By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Senior Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
GEORGE Smith, a former Progressive Liberal Party Cabinet minister, does not want the Davis administration to address unequal rights to citizenship through ordinary legislation.
Attorney General Ryan Pinder has said the administration plans to address the issue.
The plan has the backing of former Prime Ministers Hubert Ingraham and Perry Christie. Mr Ingraham told the press last week he is convinced the Davis administration will address the issue. Mr Christie agreed that a referendum on the matter should be avoided.
The Minnis administration pledged to address the matter through ordinary legislation, but never did.
Mr Smith, who was part of a delegation involved in 1972 discussions about the Constitution, said because the document is the supreme law of the land, ordinary legislation should not be used to nullify its provisions.
Efforts through a referendum to change the Constitution to equalise citizenship rights for men and women failed in 2002 and 2016.
“The reality is the Constitution is the supreme authority of the country,” Mr Smith said. “It’s the ultimate law of the country. Both Mr Ingraham and Mr Christie acknowledged, so both PLP and FNM acknowledged, the way to deal with these matters is through a constitutional amendment.
“I’m of the view that you shouldn’t try to bypass the Constitution by simply talking about amending the citizenship legislation.”
Mr Ingraham said he only had a constitutional referendum because he wanted to make it difficult for his successors to reverse the change.
Mr Smith could not say if providing equality through ordinary legislation would be illegal.
During a Rotary Club speech in 2017, then Attorney General Carl Bethel argued that the government could solve unequal rights to citizenship by amending section six of the Bahamas Nationality Act, removing the words a “minister may at his discretion cause the minor child of a citizen of The Bahamas to be registered as a citizen of The Bahamas upon application” and replacing them with “the minister shall cause the minor child of a citizen of The Bahamas to be registered as a citizen of The Bahamas upon application.”
Meanwhile, Attorney General Ryan Pinder recently told The Nassau Guardian that the government will not abandon its Privy Council appeal on a landmark citizenship Supreme Court ruling.
“The government decided to appeal the ruling as the nature of the decision requires the ultimate court to make a determination,” Mr Pinder said, according to the local daily.
“The government continues to develop citizenship legislative proposals for the Cabinet to consider. Until a decision is made whether to alter the ruling or verify the ruling through legislation, the appeal will continue.”
Last June, the Court of Appeal affirmed a Supreme Court decision that Bahamian men can automatically pass citizenship to their children regardless of whether their child is born out of wedlock to non-Bahamian mothers. The case was brought by Wayne Munroe, the recently appointed National Security Minister.
Comments
empathy 2 years ago
It would be interesting to know what were the motivations and thought processes of Mr. Smith and his fellow delegates to the “1972 Constitutional” discussions? Certainly viewing through hindsight the resultant constitution, especially with regards to granting of citizenship, has been problematic to the modern day Bahamas. There are now obvious anti-woman, anti-dad and xenophobic consequences written into that document. Indeed changing these and other constitutional guarantees, by nature of ‘referenda’ is difficult. While referenda resists changes by whim and fancy of subsequent governments it also results in the persistence of recalcitrant ignorance and discrimination.
Doing nothing means these negative consequences persist through generations. I suspect the better and certainly the less problematic process is for the present government to fix these and other issues through legislation, even if someday a despot leadership changes it. What is true in the history of humanity, especially those who reside in civil society, is a ‘right’ given is not easily taken away! When government is bold and willing to lead in a bipartisan fashion great policies can be established which are more likely to be embraced, popular and stand the ‘test of time’. The interesting byproduct of this type of governance is the great importance given to elections, voting and involvement in civil society.
tribanon 2 years ago
I suspect the better and certainly the less problematic process is for the present government to fix these and other issues through legislation, even if someday a despot leadership changes it.
tribanon 2 years ago
Ignore this post which arose from a time-out.......see my full post below.
tribanon 2 years ago
This one statement by you proves two things about you: (1) You lack common sense, and (2) you are full of the worst kind of empathy there is on our planet today ....... the kind of misguided empathy induced by years of WOKE indoctrination.
Just think about the consequences of the New World Order that corrupt politicians partnering with corporations controlled by billionaire oligarchs are trying to achieve with their WOKE indoctrination programme.
The corrupt and elitist ruling class of globalists want nothing more than for all nations with a constitution guaranteeing the fundamental rights and freedoms of their people in a constitutional democracy to allow the shredding of that most sacred and protective document by way of legislation. And this is because all such documents stand in the way of what the sinister and evil and elitist ruling class of authoritarian globalists are trying to achieve. They want complete control over the people.
Power hungry men like SLOP, Vomit Christie, Tyrant Minnis and Cruel Davis would have passed legislation banning all future elections and declaring themself supreme ruler of The Bahamas for the rest of their life had it not been for the protections afforded us in our Constitution. As it stands many of our constitutional rights and freedoms were viciously assaulted in a most horrible and terrible way during the pandemic. Tyrant Minnis as our PM, being the sick-headed authoritarian medical doctor that he was, probably would have also passed legislation declaring that all of his Bahamian minions must be jabbed at least 6 times or more a year with God only knows what dangerous experimental drugs aimed at population control.
Bottom line: All right minded Bahamians must fight ferociously to preserve the fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution, our most sacred and protective legal document that can only be amended by the people in a duly held national referendum and not by a corrupt and elitist ruling class of politicians whose interests are not at all aligned with the wishes of the type of constitutional democracy the Bahamian people wish to live under.
JokeyJack 2 years ago
You are correct. Unfortunately, because civics is not taught in our high schools (who would teach it? LOL) - people don't even know what a constitution is. Even Americans don't know what a Constitution is. It is an agreement between a people and their government. We allow a certain group of people to be "in charge" of things "manage things" under certain conditions, certain stipulations, etc. However, it has gotten out of control and governments around the world have somehow come to believe that elections can be done by mail and that Dr. Fauci is the right hand of God.
tribanon 2 years ago
Oops! Forgot to mention the power hungry Hubigitty Ingraham.
JokeyJack 2 years ago
Further to my reply to Tribanon, I would add that the main reason I state that Americans don't even know what a constitution is, is due to the high percentage of them who oppose the direct reading of the 2nd Amendment.
Those people believe that the passage means that "a militia" refers to the army. It does not. They also shriek at the idea that one day citizens would rise up and overthrow the government (like what happened when Washington and Hamilton did it). The very purpose the founders meant by that Amendment was precisely so that the citizens COULD remove a government should that government step too far out of line. The Chinese citizens and the North Korean citizens would have done that long time, but some moron like Nancy Pelosi (her equivalent) talked them into turning in their guns.
Economist 2 years ago
The case needs to go to the Privy Council and settle the issue. The court is there to interpret the law.
If we don't like the interpretation then we can do something about it by way of legislation or a referendum.
tribanon 2 years ago
Legislation by elected officials should never be used as a workaround for the constitutional intent of the people. Getting on that most slippery slope assures the eventual taking away of all of our constitutional rights and freedoms by a corrupt and elitist political ruling class in order to achieve their desired absolute authoritarian power and control over us. Our Constitution exists to protect us from the sinister and evil among us. Without it you can kiss the voice of the Bahamian people and the constitutional democracy of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas good-bye forever more. Always keep that foremost in mind.
JokeyJack 2 years ago
Only a Referendum can amend the Constitution. That's the point. It is an agreement by us with them to govern a certain way. If they want to change that way, then they have to ask us.
Of course, I realize that this is all in theory because most people here and in the USA and most of Europe are too ignorant to even know what this is all about. Therefore the elites and the powerful and the rich just run right over them and they get left behind, left with table scraps, left with no options in life and a terrible life - while they busy themselves making babies who grow up to be the next generation of slaves.
LastManStanding 2 years ago
The past two years have shown that our Constitution is a meaningless piece of paper in the eyes of the FNM and PLP, so I'm not surprised that either of them would try and trample over it further. Might as well do like Fred Mitchell and just burn it at this point.
JokeyJack 2 years ago
In my opinion, Mr. Smith, or anyone holding similar views, must be perfectly happy with foreigners coming in and taking over this country. If they love those foreigners so much, why doesn't Mr. Smith and his ilk all move to whatever country they love so much and leave us Bahamians alone ?
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