NASSAU, The Bahamas: Bowing to the tide of xenophobia-ridden hysteria unleashed by what he called “false prophets”, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fred Mitchell announced in Parliament during his budget debate contribution on Monday that The Bahamas could not sign the revised Treaty of Chaugaramas “under the present circumstances”.
Claiming that these false prophets and their “crocodile tears” were around in 1972 when they opposed the creation of a sovereign Bahamas, the Minister said the prophets had so politicised the debate with their half-truths as to render further progress impossible.
Despite the Minister’s claims, it is clear, as one of his detractors, attorney Brian Moree chair of the Financial Services Consultative Forum says, that the government handled the matter badly.
The country’s history of illegal immigration, the widely held and abiding perception that The Bahamas’ lot is with the north rather than the south, suggest that the approach adopted by the government would be problematic at best.
And from his statement it appears that indeed the government was forced to concede that the debate on CSME membership had been allowed to be taken over by the likes of former cabinet ministers such as Finance Minister William Allen and Economic Development Minister Zhivargo Laing, both of whom he accused of “fudging, of “half truths” and of “shades of deception” and of “confusing the public use”.
He then added that “this is the political season and no matter what the truth is, there will be fudging, misinformation and mix up”.
In light of such knowledge it appears that the new strategy — passing the matter over to the Bahamas Commission on Trade — should have been preferred to the one that brought the government to the conclusion that participation in CSME would not happen during this term.
Earlier this year the Minister began a public relations exercise in which he presented rational arguments on behalf of Bahamian membership in the CSME. The arguments all hinged on what came to be known as the reservations.
In an address given in January at the East Nassau Rotary Club, Minister Mitchell stated that “We [The Bahamas] need to be in and not half in and half out.” Not only did CSME make “good geopolitical sense”, but also he assured Bahamians that “there would be no short term changes to the Bahamian way of life.”
He was equally sanguine about the long-term prospects for The Bahamas. According to Minister Mitchell The Bahamas would be “positioned to take advantage of increased trade opportunities, access to capital and to skills we do not have.”
Clearly the Minister in his capacity as the country’s representative in external affairs, had, and he said as much, been able to convince his CARICOM colleagues that Bahamian membership could only be contemplated under certain conditions.
First, given its problems with illegal immigration plus the recent Nassau Village incident in which Haitians and Bahamians attacked security forces — the first such attack of its kind — the free movement of labour would not fly.
Secondly, the ordinary Bahamian knows and understands that the Bahamian dollar occupies a unique position vis-à-vis the US dollar and the currencies of the region. No minister of a government wishing to enjoy popular support could possibly agree to abandon the hallowed one-to-one parity between the Bahamian and US currencies.
Though they were prepared to accept the Caribbean Court of Justice as an originating court, the appellate level was entirely unacceptable. Popular opinion both within and without the legal profession was not prepared to give up a trip to London to appear before the Law Lords for a trip to Port of Spain to appear before regional jurists whose record many in The Bahamas consider not equal to the Privy Council. Or as the vernacular would have it “dey ain ready”.
Finally, the common external tariff was a non-starter for a country, which gains the bulk of its revenues from customs duties. The external tariff was further exacerbated by the fact The Bahamas has little or no trade with its neighbours, with no change in the foreseeable future.
Having wrested these concessions the Minister and the Ambassador to CARICOM, Leonard Archer began a twin effort to convince the public that it was in their best interest to sign on.
In his statement to parliament Minister Mitchell stated that it there was “simply too much politics” and “too much political dishonesty”, consequently the matter of CSME membership, which “will not be decided in this present term” was being turned over to The Bahamas Commission on Trade.
The Minister assured the country that with the blessing of the Minister of Trade, Leslie Miller and the co-chair of the Commission on Trade, Raymond Winder, and the debate could now move forward without the politics, which derailed the government’s efforts.
“The Trade Commission’s co-chair, Raymond Winder,” he told parliament, “has indicated by letter that, subject to certain clarifications, they are ready and willing to work on the issues”
The Minister then went on to express the hope that politics would be removed from the matter and that the “Commission will be free to review all the issues arising from the current debate, without a deadline.”
Having adroitly passed the job of public education and discussion on the issue on to the Commission, the Minister assured the country that the “Ministry can now continue with other valuable projects in our Foreign Affairs”.
C. E. Huggins
Caribbean Net News Bahamas Correspondent
E-mail: chazzhuggins@msn.com
