No investor – foreign or Bahamian – should be allowed to act with impunity in The Bahamas. In and of itself, the reiteration of this principle would be of little or no consequence. It is salient today because of the slew of reports coming our way which speak – albeit anecdotally about any number of rotten practices by a number of foreign investors.
There are persistent reports to the effect that a number of foreign investors are taking advantage of Bahamians. In one particularly egregious example of investor wrongdoing, the complaint has been made that Bahamians are being denied access to drinking water.
In another instance, there are reports of foreigners deliberating flouting the laws of The Bahamas by hiring other foreigners to do work that could be done as efficiently by Bahamians. While we are currently investigating these and other complaints, we believe that there is sufficient cause for alarm for the government to increase its vigilance concerning the types of foreign investment it allows into the country.
Assuming, therefore, that there is a state presence on all populated islands of the Bahamas, it stands to reason that wherever and whenever Bahamians know or believe that laws are being broken, they should report the matter and seek legal redress.
The trouble today is that there are Bahamians who are totally oblivious to their rights and who are being ‘taken for a ride’ by unscrupulous investors. Desperate for jobs and often legally illiterate, many of these Bahamians are obliged to look on as choice jobs go to foreigners.
As we have previously indicated the stories that we are hearing concerning an array of foreign investors are at present merely anecdotes. Were they not – in their entirety – totally disturbing – they would merit little of our attention.
However, since truth is sometimes far stranger than fiction, we find it entirely conceivable that a number of so-called ‘foreign investors’ are really not concerned with being good corporate citizens, but with making the most they can in the shortest period of time.
The point we make is that while foreign investment dollars are to be assiduously courted and while the government should make every effort to welcome foreign investors, no effort should be spared in investigating complaints when they are lodged by Bahamians who believe that they are being discriminated against.
Action is needed and recommended on two levels. In the first instance, those charged with vetting applications should redouble their efforts to weed out the ‘bad apples’ in the investment mix, to make it transparently clear that only the best are accepted. Second, labour and immigration officials should, at the practical level, closely scrutinize everyone working in The Bahamas to see to it that foreigners working in The Bahamas is authorised to do so.
We have information that violations of the Immigration laws are taking place on Great Harbour Cay and Exuma. We suggest that it would be in the public and national interest for the Director of Immigration to investigate these claims. If these allegations are substantiated, the law should be enforced.
The bottom line is that Bahamians do not want to feel as if they are being discriminated against in their own country. The government can and should do more to help them allay their fears.
Editorial, The Bahama Journal
