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Bahamians this week believe they have been both misled and ensnared by our Prime Minister. The question now is, what will we the people do about it?<\/p>\nBahamians this week believe they have been both misled and ensnared by our Prime Minister. The question now is, what will we the people do about it?<\/p>\n
What we watched unfold from the gaming poll and its results, to the Prime Minister\u2019s subsequent decree, to the court action that followed aptly demonstrates two things.<\/p>\n
Firstly, that Mr. Christie and his government, while usually being accused of incompetence, are supremely capable of orchestrating a teeming mirage to distract a people made thirsty by the desert of games, waste and lack of transparency that is their governance.<\/p>\n
And secondly, that with the present state of the media and the Opposition, the government appears to believe it can possibly preserve such mirages until the Bahamian people are overcome by thirst, confusion and frustration and become too tired to want to fight their way out of the government\u2019s deserts.<\/p>\n
Were it not for Mr. Christie\u2019s statements leading up to the gaming poll and alleged substantial campaign contributions made by numbers bosses, it may have been harder to believe that instead of his being a victim of circumstance in all this, he in fact may be the opposite.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s dispense with the platitudes about the government \u201cnot having a horse in the race.\u201d There is not a Bahamian who has been both following and involved in this process who believes that, and that is because it is untrue and the government made no real effort to try to prove it to be true.<\/p>\n
From early on, Mr. Christie said in various derivations that he viewed the opinion poll he created and would put to the Bahamian people as something he was not legally bound to follow. It was a message Bahamians caught \u2013 which is why many chose not to vote in the poll. Those who did vote had their reasons, resulting in nearly all of the country\u2019s 38 constituencies voting against the government\u2019s poll.<\/p>\n
On-air numbers surrogates and politicians quickly jumped into damage control mode, insisting that since less than 50% of voters turned out, there was no real mandate given by the poll. It was a nice try, albeit entirely irrelevant with a \u201creferendum\u201d. In a referendum in The Bahamas, it does not matter how many people turn out to vote. Once a question(s) carries the majority of total votes cast, the question is passed. If it does not, the question fails.<\/p>\n
As for a perceived mandate from a national opinion poll, put this poll in the context of our primary national poll: a general election. In general elections, victories are not counted by total votes cast, but by constituencies won. In this poll, voters did not randomly cast their ballots \u2013 they cast ballots by constituency. Their votes were counted by constituency, reported by constituency and officially confirmed by constituency.<\/p>\n
Had this exact same vote count taken place in a general election, the Party that won this poll would have captured either 36 or 37 of our 38 seats in Parliament. The present government has 30 seats and that reality still overwhelms many. So while 45% of registered voters voted, 36 or 37 of our 38 constituencies rejected the government\u2019s poll. That is more than a mandate, that is a trouncing at the hustings that would cause any parliamentary democracy to run scampering for law and history books were it general election results.<\/p>\n
After the poll, everybody waited to see what Mr. Christie would do. To be sure, many people still felt he would do nothing, even though the poll was resoundingly defeated. Then to the surprise of most, the Prime Minister made an announcement the following day \u2013 \u201cit has now become necessary to effect the closure of all web-shop gaming operations in The Bahamas\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
Enter the clowns, because this is where what people thought was a brave show by the Prime Minister was probably the greatest show on earth, and not in a good way.<\/p>\n
Webshops in this country all have a licence \u2013 not for gaming, but for providing internet access to patrons. Providing internet access is perfectly legal, and outside of any proven illegal activities going on, the Prime Minister does not have the authority to order a licenced business to close its doors \u2013 and he knows this.\u00a0 But what he also surely knows is that Bahamians use the terms \u2018webshop\u2019 and \u2018webshop gaming\u2019 interchangeably, so when they heard the announcement, they automatically assumed it meant all webshops must close. But that is not what Mr. Christie actually said. He said \u201cwebshop gaming\u201d must close, not the shops themselves. Get it? Keep this in mind as you read on.<\/p>\n
After the announcement, the media reported that an application for injunction would be filed the next morning by webshop owners to keep their businesses open. Now, whether you want to believe that all the separate and individual numbers men just happened to have the same mind, have the same interests and hired the same attorney to file for the same injunction all within moments after Mr. Christie made that announcement is entirely up to you.<\/p>\n
But since the Prime Minister never in fact ordered the webshops themselves to close though that is what the media reported and the public thought, consider the likelihood of numbers bosses amazingly all coming up with an application to block what was never ordered to begin with. Their injunction was not needed because their shops were never ordered to close to the public \u2013 their injunction was a smokescreen and seemingly, part of the show.<\/p>\n
The next morning lawyers announced the grant of the injunction. This is where the greatest show on earth took a detour into the embarrassing realm of media languidness and Opposition inertia, where government and lawyers craftily blitzkrieged the public with legal jargon and the use or omission of the terms \u2018webshop\u2019 and \u2018webshop gaming\u2019 that any lawyer knows would surely confuse much of the general public.<\/p>\n
The media announced that because of the injunction, webshops can go back to business as usual, reporting that Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson said the injunction meant \u201cthe status quo would be preserved.\u201d But neither the courts nor the Attorney General said webshop owners were free to break the law by selling numbers as a result of the injunction, because that of course would be untrue. It was the media that put that misinformation out to the country, plunging much of it into a state of confusion and anger. People then believed it was suddenly okay to buy and sell numbers and to do so without fear of arrest or prosecution because of a court order.<\/p>\n
The facts however, are that a court injunction preserves the lawful status quo \u2013 it does not and cannot suddenly make illegal activities legal. And in this matter:<\/p>\n
1 \u2013 The status quo is that webshop gaming in The Bahamas is still illegal just as it was before the poll, the police can still arrest and charge offenders and can do so at any time unless and until Parliament makes webshop gaming legal via the Lotteries and Gaming Act. Injunctions cannot and do not order the police force to not enforce the law \u2013 no court order will do that.<\/p>\n
2- The status quo is that all webshop owners have a (presumably) valid business licence to be open \u2013 just not to conduct gaming. So yes, to preserve the status quo would be to allow their doors to remain open just as they were open before, but only to do what they are licenced to do – provide internet access to patrons \u2013 not to conduct illegal gaming in any form.<\/p>\n
When attorneys told the media the injunction \u201cprohibited the government and the police from interfering with the business of webshops \u201d \u2013 they are right \u2013 but take note of what they said. They said the business of \u2018webshops\u2019 not \u2018webshop gaming\u2019 \u2013 and what is the legal business of webshops? Not numbers.<\/p>\n
As long as webshops do only what they are licenced to do, then that specific form of business cannot be interfered with by the authorities \u2013 it is anything illegal that they may do that the authorities are fully free to deal with according to law. This is why an injunction was not needed to preserve this status quo \u2013 this is already the law of the land. Not making this clear is perhaps the biggest error made by the media and an error interested parties probably felt would be made. When the public heard the statement, it assumed it meant the government and police cannot touch numbers anymore because of the court order. That was and is not the case.<\/p>\n
And when attorney Wayne Munroe told the media what \u201cmight\u201d appear in a later court action, the media did not make it clear that his legal arguments about webshop gaming had nothing to do with the injunction itself. Therefore, the public wondered if those arguments about webshop gaming being legal were successfully decided upon as part of the injunction. This further deepened the public\u2019s confusion about what the court\u2019s injunction really meant.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile back at the ranch, the Leader of the Opposition, who the night before gave a national address that left many Bahamians wondering if he was in the same time zone and reality as the rest of us in this matter, refused to comment on the injunction, essentially abdicating his responsibility to be the Constitutionally elected voice of clarity and proper information where the government failed to be that voice during the week\u2019s sitting of Parliament.<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister on the other hand, used the tried and true trick \u2013 he could not speak anymore because the matter was before the courts. The Prime Minister is not a party to the injunction and was entirely free to speak on what the injunction meant for the Bahamian people, particularly since the injunction was supposedly sought because of his \u201cclosure\u201d announcement. If Mr. Christie was true to his \u201cclosure\u201d statement, and thus had an interest in making the public understand that buying and selling numbers was still as illegal after the injunction as before, he absolutely could have and should have as Prime Minister, but he did not. The Attorney General also ought to have made this clear, but did not. There was hence no voice that spoke for the Bahamian public \u2013 only for the numbers bosses.<\/p>\n
The tenuous part to all this, is that if the numbers bosses do proceed with a case, the government must mount a defence, which essentially means the government will be required to mount a fight against all its \u201chorses.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Mr. Christie has given us little hope that his government would mount a real court battle against numbers bosses. After all, these are men of whom he repeatedly refused to deny claims that they heavily funded his election campaign. How much faith would you have in a man fighting to take down the men whose money allegedly helped put him in office?<\/p>\n
And so since the Prime Minister had to face his \u201chorses\u201d while still making the people think he kept his word, what became the lead act in the greatest show on earth? He makes an announcement of a \u201cclosure order\u201d, followed immediately by a \u201csudden\u201d court action that seemingly reversed his decree. So Mr. Christie winds up looking like the leader who tried to follow the will of the people, but was thwarted by the almighty courts. You\u2019ve got to admit, it\u2019s a very good lead act that apparently worked with at least the one of the poll\u2019s strongest opponents \u2013 the church.<\/p>\n
The church\u2019s campaign spokesman said he believed, based on the Prime Minister\u2019s \u201cclosure\u201d announcement, that Mr. Christie did in fact fulfill his word to follow the people\u2019s will. I cannot fault the churches or other Bahamians for believing this though – this show was not crafted to fail.<\/p>\n
Left to question what is next are the Bahamian people, who are angrily asking, \u201cwhy did we bother voting at all?\u201d It is a legitimate question, but one that should not be answered with, \u201cour voices don\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
This show in my view, was designed not only to frustrate voters about the gaming poll, but to frustrate voters about whether their voice matters at all \u2013 because if they cease to believe it matters, they will cease to mount any necessary battles against the government of the day.<\/p>\n
What Bahamians should understand is their voice obviously has more power than they may realize, because this show to sidestep it was not shaped haphazardly. If your voice did not matter, there would be no need to try to trick you into believing that the courts are the enemy.<\/p>\n
Nevermind that an opinion poll was not needed to change our gaming law \u2013 the reality is your government spent $1 million of your money and asked for your opinion in a vote. You have played, now they must pay.<\/p>\n
What will the Bahamian people do? It all depends on how much they want to send a clear and strong message to the government that they will not stand for this show or any other. And by the way \u2013 numbers men are not the only people who can get injunctions.<\/p>\n
If numbers bosses are in fact waging a fight against the government, then the government must decisively demonstrate that it is not prepared to have what it claims is its commitment to the rule of law undermined.<\/p>\n
If it does not, then the government would have successfully demonstrated that this is not actually a fight between them and the numbers bosses, but it is rather them and the numbers bosses working together in a fight – against us.<\/p>\n
Tribune Column by Sharon Turner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bahamians believe they have been both misled and ensnared by our Prime Minister. The question now is, what will we the people do about it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[137,40,179],"class_list":["post-31037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions","tag-gambling","tag-government","tag-vote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}