What is right to do now was right to do in 2002 when the Ingraham administration brought a constitutional referendum to the people; so the church leaders supporting the June 7, 2016 referendum, having rejected the last one, are being hypocritical, according to Zhivargo Laing, who was a minister in the Ingraham Cabinet during the failed vote.

"I have no difficulty at all that any of the Christian leadership might take offense to my pointing out what I pointed out, because I really think it is high time in this country that the games stop being played across the board," Laing said. "What is right to do is right to do anytime. And all of us are flawed, but what is right is never flawed... and so we had a perfect opportunity to make this stance for Bahamian women, for equality in 2002.

"And quite frankly, I believe for many who tried to take a high moral ground and call it process, it was nothing but politics. That's my personal view. I think they messed up an opportunity, and quite frankly there are many people today who are angry about that, angry that they now have to go and replicate an effort that they genuinely made in 2002 because somebody thought it was in their political interest or personal interest to go and fight against the equality that should be enshrined in our constitution for Bahamian women as it relates to Bahamian men, and I do take offense to it."

Laing added, "I think that when the PLP did it in 2002, I think that they were wrong. I think that when many church leaders got up and campaigned against it, I think that they were wrong. That is my view, but they had a right to do that and just as they had a right to do that, people today have a right to do what they want to do in respect of this referendum, whether to support it or not to support it."

Laing said he still supports equality of the sexes, but he admitted he has "no idea" as yet whether he will vote in the June 7 referendum.

Last week, Bishop Neil Ellis, senior pastor at Mount Tabor Church, said it would be "unacceptable and un-Christ-like" to deny Bahamians' rights by voting against any of the referendum questions.

Pushing a yes vote at that same press conference were Catholic Archbishop Patrick Pinder; Anglican Diocesan Bishop Laish Boyd; Faith United Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Rev. William Thompson; Bishop Franklyn Ferguson, of the Church of God of Prophecy; Pastor Ed Dorsett, of East Street Gospel Chapel; and Rev. Derick Browne, of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas.

Laing recalled that in 2002, then president of the Bahamas Christian Council Bishop Sam Greene told him it would be unchristian to vote in favor of the referendum.

"I had a conversation with the then president of the Christian Council who in a telephone conversation said to me at one point in his exacerbation during our dialogue that if I was a Christian, I wouldn't support this process. I wouldn't support this referendum. He told me that," Laing recalled, "to which I had to respond. I said, 'Sir...there are any number of things in my life I only do because I am a Christian, and for you to tell me that is offensive'.

"But that was then the nature of things. So a no vote then was Christian and it seems like a no vote today is unchristian, the same Christian community. The same leadership in the Christian community advocating, promoting two different things."

Back in 2002, Greene said the Christian Council had no objection to the constitution being amended, but stressed that "the difficulty the council has is with the process that is being chosen".

In a statement to the press, he said, "In the present scenario, the government has taken a decision on which aspect of the constitution is targeted for amendment and proceeded to take the exercise through the parliamentary process.

"Having disposed of the measure, we the people are being told that the only thing required of us is to say 'yes' or 'no' in a referendum to what they (the government) present to us."

But Laing suggested it is unfortunate the religious leaders in 2002 failed to help ensure discriminatory language was eliminated from the constitution.

"They are certainly not listening to Jesus who said once to his people... 'Do not as the Pharisees do but do as they say'. So in other words, he's saying even hypocrites like the Pharisees could be doing the wrong thing but telling you a thing to do that is right.

"So for instance, in 2002, the issue was giving the same rights to Bahamian women as are enjoyed by Bahamian men under the constitution, which is the issue today.

"And so, the question was, was it right then to give Bahamian women the same rights as Bahamian men and the answer is yes, and even those who now campaign for a yes vote are saying that, that is the right thing to do.

"Even if the process was flawed as some suggested, just as the Pharisees were flawed as Jesus said, then if it was right to give Bahamian women equal rights as men then, then they should have followed Jesus and said yes because it was a right thing to do.

"To suggest today that it is the right thing to do and in fact unchristian if you do a different thing, is entirely contrary to the spirit of what I understand Jesus to have said."

Candia Dames

Guardian Managing Editor

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