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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
(Statement) The PLP chairman's proposal of a curfew in crime "hot spots", is yet another indication that this present administration – having failed miserably when it comes to addressing complex social problems such as crime and immigration – is finding itself increasingly attracted to blunt, authoritarian policy steps that prey on the public’s emotions.
Bradley Roberts is just the latest is a line of PLP figures seeking to prey upon the current climate of fear and vulnerability in a bid to suspend the basic rights of citizens.
With respect to immigration, we have been told that implementing laws that violate the constitution and run roughshod over fundamental rights are suddenly necessary. More recently, we had government ministers blaming judges for crime while telling them how to do their job, disregarding the independence of the judiciary.
Now we are told that obtaining "best little country in the world" status may depend on implementing a curfew that would see "communities sealed" and anyone "found on the streets" detained.
It's becoming increasingly hard to tell whether the pronouncements of government and party officials represent a sign of a government that is simply conceding defeat, having run out of sensible policy ideas, or an intentional plan to play on our emotions as part of a broader scheme to erode civil liberties.
What we can be sure of is that these dictatorial tendencies are deeply troubling and all right-thinking Bahamians should reject in their own interest.
While Bahamians are living in rightful fear over an escalating level of crime, just as dangerous is the slippery slope down which this government seems keen to take The Bahamas – one which appears to end in a place where there is little respect for our fundamental rights and freedoms which we cherish.
Reactionary, authoritarian measures which would make automatic villains of entire communities and back track on access to basic civil liberties – freedom of movement, the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, freedom from detention without cause – do not provide us with "best little country in the world" status, no matter what Bradley Roberts may say.
It cannot escape right-thinking members of the PLP that such moves also represent a near total betrayal of the party’s founding principles. A social movement based on the education and empowerment of the average Bahamian has somehow, over the last 43 years, morphed into a state machine that seeks to suppress and hold hostage the very people it once claimed to defend.
Should our "safety" come at this cost, we would have achieved nothing and lost much in the process, not to mention our tourism industry, with American and European travellers will no doubt keen to avoid an island under lockdown over fear of crime.
Such strategies only serve to prey on and enhance people's anxieties, reduce liberty, and sow division in communities, exacerbating the very same symptoms which the public hopes the government will do its part to alleviate through strategic crime fighting measures.
Meanwhile, they also fail to address the real causes of crime, leaving us vulnerable to waking up down the line in a worse state than before, except without even our basic liberties to be thankful for.
When we allow certain rights to be discarded without a fight, we can be sure the state will come for others down the line should it suit their purpose.
© Copyright 2015 by thebahamasweekly.com
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