The Tribune

ON JUNE 7th, Bahamians will be given the chance to right the wrongs committed against the family - Bahamian women and children in particular - in a Constitutional Referendum that was lost just before the 2002 election. In that year, the quality of life for the family was sacrificed on the altar of selfish politics.

An election had to be won and so, having agreed to the wording of the proposed amendment that would have enabled a Bahamian woman to transfer her Bahamian nationality to her foreign-born husband as a Bahamian man could always do for his foreign wife, the PLP suddenly decided to pull its support. The only excuse that they could find was that they had made a mistake.

This did not say much for their intelligence considering how much time the then Ingraham government had given them to consider and debate the matter among themselves and then on the floor of the House. Everything to which the PLP had objected was deleted by the Ingraham government for the sake of unanimity when they went to the people.

After agreeing, Mr Christie suddenly announced that his party had a change of heart. All sorts of rabbits were pulled out of the hat to justify their breach of faith in their lust to win the government in 2002. However, the biggest rabbit to be grabbed onto to justify their bad faith was the Church. They had not sought the Church’s blessing before deciding to give the same rights to Bahamian women as Bahamian men had on marrying a foreign wife, or so they claimed.

Eleven years later, that poor old rabbit was a sinister joke when another referendum was held - this time it was a proposal to legalise the web shops - gambling. Churchmen and their followers campaigned vigorously against the legalisation of gambling. And much to the embarrassment of Mr Christie, who swore that he had “no horse in the race”, the churchmen and their followers won the vote.

The 2002 Constitutional Referendum on equality between Bahamian men and women would be binding, the Gambling referendum was not. In fact, there was no need for it. Caught between the Church and the gambling bloc, the Christie government quickly explained that it wasn’t really a referendum, it was just an opinion poll. Yet, this government has never justified spending $1.2m of the people’s money on a decision that could have been made on the floor of the House of Assembly - with the same results and at no cost to anybody.

And now many Bahamians, seething with anger about having been duped in 2002 and again in 2013, are prepared to deny Bahamian women their equal rights to spite the Christie government by voting against the June 7 referendum.

On all sides, the question is now being asked: “Why did they tell us to vote ‘no’ in 2002 and now in 2016, they are telling us to vote ‘yes’. What do they take us for?”

Don’t push our computer fingers too far, or we might just tell you the truth about what they take you for. However, our advice is to read those four questions and start thinking for yourselves - after all, it is hoped that all of you did not get a D grade in school.

As we have already said in this column, now is not the time for revenge. Save your anger for 2017 when your opinion can really do damage - that is the time to mark your X and vote them out. The referendum is all about giving Bahamian men and women equal status in their own country.

Yesterday a young man, who was being swept into the “no” corner, decided to read the four referendum proposals for the first time. When he was finished his simple remark was: “I don’t know what all the fuss is about. They seem pretty straightforward to me.” They are straightforward.

And for those men, hiding their own insecurity behind the Biblical text that a woman with veiled head should walk so many paces behind her husband, can choose to do so in their own homes - provided they can find a docile woman who will go along with their beliefs. However, in this world where a woman is educated and competes in the working world, she should not be kept on a lower scale than her male counterpart when it comes to the family home. The law will make them equal. It is then for them to choose their own private lifestyle.

This also goes for the man who has a child out of wedlock. The law will be there if he wants to give his nationality to his child. There is no obligation for him to do so. However, it should not be denied the Bahamian man who might want to confer his nationality on his child.

And as for Bill 4, which has created hysteria that it will open the door to same-sex marriage, it is much misunderstood. As stated for the June 7 referendum it will do no such thing.

However, now that the Pandora’s Box is ajar, this will be another fight on a different playing field. Same-sex marriage is now a world issue, so don’t be so naive to think that the time will not come when it will have to be considered. However, it will not automatically enter on June 7 through Bill 4 of the referendum.

Many of those who are pushing the “no” vote maintain that the whole truth is not being told. That is true. In the House of Assembly on December 21, 2001, it was admitted that bureaucracy in the Immigration Ministry had turned citizenship dreams for many foreign-born spouses and their Bahamian wives into “nightmares”.

The truth that is not being told is what happens to families whose rights are not protected by the law. Today, The Tribune brings you the truth of what can happen and did happen and can continue to happen to Bahamian families if women are denied equal status as their menfolk.

Bahamian families who feel secure in their own marriages should think of what their daughters and granddaughters could face should they choose a foreign husband.

As for the commentator on The Tribune’s website, who claimed that this problem only arose among white Bahamians - those who could afford to send their daughters away to school where they met and married a foreigner. We ask him to look at the ethnic cleansing in Inagua and tell us what colour those people were.

The few stories that we have told in The Tribune’s special section - ‘Time to right the wrongs’ - today are only a small glimpse of the suffering of many families in this country. We have seen tears roll down the face of a grown man when, having lived all his life here and raised a solid Bahamian family, he received news that he was not welcome in “PLP” land. And a small child clinging in fear to his father’s legs when a PLP underling at the airport threatened not to let his father land because the form in his passport had been stamped by the UBP government.

Read this section on what has happened and then sit down and consider how you will vote on June 7.

We leave you with the wise words of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the American Declaration of Independence: “In the questions of power let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”