The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

We are used to the lies that politicians feed us every election period. We are used to the endless promises of jobs and opportunities. You would have to be a fool to believe anything that these politicians promise.

We are promised no taxes, ever again, then we wake up with a 7.5 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) that is inflated from anywhere between 14 and 20 per cent. Then National Health Insurance is right around the corner says the Minister of Health, we will tax you for that as well, he reminds us.

We have to be suckers to believe that the government, in a non-industrialised nation, can operate and provide all of the needed services (education, health care, garbage collection, effective law enforcement, education, etc), and not raise taxes.

What most of us are not used to and probably will not get used to is the misleading of the people once they are elected and are entrusted by the people to run the country. When the government said “If you vote NO, all number houses would be shut down immediately’’, We actually expected all number houses to be closed, when the vote came out as “no” (foolery of us to believe that those who lie to get in, won’t lie to protect their vices, I guess).

The Bahamian government is making a crucial mistake. It is campaigning (lying to keep power), when they should be governing (make tough decisions that are in the best interest of the people – whether the people agree or not). If the Government had come out and said, we will not have a referendum, but we will legalize Gambling because we believe that it is in the people’s best interest – we could live with that level of honesty, although I voted NO.

I am personally appalled at the level that some persons in government are stooping to. In particular, the Minister of Immigration, who recently rolled out a new government policy as it relates to immigration. First there is ONLY one new item in this policy and that has turned out to be a total debacle. The new item is discontinuation of travel documents to non-Bahamian children born in the Bahamas. There is nothing new to deal with the adults. It’s all about the children!

Minister Mitchell contends that the travel documents have disadvantaged the children therefore they have decided that all children born to non-Bahamians apply for the passport of their parents country. The children would then be given a Permit to supplement the foreign passport. How will this make things easier for the children? IT DOES NOT! It is my opinion that Minister Mitchell has misled the public and the government (this includes the Royal Opposition as well) has stood by and allowed it (I guess that we could say that they colluded together). Let us look at some of the fallacies in this ‘’New Policy’’:

1.Fallacy 1

It was rolled out four months ago and up to this point it (the belonger’s permit) is still not available. Persons cannot get travel documents. So we have a predicament on our hands, at least that is what the sensible mind would see, but the Minister still has not acknowledged that we have created a problem when there was NO problem! There are persons who want to and need to travel and cannot because they do NOT have a travel document nor a permit. What should they do now?

1. Fallacy - 2

The Minister alleges that the permit will allow the children to do things that they could NOT have done when they had a travel document. Would someone in the media ask the Minister to give examples. With a travel document the child was able to obtain a bank account, get jobs, get a US visa which opened the doors of the World to that child. What advantages will that child be afforded with the “New Policy’’ Minister? The Minister has created a problem where there was no problem! The American Embassy had no problem issuing a visa on the Certificate of Identity for these children. So why the changes now? Why the deception to the masses?

Fallacy 3

Number three is an extension of No. 2. The Minister has not addressed the question of ‘’Will the US Embassy support this initiative by NOT rejecting the Visa application of these children? I think the Minister has intentionally avoided this one, because his agenda seems to include preventing these children from travelling in addition to creating an inferior class within an already depleted middles class. So we have created another problem where there was NO problem to begin with. Why? Will the Minister now sit with the American Embassy and determine what impact, if any, this will have on the children accessing a US Visa?

Fallacy 4

Minister Mitchell has said that the New Policy is better for the children. In absence of the facts, we were apt to believe the Minister. We would believe that he cared for the children enough that he would stop the issuing of the Travel Documents, which provided them with some level of comfort and implemented a Permit whose first draft is now going to Cabinet for the first time in four months. We would believe that the Minister cared for Children, if the Permit actually gave the children access to things that they didn’t have access to before. But this New Policy was not about care. For the Minister to suggest that he cares for the children would be grossly misleading the Bahamian people. He created a problem for the children where previously there was NO problem!

We wish that government officials would be free with the truth, we wish that they would understand that there is a difference between campaigning and governing. Understand that the people expect hyperboles during election season, but a level of good governance in the aftermath and in this case, the truth might have done more good for the Government than the mischaracterization of the truth. Why create a problem, when there was NO problem?

After four months the permits are STILL NOT ready! And there is NO timetable as to when they will be ready.

The Minister said that there are things that the children will be able to do with the permit that they weren’t able to do with the travel document. That is withholding the truth from the people (‘’misleading’’ the people is a more political term...I respect the office of the Minister, so I won’t use the word “lie”).

Children with the travel document could have done all of the things that the good minister is suggesting that they could not have done before, like open bank accounts, hold down jobs, get a visa to travel the World – as it was recognised by the US embassy.

We are not even certain if the US embassy will frown upon this. And we wonder if the Minister already knows that the children would be placed at a disadvantage in this regard (Does he even care)?

We already know the answer to the last question. NO! In my opinion the Minister of Immigration does not care for children. He has none and so it would seem – to hell with those who have children and their kids. In my opinion that is the message he is sending to this nation and to the world at large.

DISAPPOINTED

Nassau,

February 25, 2015.