Dear Editor,
Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald would have us believe there is no way for the government to implement a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) anytime soon.
Yet again, Bahamians will have to wait to find out how their money is being spent, what decisions are being made on their behalf, and whether their politicians are really earning their keep as servants of the public. Basically, we will have to wait, yet again, for rights that citizens in the majority of the civilized world have enjoyed for years.
In the meantime, all the big questions about what really goes on in this society will continue to go unanswered. Which politically-connected "friends" are allowed to dodge taxes that the rest of us are forced to pay? How many of them have been given contracts they were not qualified to get, while honest Bahamian companies were left out in the cold? Who really owns all the taxi plates, jitney plates, straw market stalls, and why are other ambitious Bahamians being kept from taking a meaningful part in these industries?
Are any foreign developers really getting away with destroying our environment because of their close relationship with politicians? Is the water we drink or bathe in really safe? To what extent is industrial pollution responsible for the many health problems Bahamians suffer from?
What are the real crime statistics, and are things truly improving as the government has continued to suggest? I could go on and on and on.
According to the minister, though the Christie administration is committed to passing a FOIA, the Department of Archives has warned that it will take 18 months to two years to "make the system ready" for such a "major undertaking".
To read Fitzgerald's version of the situation, you would think the government is trying to reinvent the wheel. The fact is, FOIAs exist all around the world and there are many models the government could follow in drafting a new one.
In fact, the former Free National Movement government modeled their bill on the FOIA legislation in place in the Cayman Islands. That bill was brought to parliament, debated and passed.
Fitzgerald now says that legislation was "rushed" and needs to be completely scrapped.
Yet at the time, the FNM was criticized for not moving fast enough, failing to bring the act into force before the 2012 election. It was said they kicked the can down the road, leaving FOIA for someone else to deal with.
As part of their election platform, the PLP promised to enact the FOIA, with Fitzgerald's colleague Ryan Pinder, now investments minister, having been particularly vocal on the importance of the issue.
Why is it then, that after more than two years in office, the PLP is only now beginning to focus on this? Just last week Fitzgerald announced the formation of a government committee to look into what it would take to implement a FOIA.
If the PLP is as committed to openness and transparency as they keep saying, and FOIA is as difficult an undertaking as Fitzgerald now alleges, then why didn't they hit the ground running from day-one? By their own calculations, if they had done so, the act would have been up and running by now.
Instead, it now seems a new bill will not make it to the floor of the House until the PLP's last year in office - and that's if they manage to stick to their own timeline, which in itself is a highly unlikely outcome.
So, come election 2017, we will be in the same situation or perhaps worse off than we were in May 2012 when it comes to FOIA. The PLP are now the ones who are just kicking the can down the road so they don't have to deal with an issue that makes every politician uncomfortable - the people's right to know.
- Hugh Blair

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