Dear Editor,
Kindly grant me a small space in your column to voice my concern over the proposed new constitutional amendments.
While I understand that the proposed amendments seek to end "gender discrimination" I believe that the first three bills, if left as proposed, would have far more serious consequences on the makeup of our country and its population than simply giving equal rights to both men and women under our constitution.
As a young Bahamian female of voting age, what stands out for me in the proposed amendments is not the issue of gender equality, but that of granting automatic citizenship after five years, barring any national security issues, to persons who are not born to two parents who are fully-fledged Bahamians and persons who are married to one.
In a nutshell, by the proposed amendments, what I am understanding is that if you are tied to a Bahamian (whether man or woman) either through birth or marriage, no matter where you are in the world, you should be granted automatic citizenship in The Bahamas.
While I have no issue with persons being allowed some sort of status because of their tie through birth or marriage to a Bahamian, I feel that where the foreign element is involved, citizenship in our country should not be granted so easily. In fact, it should give us cause to slow down and tread a little more lightly.
As matters now stand, we are dealing with a large influx of illegal immigrants, many of whom continue to assert that their children have a right to citizenship if they are born here based on this very same constitution which our government is now looking to amend. No successive government appears to want to address this very vexing problem which, to me, is far more urgent, but yet here we are adding to our already complex citizenship issues by letting more people in. More of the foreign element than is already here. More persons, in many cases, with no real knowledge of our history or culture. More persons with no real ties to our country except through marriage. More persons who can decide with the stoke of a pen who can become our leaders in the next general election simply because they married one of us. That, to me, is scary.
In my opinion, citizenship should be a process - the ultimate prize in any country in which one resides who did not initially 'belong'. Something earned by an individual after residing in a country for a length of time and showing some sort of allegiance to that country by contributing and being involved in its culture. It should not be given away carte blanche in exchange for a slip of paper called a birth or marriage certificate. Your birth in a country or marriage to a citizen of that country does not give you allegiance to it. Just ask the thousands of Haitians who now reside here.
The Bahamas is a very unique place. Clearly we have something here which many persons on the outside recognize and would love to have a stake in, yet we ourselves do not see it. We ought to protect that uniqueness and not just give it away to all and sundry.
While I'm all for gender equality, the point I'm making is that because it's coupled with citizenship, it should give us cause to pause. Tell me, if the referendum is successful, are we planning on making citizenship retroactive to a certain date for the thousands of persons that it will affect? What if all those persons who reside abroad and now realize they are automatic citizens decide to come 'home' to their new country. Can we handle it? Do we know who and what we are getting? Do we even know how many persons there are?
Further, why the rush? Do we have Bahamian women married to foreign men marching on Parliament demanding voting rights for their non-Bahamian husbands? I certainly haven't seen any. In fact, before this issue arose with the constitutional amendments I didn't hear anyone complaining. Most foreigners are just happy to have some sort of status, whether through a spousal permit or permanent residency. I query the real intention of our parliamentarians. This is certainly not the most pressing issue. We only need to read our newspapers to see that.
In my mind with these proposed bills, our government is trying to make us a little United Nations overnight. Sadly because we don't know who we are and what we have, we are letting everything and everyone else define who we are as Bahamians.
As a woman, I am not comfortable with this referendum, not because I don't support gender equality. I am just not comfortable with awarding citizenship in my beloved country so easily. Most first-world countries do not operate like this.
There should be a process for citizenship in The Bahamas, and one should toe the line if one really wants it.
- Concerned Bahamian
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