Opinion: The dangers of Fred Mitchell

Politicians from all parties fear the power of a Haitian-Bahamian voting block and are complicit in the illegal and unconstitutional policies regarding citizenship in the Bahamas, Fred Smith argues

I am a firm believer in giving credit where credit is due. I agree with Dr Andre Rollins who said that Fred Mitchell poses a “clear and present danger” to the continued development of democracy in The Bahamas.

In my opinion, Fred Mitchell is a long term racist schemer and political opportunist.

And, as Nicki Kelly so accurately said in her article in The Punch on August 13: “There is little that Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell does without malice aforethought”. She goes on to say, again historically accurately: “And since it is always Mr Mitchell’s wont to fire up racial discord as part of his political arsenal.”

So, permit me to share the full extent and objectives of what I suspect these malicious multi-pronged racist and ethnically targeted policies are towards the Haitian-Bahamian community in the Bahamas.

First, the policies are not the personal expressions of Fred Mitchell, although he is no doubt the architect of these malignancies.

Second, the policies have been 100 per cent supported, adopted, encouraged and fully executed and maintained by the current Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government.

Third, the policies, from inception, have been 100 per cent embraced by the Free National Movement (FNM), the official Opposition, which has maintained that they stand “shoulder to shoulder with the government.“

Fourth, the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) have likewise fully supported and encouraged the policies.

Fifth, after all the abuses manifested by the policies were exposed, the FNM have been invited - and have been provided with multiple opportunities - to distance themselves from the government policies but have failed to do so.

In the lower and upper houses of Parliament, the FNM voted unanimously to support the 2015 Amendments to the Immigration Act which have purported to legalise some aspects of the PLP policies.

One of the main reasons that all three political parties find the policies attractive is their political insecurity and fear of what they are now observing as the potential “Haitian-Bahamian political voting block”.

It is one that they cannot control; it has the potential for growing extremely large, powerful and articulate; and it is legally entitled to grow and therefore must be “contained”. Which is why Fred Mitchell becomes overly excited every time I publicly urge the Haitian-Bahamian community to politically organise, to promote and protect their interests and rights, and make sure that he and other abusive MPs are not re-elected and/or get their own MPs elected.

The unstated but long term full extent and objective of the PLP, and adopted by default, by the FNM and DNA, is to rid The Bahamas of as many people who are identified ethnically as “Haitians”, lest the Haitian “pestilence” overrun and overwhelm The Bahamas.

This ethnic cleansing objective is being achieved by making it as difficult as possible for those who are here and have legal, moral, ethical and internationally recognised rights to have those rights recognised and/or to be accorded the legal status to which they may be entitled by various provisions of the Constitution, the Immigration Act, International Conventions or otherwise.

That is quite a different policy than the one which is perfectly legal pursuant to the provisions of the Bahamas Immigration Act and accepted by international norms and practices, which is to humanely prevent illegal immigration. I have no quarrel with enforcement of the law, and neither does the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association or other NGOs.

But once again, Fred Mitchell is not only holding the Rule of Law and the Constitution in contempt by threatening to burn it as he did in 1989, but now that he is an actual power, he is using the police and executive power of the State to execute illegal and unconstitutional policies.

The underpinning of these illegal policies is the overarching illegal requirement that Fred Mitchell has illegally proclaimed by ministerial diktat that all persons in The Bahamas are required to be “documented”.

There is no such law passed by Parliament; there is no such law found in our Constitution; there is no such common law; there is no such judge-made law; there is no international convention or law to that effect. Being “documented” is the aberrant brainchild of Fred Mitchell.

Being documented was the fulcrum of Hitler’s discrimination against the Jews, the United States’ internment of American citizens of Japanese heritage during World War II, and South Africa’s abuse of blacks under Apartheid.

This illegal and discriminatory policy is being achieved by various means, but ultimately by forcing every person in The Bahamas who is of Haitian ethnic origin and who does not currently hold a Bahamian passport, to get a Haitian passport even though they were

1 born in The Bahamas before independence in 1973 and entitled to be a Bahamian citizen; or

2 born in The Bahamas after 1973 and are entitled to be registered under article 7 of the Constitution; or

3 entitled to apply after 19 to be naturalised and get citizenship.

I suspect that when these persons of Haitian heritage, all born in The Bahamas, pursue their applications for citizenship, their applications will either never be determined or will be refused, by the thousands, and when not dealt with (as has been the historical position) or refused, they will then be directed to make arrangements to leave The Bahamas because, perversely, their Haitian passports, issued in The Bahamas, will not have a visa from the government entitling them to be here.

This will then be used as the lawful reason to deport them. Many more thousands will simply be left in a “Belongers Permit Limbo Land”.

This is not a short term policy objective. This policy has been embraced by the PLP administration, the FNM and the DNA.

Accordingly, it is a policy that will become embedded, ubiquitous and endemic in Bahamian political governance and will continue to be implemented aggressively by successive administrations of whichever flavour of the day.

The government will, on a continuous and ongoing basis, effect mass deportations of every person who is not a citizen, ie those whose applications have not been determined and/or have been refused.

So in The Bahamas, the government will use this legal justification, just as in the Dominican Republic, where they have passed a law stripping all Dominican Republicans of Haitian ethnic origin of their Dominican citizenship going back generations.

The new “Belongers Permit“ will not be of any assistance to

1 Those who apply for citizenship after the age of 19 as the government has already stated that such a permit will only be given to persons who have applied under article 7 (2).

2 Those who apply for citizenship under article 7 (2) but who cannot show and produce documentation for the legal status of their parentage; those persons, despite their entitlement by being born in The Bahamas will simply not be able to apply for the belongers permit

3 Those who are born in The Bahamas before 1973 as they, too, will be unable to produce documentation for the legal status of their parentage as required by the belongers permit application form.

Deviously, the children of persons born in The Bahamas of Haitian heritage are also being required to obtain a passport from Haiti. Accordingly, when the continuous deportations begin of the Bahamian-born persons who have children, in accordance with what The Bahamas government will proclaim as “humanitarian internationally recognised norms”, their children, all of whom are second or third generation born in The Bahamas, will also be deported on the perverse basis that, “humanely”, they should remain with their parents.

This is a malevolent master plan that the Fred Mitchell and the PLP have cooked up and which the FNM and the DNA have - without one dissenting voice - embraced.

And, the master plan and objective will then be easily executed on a continuous basis, because all of the targeted deportees, including all of their children, will now have valid Haitian passports to be shipped back to Haiti ... A country none of them have ever seen or known, even though they were born in The Bahamas and have rights to be here.

The courts of The Bahamas will not be able to deal with this as there will be too many cases of abuse. The judicial system is already clogged with thousands of unheard cases and the delays unavoidable; the Executive branch of the government does not recognise any judicial precedent set for one person as being a principle applicable to all persons in a similar category; there is no publicly funded legal aid; most persons will not be able to afford legal representation for these kinds of immigration human rights matters; most persons will not even know what their legal rights may be; and lastly there are very few lawyers (out of nearly 2,000) who are available on a pro bono basis to assist.

Let it not be forgotten also that the Haitian government is complicit in this illegal policy, by going along with the programme and providing, at the insistence of the Bahamas government, passports to persons born in The Bahamas, notwithstanding that the Haitian government knows that these Bahamian-born applicants do not wish to be citizens of Haiti, but are being forced to obtain Haitian passports by the illegal policies of the Bahamian government.

Lastly, I maintain there is no legal requirement for anybody to be “documented” in the Bahamas.

Indeed, as can be seen from the accompanying official publication of the Registrar General of The Bahamas, responsible for registering births and deaths in The Bahamas, the only document we really need if born here is a birth certificate.

Comments

rls7577 says...

One can not even imagine the unaturalness of the very idea of of the notion of "Haitian-Bahamian" ! To us ordinary Bahamians you are either Bahamian or you are not !
Please ,let us not add to the already out-of-control divisions among our finite nation.
If you want to belong here, Be One Of Us -love Bahamian;think Bahamian;assimilate Bahamian,embrace Bahamian culture, and most importantly embrace our Christian shared values that made our Bahamas the great nation it is today.

If you are unable to support these simple delightful Things -Bahamian, then how will you ever be at home in this fair Bahama Land , except as a respectful guests of our hospitable people?!

Posted 28 August 2015, 2:09 p.m. Suggest removal

Islangal says...

Why is it then that we can have Cuban-Bahamians, American-Bahamians or Bahamian-American? But not Haitian American?? We need to just accept people for who they are and stop labeling!!!

Posted 28 August 2015, 7:28 p.m. Suggest removal

Maynergy says...


Looking to track "quality of life crimes, namely in Nassau ever likely? Maynergy@gmail.com
Police Commissioner, has yet to pledge to get tough with quality of life offenders. Now, how could he hope for trust alongside the history of rising crimes of terror in part to the invasive drug incursions of the recent years in a number of localities namely New Providence and other urban cells in the northern Bahamas.
In what maybe a first crime initiative since Sept 11, 2015, Police Commissioner could began in the climate of political intrigue and electioneering, crack down on so called nuisance crimes as does the department with more serious local ordinance violations and infractions. Maynergy@gmail.com believes a map of quality of life hot spots around the islands could began to track trends of shootings, robberies, burglaries, car theft, crimes associated with gambling, vehicular homicides and domestic violence.
Further to garner reasonable results, publicizing a crime hotline, available nationwide as a totally free telephone number, 24/7, could very well loan to community participation in tactling the menace.
Crime has reached a level unacceptable to rational civil order in New Providence as District police Commanders has yet to be held accountable for how they deal with crime in the area(s) assigned to cover.
Community tolerance of crime in Blue Hill, Fox Hill, Yellow Elder, Bamboo town, Carmichael could be lowered and a dramatic upsurge in residents' awareness levels increase while acceptance of sober social norms returning. Basically how members of the community began to deal with one another should be a strategy of great concern to the Commanders.
No doubt aggressive street hookers, peddlers, panhandlers may be notorious throughout town, loud and excessive rowdiness,wilding-out and music, irate citizens have become less likely to seek police assistance, due in part to residents overall confidence in the police machinery has faded over the years.
Police Commissioner has yet to pledge a tough and reasonably community based police approach to crime stoppage and prevention with legitimacy and resolution to bring down the high blitz-levels of quality of life crime and fear in the metro Nassau area.
Murder, manslaughter, vehicular homicides, cargo theft, domestic violence and widen drug incursions throughout central Nassau is a known fact, statistics has been alarmingly high for 12 years, compared to cities with population of less than 500,000 people.
Police Commissioner and the Prime Minister have yet to repeatedly stress whether strict enforcement would be forthcoming.
Maynergy@gmail.com believes quality of life crimes should become more a targeted plan for crime reduction and public concern in 2015 - 2017.

Posted 29 August 2015, 11:54 a.m. Suggest removal

TheMadHatter says...

Don't be fooled by the apparent acts of Fred Mitchel. He is very much pro-Haitian. When last have you heard of a bus raid? How often are there any raids? Only every now and then.

Haitians are multiplying here out of control, and coming in by the boatloads.

Would Haiti be willing ot deed to us the 1/3 part of Haiti which is adjacent to Dominican Republic, and we will give them the entire Bahamas in exchange with the agreement that not a single Haitian would set foot on our new land? NO - THEY WOULD NOT.

They only want to take whatever we have and be veritable parasites.

I guarantee you that if such an exchange of territory (which would on the surface appear like a good deal for them) was offered to them - they would decline it. Moreover, after 5 years - Haitians would be moving illegally into our new territory looking for jobs and to rob the prosperity that we would have created in that short amount of time.

**TheMadHatter**

Posted 31 August 2015, 10:40 a.m. Suggest removal

afficianado says...

How about the title be rephrased-"The dangers of Fred Smith- The illegal Hatian advocate".
Fred Smith prefers criticizing the current immigration policies,but refuse to provide suggestions of reducing illegal hatian immigrants.

If he was in the United States arguing his claims like Univision's anchor Jorge Ramos they would laugh in his face. Every country is reaching its breaking point and he needs to realize that.

Posted 31 August 2015, 11:13 p.m. Suggest removal

ObserverOfChaos says...

Hmmm, there are african-americans, chinese-americans, italian-americans, bahamian-americans......etc etc...yet there can't/won't be "haitian-bahamians? Sounds like elitism, prejudice, etc....but then again apparently Bahamians are just "special" in this world and things don't really apply to them like they do to other nations.....cause Bahamians have "bahama pride"....haha...what a joke....

Posted 1 September 2015, 8:10 a.m. Suggest removal

Cas0072 says...

Many Bahamians of other/mixed origin still fuse or hyphenate nationalities to describe themselves, no questions asked. With so much ongoing objection to identifying Haitian-Bahamians for statistical or documentation purposes, I don't see how it is surprising that this term is not widely used by Bahamians.

Posted 1 September 2015, 4:04 p.m. Suggest removal

Well_mudda_take_sic says...

I would support same-sex marriage if Fred and Fred would tie the knot. These two have so much in common that they truly deserve one another, for better or for worse!

Posted 1 September 2015, 5:06 p.m. Suggest removal

sheeprunner12 says...

Yeh Fred & Fred should tie the knot ............. can you imagine the bitching behind their closed door????????

Posted 1 September 2015, 6:14 p.m. Suggest removal

a2z says...

Mr Smith, after you done belch all this out, what is the plan? What is the ACTIONABLE plan? Because all I am hearing is whining. You're no better than them if you play along.
Tell us what you think, precisely, should be done, or for God sake stop talking man.

Posted 2 September 2015, 10:28 p.m. Suggest removal

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