“DPM: PLP did nothing wrong in 2002 referendum” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “Following a call by former Chief Justice Sir Michael Barnett for the government to apologize for campaigning against the 2002 constitutional referendum, Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis said the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) did not , so it has nothing to apologize for.

‘A person will only apologize when they accept that they did something wrong.’ Davis said”

Here I feel is the most critical problem with the Progressive Liberal Party and why they continue to fail, “A person will only apologize when they accept that they did something wrong”, it seems to be in their nature to continue to be unable to accept their wrong doings.

In 2002 a question was brought to the people in the form of a referendum, asking for the removal gender discrimination from the Constitution, the Progressive Liberal Party voted for the bills in the House of Assembly and then promptly went out and campaigned against them. At that time they claimed that they campaigned against it because the church was not consulted on the matter, I would like to point out that the church was consulted on the Gaming Referendum; the rest is history.

The Progressive Liberal Party, campaigning against the 2002 Gender Equality Referendum, actually set the progress of women’s rights and equality back my at least fourteen years but yet today, as they seek to bring the referendum back to the people, they would claim that, and I quote “I did nothing wrong when I voted against it.’  Philip Davis says today but what is the reasoning that he is now giving as to why he voted against the referendum against the advancement of women’s rights back in 2002?  Bear in mind they have already said that it was because the church was not consulted.

“Davis told reporters outside the House of Assembly yesterday, that in 2002, he was voting against the ‘process’ and not the bills themselves.

‘I didn’t vote against no because I did not believe in the rights of the sexes, but rather because it was included in a number of other amendments, that bred confusion’, he said”

The referendum questions of 2002:

1. The removal of gender discrimination from the constitution.
2. The creation of a national commission to monitor the standards of teachers.
3. The creation of an independent election boundaries commission.
4. The increase of the retirement age of judges from 60 to 65 (or 68 to 72 for appellate judges).

The Deputy Prime Minister acts as if the people are not confused today by the questions put forth by his administration but a major difference now is that the Free National Movement today is not encouraging a “no” vote in the upcoming referendum but rather that people become educated on the questions and the possible ramifications on the future of the country and vote their conscience. 

I feel that the deputy Prime Minister is either conceding to his ignorance or is calling the rest of the people of the Bahamas ignorant because he implies that the only way to have avoided any confusion in any of the questions in the 2002 Referendum was to vote ‘no’ to all of the questions instead of becoming educated to what were the ramifications of the each and every question and voted your conscience, the Deputy Prime Minister is being very disingenuous and misleading  in his present explanation.

As I read the questions from the 2002 referendum, I am quite mystified as to the ‘confusion’ that Deputy Prime Minister spoke to and how the present presentation of the questions has provided any clarification.

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

END