The Advisory Panel selected to investigate the plagiarism controversy stalking College of The Bahamas President Dr Rodney Smith, came under fire on Thursday from the Free National Movement Action Group.
In a veiled attack on the committee’s independence, the Action Group accused the five member panel of being “politically sympathetic” to the government and to College Council Chairman Franklyn Wilson.
The selected panel comprises a range of expertise and callings including Anglican Archbishop Drexel Gomez, chairman; Dr Paulette Bethel, Bahamas Ambassador to the United Nations; Professor Rex Nettleford, Vice Chancellor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies; Father Robert Niehoff, president-elect of John Carroll University of Cleveland Ohio and former vice provost of the University of San Francisco and retired Justice Joseph Strachan.
The Action Group indicated on Thursday that at least one of these members could possibly be strongly and personally biased towards the COB president.
“It cannot be ignored that one member of the panel is Paulette Bethel, The Bahamas’ Ambassador to the United Nations, who is also the sister of Progressive Liberal Party Health Minister Dr Marcus Bethel.
“While the Action Group does not in any way cast any aspersions on the characters, credentials, or abilities of any member of the panel to attempt fairness in this very serious matter, the COB Council and the Government ought to at least, in all decency, seek panelists of whom there could not be an inkling of suspicion,” The Action Group suggested.
The Group recalled that in 1984, the PLP appointed a Commission of Inquiry into Drug Trafficking in The Bahamas, and the then Bishop of Barbados, the Rt. Rev. Drexel Gomez, was a member of that Commission. The Group alleged that Bishop Gomez was approached by a well-known PLP supporter and advised that when he wrote the Report, to “write it right” because “principles don’t put bread on the table.”
“The Bishop on that occasion dared to write a Minority Report which bared ugly facts,” the Group claimed. It is confident that on this occasion the now Archbishop Gomez will similarly rise to the occasion and not allow his judgments to be influenced or clouded by anyone else.
The FNM Action Group further advised that Chairman of the Council of COB, Franklyn Wilson must not attempt to do a “Pontius Pilate or a Perry Christie” regarding Dr Smith’s plagiarism dilemma, as no detergent will clean his hands from this “ugly” stain.
“In any case, the FNM Action Group feels that for the sake of the Bahamian people, the image and credibility of the College of The Bahamas, and particularly for the sake of the staff and students of the College, Dr Smith should now immediately resign his position, as it is our view that the panel can only give the punishment that Dr Smith’s sin warrants – that is explosion from COB,” the Action Group stated.
According to the Action Group, the special Advisory Panel appointed to consider the fate of Dr Smith, is only “an attempted white-washing and unnecessary exercise,” seeing that Dr Smith has already admitted grave academic wrongdoing.
“Mistake or not, the fact that plagiarism occurred, points out that Dr Smith is either dishonest or seriously deficient intellectually. There seemed hardly the necessity for a panel or anyone else to meet and decide on what ought to have happened following that admission, but, once again, it appears the COB Council Chairman is attempting to defend what the Action Group since last year warned was a poor choice of a COB president,” the Group claimed.
More than two weeks ago, Dr Smith publicly admitted that he plagiarised remarks delivered at COB’s 2005 Honours Convocation. His remarks were lifted verbatim from a 2002 installation address by New York University President John Sexton.
By: TAMARA McKENZIE, The Nassau Guardian
