EDITOR, The Tribune.

For many Bahamians, we believe that the country is nearing the crossroads of destiny.

After suffering decades of failure; endless crime rates, massive brain drain and malfeasance from political corruption, this land is almost at the point of no return, and many Bahamians seek a solution to reverse the decay.

In my opinion, If I achieved the position of Prime Minister, then I would have the solution to resolve most of the issues that plague this nation.

I always talk about the effects of foreign policy, expanding into other industries locally and enforcing military security apparatuses of the Bahamas, and how both of these policies need to be drastically revamped in order to fully operate in the 21st century and these methods would appear exceptionally unpopular to many people, but it needs to be done.

The method is for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Immigration and the Department of Labour to adopt a new strategy of establishing foreign relations with countries based on what type of specific industry they can offer, their cultural influences and only accepting the very best countries within their areas of expertise. The processes of citizenship, permanent residency and work permits.

However, there are certain countries that don’t offer anything of value for the long-term future of the nation and they must be cut off. Not in cutting them off diplomatically, but the government shouldn’t donate money to these places in terms of public financing, but it should be done with companies and colleges between private Bahamian individuals and other foreign business establishments.

As it stands, all of the Caribbean nations offer almost nothing of value, save for the University of West Indies, and the Bahamas must find it appropriate to leave CARICOM as a member and become a permanent observer. Everything we do for the Caribbean should be on multilateral cooperation and for any disaster relief efforts.

Dealing with Mexico and Brazil is an extreme security risk in and of itself normally thanks to the prevalence and corrupting influence of Latin America’s drug cartels. Besides, most of our supermarket products we import from that region can be replaced with products being imported from significantly safer countries like Canada and the UK.

Then there’s the countries tend to drag us into a Cold War situation between the US and other “Socialist” countries like Cuba and Venezuela, along with Washington, DC, having random trade spats with China because of the Belt and Road initiative in the Bahamas and the Caribbean. Nonetheless, we get little out of this geopolitical battle because we don’t try to negotiate between Beijing and Washington, DC, for fair trading practices.

The only countries that can help the Bahamas into progressing into the future is mainly found in Japan. In addition to the Japanese, the South Koreans and Singaporeans are historically skilled in education, technologically advanced in engineering and manufacturing and their societies themselves are highly stable (despite low birthrates, strict social norms and increasing suicide cases). Along with India, these three countries should be our highest priority for work permits, student visas, permanent residency and citizenship because of the benefits they offer on a long term basis.

Germany’s legendary automotive manufacturing industry would also be highly valuable for many Bahamians who rely on buying their own cars to move around and buying parts to repair their vehicles, along with being the most economically advanced nation in Europe. So Germans should be the second highest priority based on their expertise in automotive engineering.

For the sake of maintaining a stable food supply, Canada must be the third highest priority to ensure that we don’t leave ourselves vulnerable to unforeseen disasters and other emergencies, at least until we fully establish our local food supply to fully feed ourselves and cut the food import bill by more than 50%.

As for all other nations, the government shouldn’t be using public money to bring in foreign students and workers who aren’t high priority, and it should be handled by private companies and colleges using their own funds while the Immigration Department only approves the permits or visas.

As for our future security concerns, the Latin American Drug Cartels operating in the Caribbean, weak local food security and poachers remains one of the most serious risks posed on the Bahamas. My next move is to create a massive 350 million dollar security initiative similar to what happened after 9/11, along with stronger cooperation with other foreign military forces to help finance this initiative.

Enhancing the RBPF, Customs and the Defense Force will be the primary objective of equipping these organizations to effectively enforce the law, and to create recruitment drives and boost the salaries of police officers, Customs officials and naval personnel. For the size of the Bahamas’ territorial waters, we need 14,000 police officers and marines with enhanced training in addition to more patrol boats, two larger naval vessels, helicopters, drones and further logistical support to fully secure our national interests.

Illegal trafficking of synthetic drugs, foreign built firearms and human smuggling should carry the highest criminal offences outside of rape and murder, with illegal arms trafficking having a minimum 25 year prison sentence. The other should be 12 years minimum for drug smuggling and human trafficking being 21 years minimum.

All travellers from Latin America and the Caribbean would be subjected to additional security screening and vetting as the primary line of defense against potential cartel smugglers and other threats. Mandatory searches of both airline and private jets in airports, cargo ships in ports and yachts in marinas are all required before disembarking. The intelligence apparatus would be developed to covertly work with the authorities so that most smuggling attempts would be foiled and any traces of corruption within the ranks should be suppressed and removed.

The Bahamian fishers should help mark fishing grounds so that the Defense Force can properly guard them against poachers from the Dominican Republic and neighbouring countries south of Inagua, in addition to better enforcement against migrants.

Although the stability within the US and Europe is unpredictable and chaotic at times, they’re still important for military technology and security cooperation. For that reason, I would establish deeper cooperation with NATO and the US Military to supply the Ministry of National Security with the latest technological hardware and equipment, along with military training to conduct operations and further strengthen our nation against outside threats from Latin America.

I may understand that this is highly unpopular, even a controversial opinion that I would have taken a pro-Japanese stance on foreign policy and economic agreements; isolating ourselves from the Caribbean and Latin America, allowing only a small percentage of select foreigners on getting citizenship and permanent residency and placing specific security screenings on certain travellers. But during the times of COVID and significant instability with our nearby countries, we cannot afford anymore bad economic deals and wasted opportunities anymore. Although many of my suggestions wouldn’t work in real life, people should still need to consider the effects of our poor foreign and economic policies and how to reverse the damage so that there can still be a nation for your children to return to.

AMMAKA RUSSELL

Nassau,

June 20 2021.