahamians”. The Constitution makes no such distinction.
Once a person is issued with a Bahamian passport he has all the rights and privileges of a “born” Bahamian. The only edge that a “born” Bahamian has over one entitled to Bahamian nationality under the Constitution is in his own imagination. Before the law they are both equal ﾗ there is no way that the “born” can pull rank on the unborn.
In fact there is no such thing as a “paper” Bahamian. The Constitution knows of only one classification and that is ﾗ Bahamian.
However, as far as nationality is concerned, the Constitution itself discriminates against Bahamian women ﾗ and although the Ingraham government held a referendum to end this discrimination, the Christie government ﾗ then in opposition ﾗ successfully fought to defeat it.
And so, even today although Bahamian men, married to a foreigner, and their children are fully protected by the Constitution, Bahamian women and their children are not.
To ease the pressure on these disposed spouses, and yet protect the country from marriages of convenience, the Ingraham government created a spousal permit to allow the foreign partner on marriage to work in this country for five years. At the end of that time, if the marriage were still intact, the foreign spouse could apply and was automatically granted full status in the Bahamas.
However, even this gesture has been thwarted by the present government. We understand that because the Immigration Board does not meet regularly on this matter, applications for status at the end of five years are not being dealt with. Instead permits are being issued ﾗ until the Board makes a decision ﾗ for the foreign spouse to remain in the country as a “companion” to his or her Bahamian partner. What an insult. It’s as though the foreign partner has been relegated to that of a live-in maid, or handyman butler. No wonder there is so much frustration and anger in this country.
Former prime minister Hubert Ingraham said this week that if he had known that this was the way couples would be treated, his government would have made Bahamian status automatic at the end of five years of marriage. “Never in my wildest dreams,” said he, “did I think that any government would not have automatically granted a permit.”
According to s.26 of the Constitution “no person shall be treated in a discriminatory manner by any person acting by virtue of any written law or in the performance of the functions of any public office or any public authority.”
So says the Constitution. However, when Haitians go to a public health clinic, they are charged $30 to the Bahamian’s $10. Fees for Haitian students at the College of the Bahamas are higher than those of Bahamians.
This two-tier system is another cause for much suppressed anger ﾗ an anger that will eventually boil over and explode.
We understand that there are hundreds of persons waiting for permits to regularise their status in this country. But, according to reports, unlike the UBP government of the sixties and the FNM government of the nineties, Immigration Board meetings under the present government are not weekly. Again, no wonder there is public frustration.
Section 26(3) of the Constitution defines “discriminatory” as “affording different treatment to different persons, attributable wholly or mainly to their respective descriptions by race, place of origin, political opinions, colour or creed whereby persons of one such description are subjected to disabilities or restrictions to which persons of another such description are not made subject or are accorded privileges or advantages which are not accorded to persons of another such description”.
There are many Bahamians in this country ﾗ starting with the politicians ﾗ who offend this section of the Constitution. Until they come to grips with s.26 they will continue to postpone Immigration Board meetings to avoid the issues and the decisions that those issues demand.
Meanwhile, the problems grow, and, in the words of Trade and Industry Minister Leslie Miller, the problems will eventually “deal with us” if we don’t deal with them ﾗ and soon.
Editorial, The Tribune
16 February, 2005
