Bahamian voters need to start throwing their support behind “ordinary” members of society rather than continuously electing lawyers to Parliament, said Bishop Simeon Hall.
The senior pastor of New Covenant Baptist Church says lawyers – many of whom profit from the “present culture of criminality” – cannot be expected to solve the crime problem or change the systems that have led to this “national nightmare”.
Bishop Hall said that men and women who have proven themselves successful in community building and business would make better political candidates. Parliament needs more contractors, successful entrepreneurs, farmers and community builders to take the Bahamas to the “promised land,” said the religious leader.
“It is time for the country’s electorate to help in reducing the number of lawyers we have in our Parliament and allow more persons from the ordinary walks of our society to participate in our national debate,” said Mr Hall in a statement released Sunday.
“There exists an urgent and immediate need for ordinary persons to represent the common masses. It cannot be expected that this national nightmare of crime will be (remedied) by the wisdom of one group. While lawyers; in the main, do not cause crime, they are the major beneficiaries of the present culture of criminality and this cannot be expected to do what is needed to change things.”
“The Bahamian people, by and large, have bought into the lie that only lawyers are best suited to sit in Parliament,” said Mr Hall as he called on all political parties to choose ordinary persons with a reputation of community leadership for their election tickets.
The country needs fresh ideas and new perspectives in the national dialogue, he added, “if we are to change the status quo which sees ordinary persons on the edge of desperation”.
