{"id":33369,"date":"2013-03-25T08:55:39","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T12:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=33369"},"modified":"2013-03-25T09:22:06","modified_gmt":"2013-03-25T13:22:06","slug":"civil-society-bahamas-calls-for-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/03\/civil-society-bahamas-calls-for-reform","title":{"rendered":"Civil Society Bahamas Calls For Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Socio-economic and cultural rights are being advocated by members of Civil Society Bahamas, as the organization presented its case for reform before the Constitutional Commission.<\/p>\n

The Government-appointed panel is continuing its public hearings on constitutional reform from a wide-cross section of the community. Civil Society Bahamas made its presentation on Thursday, March 21, 2013 at the Commission\u2019s office in the British Colonial Hilton.<\/p>\n

President of Civil Society Bahamas Anthony Hamilton focused his presentation on the theme: \u201cTaking Responsibility \u2013 Re-education, Training and Development\u201d.\u00a0 We The People organization also made a presentation before the Constitution Commission.<\/p>\n

The primary concerns Civil Society Bahamas presented for consideration the need for tripartite \u201cgood governance\u201d and the development of a consultative and inclusive non-partisan national development plan reflective of the constitution.<\/p>\n

In this vein, Mr. Hamilton said the Preamble of the Constitution should reflect a national plan for the balanced and sustained development of the people of the Family Islands.<\/p>\n

This, he added, is to be encouraged through the following areas consisting of Priority family focus \u2013 marriage between male and female; educational focus \u2013 higher learning national education system; business and commerce focus \u2013 national standards and procedures for accountability of projects through systematic process management; media focus \u2013 responsible and relevant freedom of the press; arts and entertainment focus \u2013 sustained quality cultural expression; good governance focus \u2013 tripartite consultative and inclusive non-partisan national leadership.<\/p>\n

Regarding executive powers, Civil Society Bahamas recognizes the urgent need to reconcile executive power as a priority for the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a critical objective of well meaning individuals for both themselves and other members of the Bahamian society that efficient, effective, accountable, professional and democratic governance is executed by the national leaders in particular, the Prime Minister of The Bahamas and Cabinet members,\u201d Mr. Hamilton said.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cCivil Society supports the view of limited tenure and recommends that a Prime Minister should serve in that office for a period of no more than two consecutive terms, which is not exceeding in the current system 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The structure of the Senate appears not to be as effective and perceived by Civil Society in many instances, to be a rubber stamp. Additionally, Civil Society is in support of Capital Punishment as reflected in the laws of The Bahamas for enforcement.<\/p>\n

In the area of economic empowerment, Mr. Hamilton stressed that this should be made common for all Bahamians and that national financial policy decisions reflect a sustained structured process for small businesses start-up and expansion encouragement.<\/p>\n

Other areas of reform he suggested are: an Entertainment (cultural heritage) Encourage Act be maintained; Public Service reform making General Orders more relevant; allocate provisions for land and open sea area for aqua-culture development; Bahamians having direct access to foreign capital through the encouragement of buying and selling of international stocks and bonds; and lower interest rates for government homes and no age discrimination on mortgages.<\/p>\n

The Government appointed the Constitutional Commission to conduct a comprehensive review of the Constitution of the Bahamas and to recommend changes to that effect, prior to the country\u2019s 40th Independence anniversary.<\/p>\n

Former Attorney General Sean McWeeney, QC, heads the Constitutional Commission. Chief Counsel in the Chambers of the Attorney General Loren Klein serves as the technical co-coordinator of the Commission\u2019s Secretariat.<\/p>\n

Other members of the Commission are former Attorney General and former Minister of Education Carl Bethel, Madam Justice Ruby Nottage (Retired), Mark Wilson, Lester Mortimer, Tara Cooper-Burnside, Michael Stevenson, Dr Olivia Saunders, Michael Albury, Chandra Sands, Brandace Duncanson and Carla Brown-Roker.<\/p>\n

By: Lindsay Thompson<\/span><\/em>
\nBahamas Information Services<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Socio-economic and cultural rights are being advocated by members of Civil Society Bahamas, as the organization presented its case for reform before the Constitutional Commission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"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":[18],"tags":[530,531],"class_list":["post-33369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-constitutional-commission","tag-reform"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33369","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}