The PLP said they did everything they could to help defeat the 2002 referendum, designed to give Bahamian women equal rights, because there was not enough public debate or education on the issue.
“The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!”
Tennessee Williams
Of course, that excuse is nonsense because there need not be any debate on such a basic correction of the flawed constitution that is discrimnatory to Bahamian women, putting them as second-class citizens in their own country.
Now, we have Mr Christie pushing through an unneccessary referendum on gambling, solely to appease his puppetmasters – the numbers bosses, who operate their illegal businesses with impunity.
Yet, there is virtually no debate or public education process on such an important, society-changing decision as gambling.
Even more hypocritical, was Mr Christie’s other excuse, that he decided to help defeat the referendum in 2002 because church leaders were not in favour of it.
The same church leaders are adamently opposed to gambling, yet Mr Christie shrugs them off and slavishly bows and kowtows to the numbers bosses’ demands.
Now we learn that Mr Christie, who obviously feels that Bahamian women do not deserve to be equal to men, has put off the much needed referendum on changing the flawed constitution until next year, while making sure his puppetmasters get their demands to legalize their illegal businesses immediately.
To help justify the stall tactic on making Bahamian women equal to men, Mr Christie has appointed another of his useless, taxpayer-funded committees, with all the usual characters.
The 13-member committee was formed presumably to consider altering the Constitution ahead of the country’s 40th year of independence.
In 2002, Mr Christie had appointed a 22-member committee, but their suggestions never materialised as the PLP was booted from office in 2007.
Although this new committee will not officially begin work for another month, the chairman, former Attorney General Sean McWeeney, said they plan to have an aggressive schedule once they get started.
Their review of the constitution will begin at the end of September and continue until March 31, 2013 when they are expected to make a presentation of their findings.
Mr McWeeney says that the need for public consultation is perhaps not as great as it was in 2002. Odd, since there are even more matters to be considered this time around and public debate and discussion was so very important to the PLP back in 2002.
This time around, McWeeney says efforts will be made by the committee to keep the public informed of the progress.
By: Concerned Citizen
Grand Bahama
August, 2012
