As members of Parliament fight to protect their parliamentary privilege -- which they say includes their right to read in Parliament the private emails of Save The Bays members if they want -- we encourage them to display this same fervor and make public information that the public legitimately has a right to. This is as opportune a time as any to remind them of a few important items that ought to be placed in the public domain -- matters that many Bahamians actually care about.

Marathon MP Jerome Fitzgerald has warned Save The Bays that there could be more to come in terms of the release of information. But he ought to be careful in how he continues to press this matter, which is damaging further his image in the public domain.

While Fitzgerald is now eager to reveal the private information of Save The Bays, he sat quietly for more than a year knowing the damning findings in a consultant's report and the warning of possible risks to public health as a result of a fuel leak at the Rubis gas station on Robinson Road -- in Marathon.

Amid the furor over the revelations in the report, which the government only made public after residents' outrage at a town meeting, Fitzgerald told us that he did not tell his constituents of the report's findings because he would have been fired from Cabinet.

As the government scrambled to manage the fallout and the public angst over one of its most insensitive actions this term, Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson announced in May 2015 -- exactly one year ago -- that the government had appointed retired Justice Joseph Strachan to conduct an independent review into the cause of the delayed release of the report.

The attorney general said at the time, "The review is intended to ensure that the process to support future investigations and enquiries conducted in the public interest are managed according to international best practices, as well as to ensure timely disclosure when these reports are going to be made public."

Again, it has been one year since Justice Strachan was appointed to examine this matter.

We have yet to hear of the outcome of that review.

Fitzgerald should encourage the release of whatever report was turned over to the attorney general on this matter.
Many people are disgusted by his persistent efforts on the email matter when the Rubis cloud still hangs over his head and weighs down on his political neck.

Fitzgerald had no apparent interest in making the Black and Veatch report public -- something that dealt directly with potential health risks to his constituents, the very people who put him in Parliament, the people he claims to care so much for. It is time for someone in government to reveal to the Bahamian people the findings into the cause of the delay. These are matters many Bahamians are genuinely interested in.

Many are still angry over the callous action of their government, which, if it cared genuinely about the people, would have swiftly released the findings into the Rubis matter and advised them of what they needed to do to reduce or eliminate exposure after the fuel leak.

No other matter this term has so demonstrated the sham that was the 'Believe in Bahamians' campaign in 2012 than the Rubis issue. The government showed that it simply did not care about the people.

The Christie administration's attempt at naming and shaming Save The Bays members comes as Bahamians continue to wait for the government to bring legislation to govern its secret arm -- the National Intelligence Agency.

The Progressive Liberal Party was elected four years ago this week. That it has been operating such an agency without any legislative authority is disturbing.

Fitzgerald has said he got the STB emails out of his political garbage can. But many people, who already have little, if any, reason to trust this government, remain suspicious over the source of the email leak.

We also think the time has long passed for the government to make public the report of the panel appointed to investigate the operations of the Detention Centre following an alleged attempt by a group of Cuban men to escape from the facility, and the reported abuse of those Cubans as a result.

Retired Supreme Court Justice Emmanuel Osadebay, Rev. William Higgs and former Superintendent of Police Douglas Hanna served on that panel. They presented their report to Minister of Immigration Fred Mitchell on February 25, 2014, more than two years ago. The report must be catching dust on a shelf somewhere in the immigration department. It has never been made public.

We suppose the government thinks the public has no right to know the specific details of that report.

The Christie administration just does not have a good track record on matters of accountability.

In the Save The Bays matter, it continues to warn that it will reveal private information it considers to be damaging to the environmental group, which Fitzgerald contends is really a political organization intent on destabilizing the Christie administration. But, again, many people are having a hard time relating to Fitzgerald's and Mitchell's fight for their rights to table this information.

Perhaps before the end of this term, someone, the prime minister maybe, will finally table the deal the government brokered with Cable and Wireless Communications, reportedly securing two percent of the shares in the Bahamas Telecommunications Company, which was sold by the Ingraham administration.

It has been more than two years since Christie announced that the deal has been finalized. He promised more than once to make it public. He has yet to do so. It's as if our government thinks we are stupid, we have no right to demand that which we actually do have a legitimate right to.

Nearing the end of this term, we are still hearing that consultations for a Freedom of Information Act are ongoing.

Fitzgerald, the minister responsible, cannot say when it will be brought to Parliament. We can only hope before the end of the term. But we are dealing with the Christie administration here, ministers who have not been convincing in their contention that they believe in accountability.

As the government continues to push this issue of its right to reveal people's private information in Parliament, it should also push the issue of the public's right to have access to public information.

Candia Dames, Guardian Managing Editor

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