Human
rights group warns The Bahamas on the slippery slope to dictatorship
An
open letter to Prime Minister Perry Christie
Dear
Prime Minister,
Please
accept this letter as an official request for your urgent and personal
intervention in the growing debacle that is the Department of Immigration’s iron-fisted and
unconstitutional new enforcement policy, effective November 1, 2014, and the
increasingly drastic and extremist utterances of Immigration Minister Fred
Mitchell in his attempts to defend the same.
In
particular, the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association is alarmed over Mitchell’s threat of bringing
criminal libel charges against myself and GBHRA vice president Joseph Darville,
along with his ominous declaration that “the Commissioner of Police must
investigate what the GBHRA mean by their remarks”.
The
statement to which the minister refers concerns the testimonials of several
detainees housed in the Carmichael Road Detention Center about the harsh,
unsanitary and inhumane conditions they were forced to endure. If Minister
Mitchell wishes to dispel these characterizations, he need only allow the GBHRA
and other human rights groups to tour the facility and view the conditions
firsthand.
Instead,
he has sought to use the threat of police action and indeed imprisonment in an
attempt to intimidate those he views as opponents – and silence the alleged
victims of mistreatment, neglect and physical abuse. In broadcasting his
injunction to Commissioner Greenslade over the government’s news network, the
minister has also placed undue pressure on the police force, in a manner that
threatens to compromise the fair and impartial enforcement of the law.
In
itself, the Sword of Damocles with which Mitchell seeks threaten us is spurious
and anachronistic to the point of comedy, both in the particular instance and
generally speaking. Criminal libel as a category of offense has been abolished
in Britain and is shunned across most of the Commonwealth as anathema to
freedom of expression and citizens’ rights. That such laws even persist in The
Bahamas can only be source of shame and embarrassment to this society.
It
goes without saying that their deployment against the GBHRA in such a manner
smacks of cowardliness, opportunism and clear desperation on the minister’s part. Worse though, are
the serious implications of Mitchell’s behavior for the integrity of our democracy
at home and the state of our reputation abroad.
As
you know, the use of law enforcement as a weapon to achieve political aims
through intimidation or worse, has been a hallmark of brutal and authoritarian
regimes throughout history. This, coupled with Mitchell’s recent threat to annul
the citizenship of Bahamians who hold opinions with which he disagrees,
constitutes an extremely serious challenge to the fundamental rights and
freedoms enshrined in the Bahamas constitution. I submit to you Mr. Prime
Minister, that your Cabinet colleague’s actions have placed us on the slippery
slope to dictatorship.
On
a different note, though one no less alarming coming from a senior public
figure, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the minister’s seeming disinclination
– either through unwillingness or incapacity – to tolerate dissenting opinions,
has led to an unprovoked series of rude, intemperate and childish personal
attacks against myself in the press. In resorting to such puerile tactics, he
disrespects the invaluable work of the GBHRA, which has been at the forefront
of the struggle for human rights in this country for the last four decades. In
addition, as one of the mere handful of Queen’s Counsel practicing in The
Bahamas today, I consider his references to me as “a joker” and “a
jack-in-the-box” who should “learn to read”, to constitute a mockery of that
venerable and internationally respected institution – irresponsible antics of
which your administration, with respect, should be ashamed.
Shame should also ensue from the
audacity which Mitchell displays in threatening men like Fred Smith and Joseph
Darville in the first place – men who have spent their entire lives in the
service of their fellow Bahamian on an number of fronts, and have been
repeatedly commended and decorated accordingly, as the minster full well knows.
I
recollect with sadness a young attorney named Fred Mitchell who was a fearless
civil rights activist, deeply involved in the fight against Apartheid in South
Africa, and invited to observe the Nelson Mandela take up his historic
leadership of the country. The crucial role played by The Bahamas in freeing
Mandela from prison and bringing an end to that most oppressive and
discriminatory of regimes was among the most glorious moments in the history of
our fledgling country, and of the Progressive Liberal Party.
Somehow,
at some point in the intervening years, Minister Mitchell’s once progressive
outlook has ossified, become calculating and cynical. He is willing, it seems,
to force this society into ethnic tensions and divisions on a scale previously
unknown, and of a kind which led to incalculable degrees of human suffering in
so many other societies around the world. What is more, this precarious
position has been arrived at through a policy that has absolutely no basis in
law, that violates the Bahamas constitution on too many fundamental levels to
fully enumerate here.*
It
is the considered opinion of the GBHRA that Minister Mitchell has become far
too confrontational, authoritarian and disregarding of the value of fundamental
rights and constitutional protections to preside over so complex and sensitive
an issue. We feel that his behavior, if allowed to continue, will have grave and
lasting consequences for The Bahamas, both at home and abroad.
Joseph
Darville and I have already alerted the relevant international agencies
regarding the insidious threat leveled against us personally, including the
Organization of American States, The United Nations
Special
Rapporteur on Human
Rights,
regional and global human rights advocates such as Amnesty International, Human
Rights Watch and Americas Watch; international agencies specializing in the
protection of human rights attorneys, as well as radio, television and print
media throughout the Caribbean and British Commonwealth.
With
regard to the threat presented to the country as a whole by Minister Mitchell’s increasingly
intemperate behavior, I can only urge, Prime Minister, that the more experienced
and reasonable individuals in your Cabinet step in and take control of the
situation before it is too late.
I
thank you for your time and attention.
Sincerely,
Frederick
Smith, Q.C.
President,
Grand
Bahama Human Rights Association
* An in depth analysis of
Minister Mitchell’s stated position on the policy will be completed shortly,
and will be circulated to the local and international press, human rights agencies, etc.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his/her
private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of
TheBahamasWeekly.com
