Wednesday 18th July 2007

Mr. Speaker, I wish to repeat that I disagree with the reading of the Speech from the Throne outside in the Road.  I find the whole process demeaning and undignified. I have said this many times.  The place for the Speech form The Throne is in the Senate chamber.  There is too much dumbing down in the country, and this reading from the Throne in the road is another example of it.

The Speech from the Throne has been described by the Member for Bain and Grants Town as the Government’s policy document fro this session.  I agree.  It is also a document that lays out the legislative agenda that we can expect during the session.  It ought to be comprehensive but brief.  There is no reason for us to be standing out in the road listening to a speech stretching out over an hour.  What it is not is a political manifesto, and in my opinion the use of the words restore trust are inappropriate for inclusion in the speech from The Throne and to put into the mouth of a Governor General.

Nevertheless this is what we face, the conversion of the government into the FNM’s machine.  There is a lack of sensitivity, of discretion, of judgment about what is or is not appropriate.  It is a sign of the times, dumbing down everything.
And then after dumbing down everything, politicizing everything, it was laughable to hear on Independence Day the message from the Member for North Abaco that we must all pull together as Bahamians.  So now, we must work together.

It is difficult to reconcile soothing words, and the high minded phrases like transparency, and the restoration of confidence about which the document speaks with the reality of what has unfolded over the past three months: spite, vindictiveness, vengeance.  That has been the order of the day.  The list increases daily of those whose lives have been disrupted by dismissals, by reviews and by stoppages.

Today, the straw vendors are here making their case for a project that should have been stopped.  But what is disturbing is again the lack of sensitivity of those who make these decisions.  The Member for North Abaco got up in this House and defamed the contractor who was awarded the job for the straw market; one the best trained young Bahamians in the country.   No voice has stood up to challenge it.  None of his young professional colleagues so enamoured of the other side have risen to his defence. I read in the press that he had to defend himself.  His contract has been terminated, his reputation has been attacked and we are all now being asked to join together as Bahamians.

There are other public servants who can tell the tales of being victimized whether PLP or FNM for being perceived to be hirelings of the PLP.  Many have their lives on hold, not knowing what is to happen tomorrow.  There is also a climate of fear.  This is what The Bahamas voted for in 2007.  It is the new Bahamian order.

We have now had three months judge the document.  Judging from what we now see, the future is like looking through a glass darkly.   The signs are as a result of the decisions taken since the election that our economy is slowing down while the social problems are rising.  Urban renewal is being shut down and stripped of its programmers, while the murder rate rises.  We have been told by one politician in the new order that we must wait until September for some new ideas on how to stop crime. In the absence of sensible public policy, the discordant voices of anger and hysteria are now taking over.

I want the Government to do what it said it will do in this document in the area of transparency in government: responsible, responsive and transparent.  No bloody minded, opaque and obtuse.

I follow matters relating to foreign affairs.  I remarked here before how this members opposite made much of the travel on behalf of this country while in that Ministry, yet have ridiculed the notions, they now have to travel themselves.  Recently it appeared to be a parody of the PLP’s approach to Foreign Affairs when the Minister of Foreign Affairs actually held a press conference to report what had happened at the Caricom conference on our behalf.

It is good thing one supposes.  At every turn, the FNM has said that they do not support the CSME and will not sign on to it.  Of cruse they have to explain how the Head of Government of The Bahamas went to Washington and met President George Bush of the United States and agreed to a statement of consensus with other Caricom leaders that the Caricom Single Market and Economy was critical to the development of the region.  So the Prime Minister of The Bahamas goes to Washington, telling his people at home that his Government is not in favour of the CSME, while agreeing way from hoe that it is critical to the development of the region.  So are the citizens of The Bahamas not entitled to ask, if it is critical to the development of the region why are we being left out?

My point now though is how you can box yourself into a corner by taking unnecessarily strident stand for temporary political advantages and then find yourself in a contradiction not three months later.

In any event, the FNM administration did not have to shout about CSME, the PLP administration signed an agreement information about which was tabled in this House last year in February which exempts The Bahamas from anything to do with the Caricom Singe Market and Economy.    So the position of the FNM is an idle boast.

But I add word of caution to this administration and to Bahamians generally, The Bahamas has to find a way to integrate itself into the world economy.    The government has told us that we are to join the World trade Organization (WTO).  The strictures of the World Trade Organization are the same as the CSME strictures, that is getting as close as possible to a zero duty regime and reciprocity in the terms of trade.  This includes the opening of markets for goods and services. The negotiations will be tough and the adjustments to the economy significant.

In the short term, there are also the changes in the terms of trade with the United States.  Coming out of the recent Conference on the Future of the Caribbean in Washington D.C was a promise from the U.S. president that there will be an extension to the one way preferences now offered in the Caribbean Basin Initiative.   Crawfish from The Bahamas presently enters the U.S. on this regime.  The successor to this one way preference system is that of a free trade agreement.  That too will be tough to negotiate.  It is also clear that it is likely to be one size fits all and that it will have to be a Caricom wide agreement not a Bahamas/US agreement.

I informed this House a number of times about the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union and the issues of reciprocity of trade there.   The Minister should tell this House what the latest position is with regard to the EPAs.  We supported them in the government, what is their position?

What I noticed is that you have an isolationist and anti trade campaigner as the Chairman of the Bahamas Trade commission.  I am not sure what progress then will be made in moving these matters forward in these circumstances.

Trade and the terms of trade will be single most important foreign policy issue for The Bahamas in the coming decade.  It is interesting therefore that the matter is now buried into one of the subsets of another Ministry as opposed to the policy that we implemented by creating a Department of Foreign Trade and beefing up the staff of such a unit so that the country can actually get up to speed on the issues and begin the process of protecting this economy from the predatory practices of one way trade preferences.

The Minster of Foreign Affairs led the delegation of The Bahamas to the Heads of Government conference in Barbados of Caricom.  There was some confusion about the delegation, in that it appeared to me that no announcement was made about whether or not the government was actually attending at all and who was a part of the delegation.  I searched the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website up to yesterday and there was no announcement about what the Minister of Foreign Affairs was doing, no announcement about his delegation.  In fact nothing new was posted on the Ministry's site from 18th June to 16th July.  It was only on the 16th of July that the statements about what he did and said at Caricom appeared.   It was within those statements that the delegation list was finally included.

Interestingly, the Prime Minister did not attend even though this would have been his first time since as he likes to put it his third non consecutive term in office.  Add to that the fact that The Bahamas will become the Chair of Caricom next February unless of course this Government sets that order aside.  They tended in Piston to be dismissive of Caricom initiatives.

Now it appears with the cold hard light of government, they appear to facing some realities.  It must have been interesting for those Caricom leaders to see our new Minister of Foreign Affairs.  This is the first time someone connected with the UBP has been to Caricom meeting since oh what was that about the 1960s.  The picture I remember is Godfrey Kelly the then Minister of Education attending a Council of Education meeting.  This is the Council that governs the University of the West Indies.  The new minister must have been quite a surprise.
Anyway c’est la vie.

What must now also be a surprise to the Bahamian people is the conversion by this administration to what they call functional cooperation.   I started out with the UBP and Godfrey Kelly for a purpose that is not only political but also a fact of history, an inconvenient truth, I suppose.  The Bahamas has been engaged in functional cooperation with Caricom and the Caribbean region from the earliest days, and that cooperation has not stopped through every administration since the UBP was in power.

Functional cooperation is the new buzz word that this administration came back with from Washington D. C.  It was like this was some stirringly new phrase.  The Bahamas is not a part of the single market and economy.   The Bahamas from the start of the Treaty of Chaguaramus and before has been engaged in functional cooperation.  We are part of most of the major regional bodies from the University of the West Indies to the Council of Legal Education, to the Meteorological body, to the medical council, to the body of Commissioners of Police, to the Foreign Ministers.  In fact the Conference on the Future of the Caribbean was decided here in Nassau when I was Chair of the Conference of Foreign Ministers when the U.S. Secretary of State came to Nassau.  That was decided here with our fellow Caricom leaders.  So I quiet frankly don’t what all this business is about functional cooperation as if this is some magical new policy.

It proves yet again how you should not believe your own propaganda, and the cold heard reality is that The Bahamas cannot exist in a vacuum.  The Bahamas is part of the Caribbean region for good or ill, whether we like it or not, that the subset into which we ft into the world.  Had we not been battered by the isolationists from the other side, the country would have been further ahead as a leader in this region.  But instead, our opponents successfully as it turns out were able to establish a false construct of  a choice between the United States on the on the one hand and Caricom on the other, as if there tow were mutually exclusive or that one was the enemy of the other.

It gives rise to all sorts of concerns.  For example, they were the ones who established and agreed to the establishment of a Consulate General in The Bahamas, yet in opposition they  fought against the upgrade  to the political level, even as the issues become more complex between  Cuba and ourselves, with the rise of  Bahamian tourism there, with  more Bahamians entering into Cuba for heath care.

The question is simply a practical one, not an ideological one.  Cuba is our closest neighbour geographically, and you do not choose your neighbours but one thing you know is that you have to live with them.

I understand hat the Cuban Ambassador Felix Wilson is leaving The Bahamas after four years of service here.   He did a credible job in representing his country in some strained circumstances.  I wish him well as he goes into the next phase of his career.  I look with interest to see what happens next in relations with Cuba under this administration.  For example, some constituents have complained to me that the eye programme that allowed access to free eye care for Bahamians in Havana has been suspended at the request of Bahamian authorities.  Perhaps the government at some point will see fit to comment on this matter.

I spoke about the false construct.   Some people for ideological reasons of their own were constantly harping abut who is more or American and who is anti American.  There is no one anti American in his House.  There are some poor Bahamians though.   The question always is what is in the best interests of The Bahamas.

Our philosophy always was that might is not necessarily right but every one recognizes the practicalities of power.  However, small nations have rights as well and there are times when human dignity alone requires that those rights be asserted.

It was quite a lot of piffle then to hear from the new minister that relations with the United States were better under the FNM than under the PLP in the first weeks of his office.  It was suggested by one commentator that this was because the head of Mission of the United States was the new Minister's neighbour.    That was laughable, if no naive.  It took the Head of Mission to come forward to explain to the country that nations have interests, that there are relations with   governments and the Bahamian people not with political parties.  It was explained that relations with The Bahamas were good under he PLP and good under the FNM.  There had been no change.

And in fact as I had emptied out the recent visit of the now Prime Minister to Washington was matter decided in this country when the PLP was in office last year during visit of the American Secretary of State to this country while the PLP was in power.

The facts therefore speak for themselves.  And we really expect a more sophisticated approach to foreign policy than one which gets into who is closer to home.  The fact is there has been no change in policy at all.  The new administration is simply continuing the policies it met in place.

I trust that this continues to be the position with regard to a host of matters.  Chief amongst them is the Conference on the Diaspora that the South African government wishes to peruse.  We have not heard any further announcements about this even though the minister during the budget debate said that the Government was committed to the conference.

I also hope that the Government understands that it has a commitment to the Bahamian Diaspora.  After all that was one of the most important aspects of the Conference on the Future of the Caribbean.  It was to galvanize support amongst Caricom citizens in the United States to pursue the interests of their respective homelands.

Before we left office we made decision to assist the Bahamas American Association in New York to protect a valuable Bahamian asset on 137th street in Harlem.  The Bahamians there bought that place in the 1930s and the place is now valued in its unimproved state at over half a million dollars.  There was a comprehensive proposal to upgrade it.  We did not want Bahamans to lose this asset and agreed to support by way of the upgrade and restoration of the building.   The decisions were made, the meetings were held with the Ministry of Finance and to the best-off my knowledge information and belief the project was to proceed.  But so far the Basham American Association has heard nothing further on the project.  I would urge the Minister to investigate this matter and to continue this project.  This is a valuable property that should not be allowed to fall out of Bahamian hands.  It will be a concrete example of our support of Bahamians abroad and it will help them in their support of us. The premises would be used for housing of Bahamian diplomats and for exhibition space and for the offices of the Association.

The Association has been unable to get answers from the Ministry of foreign Affairs.

Similarly it is important for the home government to take seriously its participation in the independence celebrations of our citizens abroad.  The subventions need to be increased.

I spoke of the Ministry website and of the fact that it does not appear to have been updated on a regular basis.   The question is an important one and that is what is the Minister of Foreign Affairs doing?  There is a raft of important functions that this ministry carries out from day to day including helping Bahamian citizens abroad.  There are complaints coming that the ministry is unresponsive top the needs of Bahamians abroad and the minister ought to investigate the general complaint.  Further, if he says the ministry is to be transparent then one way to be transparent is to increase the flow of information available to the general public about what he is actually doing; that is, if he is doing anything at all.

There is hardly a reference to foreign policy in this document.  T is void of any discussion on it.  There is a passing reference to the accession and bringing into force of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.  That’s fine and I suppose that is part of the political agenda of the side opposite.  But more important for this country right now will be the passing of the newest convention on the rights of the disabled which was led by Jamaica at the U.N. and of course eth passing of the draft bill which we couldn’t get done which would protect the rights of the disabled in this country.  This was promised by the PLP in our last policy statement at the U.N. in September of last year.

The only other reference that I found was a commitment to pass legislation for the establishment of the Bahamas Foreign Service.  This I found interesting because Foreign Service orders are now possible under existing legislation, the Ministry of foreign Affairs Act and the draft orders had come along more slowly than I had thought over the past five years.  There is a need to implement them including finding ways to improve the allowances and terms and conditions of diplomats abroad.  Perhaps the former ambassador to Washington Joshua Sears who I gather is soon to be High Commissioner to London might use this hiatus now that he is special policy advisor to advise on that and be sure that it is implemented before he leaves for London.

I wish also to turn my attention to the speech from the Throne that talks about the strengthening our cultural a heritage and a commitment to a national heroes Park.  It also commits to strengthening our cultural traditions and customs.

This year is the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.  In Fox Hill, we have already done our bit without government support to mark the occasion back in march.  The Fox Hill festival begins on Thursday 2nd August which will mark the 173rd anniversary of the abolition of slavery in The Bahamas.  We are now informed that the subventions and support from the government are to be substantially reduced.  This would on the face of it seem to fly in the face of the commitment in the speech from the throne. I have recently written the Prime minister with a view to revisiting this matter and I wish to record that as a matter of public record.

Further, given his commitment to functional cooperation with Caricom we are concerned about recent reports that Carifesta and our commitment to housing the festival may be cancelled.  Carifesta is the premier cultural festival of the region and the Bahamian people will be able to showcase our culture to the region and also benefit from the exposure to Caribbean artists who come to The Bahamas next year for Carifesta.  I hope that this is not a commitment which also subject to review and stopping but one that will be executed.

I am also seeking clarification apropos the comments about the national heroes whether this government intends to   bring into force the legislation for National Heroes Day and for National Honours both landmark pieces of legislation passed by this Parliament.  This is a commitment that should be executed as well.  We should now be preparing to celebrate our first official national heroes’ day on the second Monday in October of this year.

Mr. Speaker, I am concerned about the state of the environment in The Bahamas and New Providence and in particular my constituency Fox Hill.  I am just appalled at the deterioration in the public services in Fox Hill with regard to the collection of garbage, with upkeep and maintenance of the public parks.  Most recently, I was informed that number of parks that were cleaned by private contractors will no longer be cleaned by those contractors and that there are no replacements for the parks.

I have spoken directly to the minister on this matter and to his credit he has assisted in seeking to deal with this vexing problem.  But in a casual drive through my area yesterday, the garbage is piled up everywhere.  The situation is deplorable and needs to be addressed.

I am really concerned that this matter is resolved.  The Festival has a reputation for being a clean place for family fun and if the issue of the systematic problem of cleanliness in our neighborhoods is not addressed then you are talking about the further deterioration in the mental health of our people who should not be subjected to this filth, but also a real challenge to the health and well being of the community.  There is a need to fix this problem.

So I have made the points here today: saying one thing and doing another.  Saying anything to win and coming up against the hard cold reality of life as a government.  Doing what is right and stop victimizing small poor people in the public service who cannot defend themselves.  Get the straw vendors into that straw market and stop playing politics with their future.  Do something about crime now that it is your job to fix it.  Continue the sound policies on foreign affairs that were begun by this administration.

There is no mention of public sector reform in the document and the most recent example in this statement about fixing the garbage problem and cutting the grass in Fox Hill is representative of a prime reason why nothing more compelling.  Ministers will find that they can give whatever orders they like, if there is note execution, you will find yourself on the garbage heap of history.  But perhaps that is where you deserve to be.

Thank you Mr. Speaker.