Fred Mitchell apparently believes he is King Herod reincarnated. HIs vile and cowardly tactic of seeking to deny children of the right to an education harkens back to the worst excesses of the Pindling administration in its later years.

A similar tactic was tried in 1986 – then, as now, in an attempt to distract from the failures of a crumbling administration. At the time, outspoken Pastor Roger Sweeting warned against politicians adopting a “Herod Complex”, destroying the lives of children in an effort to keep power.

Then, as now, the tactic was unlawful; a violation of both the Bahamas Constitution and the Education Act. This time, “King Mitchell’s” actions are even more egregious. As Minster of Immigration, he has absolutely no legal authority to interfere with public education. The Act clearly states that all decision-making power is vested in the Minister of Education. In this regard, I call on Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald to urgently disclaim this absolute outrage of a policy, for all the world to see.

Over the last several months, Mitchell has increasingly followed the playbook used by a desperate and severely compromised Pindling government in the lead up to the highly contentious 1987 election. No doubt, he has sold this immigration witch hunt to his Cabinet colleagues as part of a winning formula for an administration in crisis; one that has used up all its good will with the public.

In this regard, I would like to remind the good minister of two facts:

The first is that the human rights advocates won the argument over immigration hands down back then. A series of Supreme Court decisions forced the release of scores of individuals who had been wrongfully detained, while the government’s scheme to scapegoat and discriminate against innocent children ended in total collapse.

On this occasion the international reputation of The Bahamas is on the line, as recently demonstrated by the prominent article in The New York Times. The world is watching, and marking the manner of our bearing!

The second is that a group of concerned attorneys actually challenged the results of the 1987 election, which were far from fair or transparent. Among them were myself, Maurice Glinton, QC and a certain young and socially minded lawyer named Frederick Mitchell. So, it would seem that although today’s PLP has much in common with the old PLP towards the end of the tottering and discredited Pindling empire, at least one thing has changed: the side of the fence upon which Fred Mitchell now finds himself standing.