Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.
- Kofi Annan
For the past two years, the Constitutional Commission has held public meetings throughout the country to determine whether the July 10, 1973 constitution should be amended and, if so, how. Since tabling the report of the Constitutional Commission, the government announced that it will hold a series of referenda as prescribed in the constitution in order to obtain the public's permission to make the commission's proposed changes to the constitution.
The first four bills for constitutional reform were tabled on July 23, 2014 and, at that time, the prime minister (Perry Christie) announced that a referendum will be held on those four bills on November 6, 2014. The debate on the contents of some of the bills, especially bill number four, has been acrimonious and there is a general view that if the referendum is held as scheduled on November 6, the proposed constitutional amendments will be defeated. Therefore, this week we would like to Consider this...Should the government postpone the referendum to sometime next year?
The bills
The four constitutional amendment bills are quite straightforward. As the prime minister stated in his communication on July 23, bill number one "seeks to achieve gender equality in a very important respect: it seeks to give a child born outside The Bahamas to a Bahamian-born mother and non-Bahamian father the same automatic right to Bahamian citizenship that the constitution already gives to a child born outside The Bahamas to a Bahamian-born father and a non-Bahamian mother. The bill is therefore simply equalizing the sexes and, in so doing, eliminating an area of discrimination against women that has persisted for the past 41 years."
The prime minister explained that bill number two "seeks to enable a Bahamian woman who marries a foreign man to secure for him the same access to Bahamian citizenship that a Bahamian man has always enjoyed under the constitution in relation to his foreign spouse." In short, the bill seeks to achieve gender equality in this regard.
The prime minister also explained that "bill number three seeks to remediate the one area of the constitution that discriminates against men". At present, an unwed Bahamian father cannot pass his citizenship to a child born to a foreign woman. This bill seeks to change that. It will give an unwed Bahamian father the same right to pass citizenship to his child that a Bahamian woman has always had under the constitution in relation to a child born to her out of wedlock.
Bill number four seeks to end discrimination based on sex. This involves the insertion of the word "sex" into article 26 of the constitution so as to make it unconstitutional to discriminate based on whether someone is male or female.
Reaction to the proposed changes
Public reaction to the proposed constitutional changes has alternated from acquiescent to antagonistic, with vacillating volumes of vociferous opposition to bill numbers three and four, where the temperature of the discourse has risen to a fever pitch. The principal objection to bill number four is that some persons believe that it potentially opens the door for same-sex marriages in The Bahamas, which is akin to the perversions of the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The government and the official opposition seem to be at one on the proposed changes. This despite a very short period where it appeared that the united position might fracture, but the amendments to the bills, most notably the definition of the word "sex", has allayed the opposition's concerns that could have derailed the united positions of opposing parties in Parliament.
Delaying the referendum
Because of the acrimoniously ferocious debate that has ensued in the public square, some persons have suggested that the referendum should be deferred to a later date. We believe that a compelling case can be made for such a delay.
First, we believe that more time is needed for public education about the bills, which simply cannot be effectively completed within the timeframe for an early November poll. It is vital to appreciate that this is a national campaign that requires national coverage on all the major islands in the archipelago.
Secondly, a postponement of the referendum will provide sufficient time for persons to filter out a lot of the noise in the public square and enable the proponents of the proposed changes to surgically focus in on the elemental issues at hand, which in the final analysis can be boiled down to one, and only one issue: equality for Bahamian women.
Third, this is the first time in 12 years since the last constitutional referendum and only the second in 41 years of independence that serious public consideration has been given to amending our constitution. We cannot afford a second failed effort this time because it will prolong the march to full equality for Bahamian women. Neither should we lose sight of the fact that there are few countries that remain in the dark ages on these fundamental issues of equality for women: North Korea, Syria, Iraq, Iran and several other fundamentalist Muslim countries... and The Bahamas.
Fourth, we believe that there needs to be a "cooling off" period in the wake of other controversial legislation such as value-added tax (VAT) and the gaming legislation that was recently introduced in Parliament. It is quite likely that if the referendum is held too close to the passage and enactment of those pieces of legislation, the public will use their vote to more pointedly speak against the government's other legislative priorities and not for the constitutional amendments.
Fifth, the ostensibly irreconcilably divergent positions relative to equality for Bahamian women and the inherent inequality of enabling Bahamians to gamble in our casinos as foreigners are allowed to do will be fresh in the electorate's minds and could obfuscate the issues relative to the constitutional amendments.
Sixth, there is an urgent need to include certain key stakeholders, such as the church, unions, The College of The Bahamas, and other relevant groupings such as Kiwanis, Rotary, Zonta, Links and others to more fully engage in the public discourse and to assist in developing considered positions so those groups are better able to enlighten their members and the public about the importance of a "yes" vote.
Conclusion
The government and the country will only have one chance to get this right. When a similar attempt was made in 2002, the entire process became too politicized to be evaluated on the merits of the case for equality for Bahamian women. A negative referendum outcome now will have severely negative implications and it could easily be another generation before such constitutional reforms will again be attempted. It is noteworthy that there is general agreement among the competing political parties to make the proposed constitutional changes. However, considerable work remains to be done and no one should underestimate the resolve of a misguided minority of persons in our society to undermine this effort.
Bahamians must clearly understand what they are being asked to approve, free from the obfuscation and confusion that some forces are attempting to insert into the public debate. They must fully understand the importance of the level playing field they are being asked to create for all Bahamians, making the realization of a fully successful life attainable to all, without limitations or obstacles other than those of our own making. These amendments must be decided by an electorate with a complete understanding and appreciation for how they will establish access with no impediments so that, finally, the only thing that can hold each of us back from achieving our goals and realizing our dreams is us.
As Frances Wright, the Scottish-born lecturer, writer, freethinker, feminist, abolitionist and social reformer observed, "Equality is the soul of liberty; there is, in fact, no liberty without it."
o Philip C. Galanis is the managing partner of HLB Galanis and Co., Chartered Accountants, Forensic & Litigation Support Services. He served 15 years in Parliament. Please send your comments to pgalanis@gmail.com.
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