By Richard E. Fawkes

Freeport News Reporter

The immediate past president of the Abaco Christian Council, Reverend Carlton Dorsette, believes that The Bahamas has the chance to avoid serious ethnic conflict 30 years from now if it acts to solve a problem that should have been solved 30 years ago: granting citizenship to persons born here regardless of their parents' background.

"Children don't ask to be born," Rev. Dorsette, pastor of Trumpet Assembly of God Church in Dundas Town said in an end-of-

year interview with The Freeport News yesterday.

"Children don't determine who their parents will be. Children don't determine where they would be born. Therefore, I believe it is wrong to discriminate against children because of who their parents are and to tell them 'You're not Bahamian and you have to wait until you're 18,' to apply to the minister of immigration, one person, who now determines 18 years later if you ought to be a Bahamian or not. I think that's wrong."

Rev. Dorsette said he hopes a referendum to grant citizenship to all persons born in The Bahamas and to the children of Bahamian citizens born anywhere in the world, "in wedlock or out of wedlock," once acknowledged by their Bahamian parent, would result from the work of the current Constitutional Commission.

He said the country finds itself in a position where all persons born in The Bahamas of foreign parents, who have not yet been given Bahamian status, and are working, are doing so illegally.

"Can you imagine, right now, if the thousands of persons born in this country, whose status has not been regularized, and if immigration was to say to them today, 'You could no longer work until you get a work permit,' what you think will happen to this country? The problem is so big that the only way you can solve the problem is to duly recognize these children as Bahamian citizens. Release the shackles of these children. There is too much hurt, broken spirits in this community because these children have no place to call home."

Rev. Dorsette, a founder of the council in 1989, whose second consecutive term as president ended in July with the election of Rev. Stephen Knowles, said he does not like to refer to this matter as a Haitian problem, although it is mostly persons of Haitian background, especially in Abaco, who are affected.

"We like to say the Haitian people, and I hate to say that because there are hundreds of Turks Islanders in this same position. There are Jamaicans; there are Trinidadians whose children were born in The Bahamas, who are in the same category. But the Haitians are focused on because of two reasons: they appear to be the bigger group and because of their language."

He said this issue of the status of children born here of foreign parents is not going away, but is an issue that must be confronted in love and in the best interests of the future of the country.

Opportunity

versus tragedy

"Thirty years from now," he said, "and I'm not prophesying, maybe less than 30 years, if we do not level the playing field and do not correct this problem, we're not going to have a country, because we're going to be like the Middle East; like the Palestinians and the Israelis; like the Shias and Sunnis in Iraq; like in Europe, in Montenegro when we had the (ethnic cleansing) problem down there. We can't afford that.

"We are in a unique position to learn from the failures of these older nations and we must be strong and say, 'Look, it may be painful, but this is the right thing to do. And the right thing to do is we must level the playing field. If you're born in the country, you ought to be a Bahamian at birth. Not some other period in time when someone determines whether or not you ought. That's frustration.

"An 18-year-old person born in The Bahamas, whose parents are foreigners and their status has not been regularized, at age 18 cannot even open a bank account. So he or she can't even save money. And they can't buy any land. So if you can't buy land; you can't save money; and you live in The Peas, how are you going to move out? How are you going to be elevated?

"The system locks you down. So now you have frustration. You can't go to school, because to attend COB, you're going to pay the price of a foreigner. And thirdly, you cannot travel abroad, because the U. S. embassy is reluctant to give these children visas on these travel documents. So effectively, the system shuts you down."

Rev. Dorsette said the end result of this situation is that "effectively, we have locked down thousands of persons who were born in this country who could otherwise make a contribution, but they are marginalized, disenfranchised, and they have no home; they have no country.

"So we have to come together; we have to make the tough decisions," Rev. Dorsette urged. "And the thing about is, we would not have had to make this decision 30 years later if 30 years ago, we had set the right foundation. We wouldn't be having this problem. It wouldn't have been a stigma. It's a stigma and a problem now because 30 years ago we didn't do the right thing, and now it is coming home to haunt us. And if we don't deal with it, it's going to explode."

A message of hope

Rev. Dorsette said he believes, nevertheless, that Abaco is the one community that can teach not only The Bahamas, but other countries where there are diverse groups, how to live harmoniously.

"I can truly say that Abaco, the people in Abaco, co-exist truly in harmony. From time to time we have problems, but those are isolated incidents. Really and truly we live the way people ought to live. And the Bahamian people, in my opinion, are the greatest people on planet earth because they have embraced the immigrants. They've shown the love of Christ. There is still more that needs to be done, but, by and large, they've done that and I think that's a fantastic thing."

And so, what does he pray for in 2005?

"In spite of the challenges that The Bahamas has, still this is the greatest and best country in the world. The tremendous freedom of religion that we have, and, the government, in spite of its shortcoming, is a government that recognizes the sovereignty of Almighty God. And because of that, I believe God will continue to bless The Bahamas. And so for 2005, I pray God's blessing continue to cover our nation, and that God will give our political and religious leaders the strength and the resolve to address all the problems facing our country, and that our people, in the spirit of Christ, will accept the things we can't change."

CAPTION

MINISTER SPEAKS – Reverend Carlton Dorsette, immediate past president of the Abaco Christian Council, speaks on granting citizenship to persons born here regardless of their parents' background. (Photo by RICHARD E. FAWKES)