Bahama Pundit: Bahamas Cabinet Responsible for Anna Nicole Smith Affair

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

It seems we simply cannot escape Anna Nicole Smith now that she has sashayed onto our national stage with her bizarre behaviour and the swirl of controversy which seems to follow her wherever she goes.

There are a lot of issues facing us at the moment and ordinarily Ms. Smith would have been exempt from serious commentary. But she has thrust herself onto our agenda, enthusiastically facilitated by a Minister and a Government who seem to think that she is a positive addition to the Bahamian scene.

It looks as if her outlandish antics will continue to grab newspaper headlines and that her dealings will be the subject of litigation in our courts.

But however these should develop, the immediate concern of Bahamians is the conduct of their Government and the Government has made three fundamental errors in this affair.

The first mistake made by Minister for Immigration and Labour Shane Gibson and his colleagues in the PLP Cabinet was when they decided that Ms. Smith was a fit and proper person to be granted the privilege of permanent residence in The Bahamas.

The second mistake was when the Minister, obviously aided and abetted by his colleagues, decided that this was a case deserving to be put on the fast track for approval.

When what they had done became public knowledge, they made their third mistake. Instead of admitting they had done the wrong thing, they threw up a smokescreen of obfuscation and prevarication.

For all of this Mr. Gibson and his colleagues should be held immediately accountable regardless of the incidentals.

The Bahamian people look to their government and no one else to decide for them who should get permits to reside in The Bahamas, however conditional. Permanent residence, with or without the right to work, is the highest status we can give an expatriate short of citizenship.

It is the responsibility of the Government to do its due diligence exercise but in the case of Anna Nicole Smith, the Government fell down and failed even to employ common sense.

Even if Ms. Smith had put down $5 million of her own money to buy a house in The Bahamas, she should not have been considered for permanent residence. The purchase of property does not entitle any foreigner to permanent residence in this country. There are other considerations.

The men and women – all 17 of them -- who sit around the Cabinet table in the Churchill Building live right here on planet Earth; they are not from Mars. Every one of them must have heard of Anna Nicole Smith and must have been aware of her notoriety, and yet they concluded that she was a fit and proper person to have permanent residence in our country.

People who are accomplished in the arts, especially the performing arts, earn the appellation of celebrity, and they often behave badly. But at least they are talented. Ms. Smith is regarded as a celebrity by some, including the PLP Government, but any talent she might have is not immediately apparent.

Being a drama queen and being able to cry without shedding tears does not mean that one is a thespian, and publicly indulging in outlandish behaviour does not – should not -- earn one the status of celebrity.

There is little we can do to protect our young people from the avalanche of crude behaviour that is so readily available on television and the internet but our Government should not be a party to importing it live.

Furthermore, in the case of a country and a people, it is not true that any publicity is good publicity. The kind of publicity that Anna Nicole Smith was bound to bring to The Bahamas we can well do without.

Prime Minister Perry Christie, Minister Gibson and their colleagues did a grave disservice to the country when they gave Anna Nicole Smith permanent residence. Mr. Christie must be aware of all this but once again he has allowed one of his unruly ministers to lead him -- and the country -- down the wrong path.

It is crystal clear that the main reason Ms. Smith’s application was processed with such indecent haste was her friendship with Minister Gibson.

To tell the public that this was due to improved efficiency at the Department of Immigration and that she was a celebrity and an investor is all quite laughable.

But that is what the Prime Minister of The Bahamas and his Minister tried to sell to the Bahamian people; and, in the face of massive incredulity, Mr. Christie responded: “If you don’t like it, lump it!”

It is a good thing in party politics for a prime minister and other colleagues to rally to the defence of one of their own who is under attack, especially if that attack is unjustified or exaggerated. It can be a good thing even in a case where a genuine mistake has been made.

But it is wrong for a prime minister to try to defend what is patently indefensible and in the process to put partisan loyalty above the best interests of the nation and to abuse our system of government.

If there was indeed such improved efficiency at Immigration under Mr. Gibson’s leadership, then the best way to have demonstrated that would have been to deal with the many deserving cases lying around for many long months.

Some applications for permanent residence and citizenship deserve to be put on the fast track for compassionate and humanitarian reasons as well as natural justice. It is an affront to all those decent people who have been waiting for so long to see Ms. Smith jump the queue because of her friendship with the Minister.

Strictly speaking, anybody who buys a piece of Bahamian property or starts a little business here can be described as an investor. But it is also true that when Bahamians use the term they usually have in mind someone who comes to the country to do more than buy a house – or have someone buy her a house -- so she can qualify for permanent residence.

Bahamians will readily understand if a foreigner who comes with millions to invest in the development of the country is put on the fast track for permanent residence. But Anna Nicole Smith is most certainly not in that category, and even if she were, a judgment would have to be made as to whether she is the kind of investor we want.

It is quite apparent that Minister Gibson was intimately involved in the processing of Ms. Smith’s application for permanent residence from beginning to end and that he was anxious to have it done as quickly as possible.

As a matter of fact, his very own words bear out that conclusion. When he was challenged about the haste, he blurted out: “If it could have been done in a day, then I would have done it in a day!”

Clearly, the Minister could not have done it in a day but he set about getting it done as quickly as he could. That is the principal element at the heart of this affair and the answer to all the incidental questions.

That is why the Minister’s vehement denial that he personally received the cheque for payment of the permit fee falls on deaf ears. It is merely evidence of something he had already pleaded guilty to: his desire to get the residence permit for his friend issued as quickly as possible.

Reasonable people can also come to the conclusion that that is why a copy of the conveyance for the house found its way into the files of the Department of Immigration even though the lawyers handling the application say they did not send it; and why Ms. Smith was able to inform the lawyers that her residence permit was granted, not the other way round.

It is no use trying to blame the lawyers nor a former minister nor anyone else for this atrocious affair; the Prime Minister and his colleagues, especially Minister Gibson, are the ones responsible.

Comments

Sir Foulkes,

While I agree with the majority of your arguments about the ANS affair, I disagree with one area. I would shy away from the moralistic evaluations regarding whether or not she should have been even considered for residency. It is irrelevant to the case from a legal/political perspective. Her actions whether moral or immoral do not weigh on the political and legal implications of the case for the Bahamas government and its citizens. If Marilyn Manson wanted permanent residency here (to use an obviously extreme example),then the moral/immoral question of his residency application should be the last consideration made by the minister. The first considerations should be the requirements of residency according to the letter of the law. Did said person complete every step that would qualify them for residency? Dwelling on the celebrity or notoriety of the person concerned is precisely what got the Minister in trouble in the first place: if he had focused on the merits of the case according to the letter of the law, then he would have been fine. After that point, we can debate the morality/immorality of it all.

On all other areas of your article, I am in complete agreement and the fact that the government has yet to face up honestly to this scandal is testament to its gross negligence. There are 2 or 3 other scandals already emerging in the wings.

It would appear that the new strategy of scandal survival is - wait til the next bigger scandal distracts people from the current one. One day soon, someone must be held accountable. If not soon, then it will have to be election day. It would be wise for the PM to act soon - to save his own political legacy from those of his henchman. Most Bahamians still seem to give him the benefit of the doubt that he himself is decent and upright, but that currency is depreciating.

Posted by: EB Christen | November 07, 2006 at 06:29 PM