During a debate in the House of Assembly on legislation to establish E-commerce, Member of Parliament for St. Margaret, Pierre Dupuch said too many Bahamians are paid off to keep quiet, splitting up ill-gotten gains.
Those kind of people should be put in jail,” he said.
White and blue collared criminals should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
No-one should be exempt from punishment Mr. Dupuch said.
He said in many instances some people try to entrap Government ministers and bribe them.
Mr. Dupuch said “if I bribe you and you accept and I talk, then we both go to jail. All that does is guarantee you that I ain’t gonna talk because I don’t want to go to jail.
We should drop that law. We should allow you to be set up and if you fall for it, then go to jail like a common criminal.”
“People get paid off right, left and center in this country and you can’t catch them because you can’t trap them and you can’t set them up. Drop the law and let me set them up and I’ll put half of them in jail,” Mr. Dupuch said.
He said that if that particular law, enabling authorities to entrap certain individuals, the country would be a thousand miles ahead.
“And we would have finally taken some positive action in stopping blue collared thievery in this country.
Don’t think it is not happening and don’t think it hasn’t happened because it has happened big time,” said Mr. Dupuch.
“Any lawyer who goes up and writes up a contract that is dishonest, put him in jail with him. Then we would stop it.
And until we do something like that, we are wasting our time because we are not serious.
But if we do all of those things and we stop crying, then we will be a thousand miles ahead,” he said.
He said the youth of the nation need a better example and they need to be taught how to be responsible citizens.
“In the Bahamas, we’ve got big eyes.
You see a man who has been working for 50 years with a cadillac and we just come on the job and we want the cadillac right now.
Instant gratification – that is what we’re very guilty of,” he said.
“But you teach the child that if he plants a seed, and he nurtures it, and he keeps it, it grows and starts bearing fruit.
When it bears fruit, then he partakes of it and that takes a long time.
But if we put our kinds in that frame of mind, then we’re miles ahead,” he said.
By Vanessa Rolle, The Nassau Guardian
