“Zero tolerance on domestic abuse” – The Tribune

Excerpt from this article; “AS HE denounced MICAL MP, Miriam Emmanuel’s ‘ill-advised’ comments yesterday, Attorney General Carl Bethel said no form of domestic violence is tolerated by Bahamian law, adding the country is beyond the days of patrimonial control of the family.

Speaking in the Senate, Mr. Bethel said domestic violence is not to be joked about as was the case in Parliament on Wednesday.

‘As leader of government business in this place and the attorney general for this great country,’ Mr. Bethel said.”

When I first heard the comments made by MICAL Member of Parliament Miriam Emmanuel, my very first thoughts was even if you were thinking it, why would you articulate?

There are things better left unsaid, this being one of them and if indeed it is true, one is left to question just what was her father teaching her? 

While the statement by Attorney General Carl Bethel seemed to have softened the harshness of this reckless, insensitive and stupid statement, ‘unfortunate’ is too light a term to be used here, made by the member for MICAL, especially in light of our recent and ongoing conversations concerning violence toward women in this country; what I found profoundly disturbing and unfortunate was the deafening silence by her parliamentary colleagues, as no one seemed to have found it appropriate to stand on a point of order and have her retract the statement immediately or make clarification that they themselves did not agree with the member even if she was drawing a very poor analogy, it would seem that everyone just went along with what was being said in an effort to remain ‘faithful’ to party politics and this is very disturbing to the people to whom you really represent; at some point someone has to stand against such acts such as this even if it come with consequences – it is called standing on principle.

This is find to be an inherent problem with members of the House of Assembly, no matter which party that it may be, if one makes a statement which is inconsistent not only with one’s personal convictions but also with the party’s policies, they tend to sit back silent, some even applauding the member for making the statement just because ‘dey in my party’.

It is time to call wrong wrong and not condone it.

While I may feel that he calling for the resignation of the member may be extreme at this time, there must be other forms of discipline for members that want to treat the House of Assembly as if it is a ‘bar room’, where one utters any manner of nonsense.

END