There can be little doubt that there will be a major impact on the Bahamian society and way of life if and when the proposed open border policy envisaged by the WTO proposals take effect. While our geographical size as an archipelagic state makes us the second largest country in the Caribbean, our population number is quite small. Therefore it is not rocket science to predict that the resulting increase in non-Bahamians able to enter and work in the Bahamas will be to the detriment of Bahamians as regards prospects for continued employment in the job market of one’s own country as well as permanent changes to the Bahamian culture.
When the PLP originally embarked on the ‘Bahamianisation” policy in 1967 it was generally heralded as representing the wishes of the Bahamian people, and it is imperative that this process be completed by the current PLP government, as this still represents the desires of the Bahamian people. We must be considered as having the only right to whatever is available in the Bahamian job market. Given the enthusiasm with which Bahamians have embraced the educational opportunities which have presented themselves since 1967, there are few jobs for which Bahamians are qualified.
But the responsibility of government must first be to ensure that what has been gained to date in terms of empowering Bahamians in their own country is not lost, regardless of the powerfulness of the entities pressing for a liberalization of borders.
It must be only with the express permission of the Bahamian people that their right to be employed in their own homeland can be infringed, and it is suggested that a clear mandate from the electorate should be sought before any agreement is entered into which will in effect throw this country wide open to all and sundry.
Because of the favorable economic status of the Bahamas, and the generous nature of our people we have already been exploited to an unacceptable degree by illegal immigrants, a factor by which consuming Bahamian taxpayers funds reduces our reserves for the rainy day which could so easily come and find us without the necessary resources to take care of our own essential services for more than a regrettably short time.
How will we preserve our Bahamian Culture in the face of the inevitable influx which would result from a liberalizing of our borders?
If Bahamians expressly vote for this I will accept it, indeed this is the only way I will accept it. Any government which commits us irrevocably to this obvious means of destroying the unique nature of this country without the express permission of our people I for one will oppose!
We must not allow anyone to subjugate us, not for the carrot, nor by the stick. We have already been that route, and by the grace of God we have escaped from it.
If Bahamians are not able to find proper expression of their aspirations in this their own country I can assure you that they will not find it anywhere else, so we have to ensure first that we and our children continue to have opportunity for a Iife according to the dictates and desires of our people, and that any change is made only with our express permission. Finally we cannot meekly surrender the control of our own destiny which has taken us so much sacrifice to obtain, and for which those who have gone before us put up with so much so that we might get the opportunity to be free to fashion our own destiny, free to preserve our own way of life, free to be Bahamian.
Only if Bahamians in a referendum vote in favor of these major changes will I accept them.
