Mr. Speaker, if I can be given just a few minutes of latitude to respond to a matter I understand was raised this morning, before I come to the Bill, and that is that the Member for Bamboo Town referred to an incident involving members of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force in a drug matter in 1992, which as I gather from the newspapers His Excellency the United States Ambassador to The Bahamas referred to in some remarks which he reportedly made last Friday when he referred to an incident which occurred in June 1992 resulting in an investigation which I am told the Member for Bamboo Town indicated the investigation lasted nine months.

I need not say, but I say only for the record Mr. Speaker, that the incident occurred prior to my government coming in office in August 1992.

I wish to note for the record....

THE MEMBER FOR BAMBOO TOWN (MR. TENNYSON WELLS):

    Mr. Speaker, on a Point of Order.
    Mr. Speaker, I never said it lasted for nine months. I said the incident happened in
June of 1992 and I understand the investigation was concluded in June of 1993, that is as far as I went. It must have started after June of 1992. I don't know when it started, whether it started in June or if it started in September. I never made any such statements.

THE MEMBER FOR NORTH ABACO:

    I understand Mr. Speaker.
    Let me correct the record. The incident as I understand it. The Member said it occurred in June of 1992 two months before my government came to office and he says that the investigation was concluded in June of 1993, one year later.

I wish to note for the record Mr. Speaker, that during the time I served as Prime Minister of The Bahamas, nine years and nine months and a couple of days, no representative of the Government of the United States of America ever brought to my attention any allegations that they suspected that political interference prevented the incident what happened in June of 1992 from being appropriately investigated to the extent necessary, prosecuted.

I also wish to make the same statement that no such matter was ever brought to my attention by US representatives in respect of any other incident occurring during my tenure in office. And no incident was brought to my attention about political interference in any investigation before I came to office. That was never an allegation that any US representative ever made.

During my term in office the US had I believe at least three different Ambassadors accredited to The Bahamas, their Excellencies Mr. Hecht, Mr. Williams and Mr. Schecter and of course now the fourth one the Ambassador who is here today. There is also a... after Mr. Hecht left and before Mr. Williams arrived and I think his name in Lino Gutierrez, and he is now an official in the US State Department.

All United States Ambassadors in The Bahamas maintain a keen interest in the drug war waged by us in The Bahamas whether unilaterally or jointly with the United States of America.  So, it would not have been unusual and it would not have been unexpected if they had such concern for them to have raised the matter with me especially a serious matter like political interference either on my government's watch or on the government before my time.

No political interference in the investigation of a case and I repeat has ever been raised with me.  I am not aware of any such event occurring after I left office but to the best of my information I don't think any such concern was raised with the new government either.

To the hest of my information I could speak absolutely about myself personally - I now speak about others and so I have to say to best of my knowledge as it relates to others - I do not believe that any concern about political interference in any case involving the Police, the Defence Force or any other uniformed branch in The Bahamas was ever brought to the attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, our designated ministry for these purposes or the Ministry for National Security which at most times rest in the Deputy Prime Minister but sometimes it doesn't.

I accept the position as I understand put by the Prime Minister this morning that he has had the matter checked by the police and defence force and they confirmed that no political interference took place in respect of the matter complained of.

All of that is not to say that I was not aware of concerns which the Americans have or have had with respect to certain persons at the Royal Bahamas Defence Force in particular and a few others.

It was my understanding that these matters had been resolved and that cooperation between the Defence Force and the Coast Guard and other U.S. agencies would begin and I was as surprised as I suppose anybody else when I saw this was in the newspapers because I thought that this matter had been resolved.

When I heard on the radio that the Deputy Prime Minister said in her convention that we had emasculated the Defence Force, I said privately to myself, Lord please forgive her, do Lord please forgive her.

It has taken a while for the Government of The Bahamas and it will take a while longer to reestablish the kind of trust between the Defence Force and these other agencies that need to exist and I will certainly give every support to the government in that regard.

I also want to say that while in office my government sometimes came to believe and I want to put it this way first before I say the next point I want to say. While in office my government sometimes came to believe that its initiatives with foreign states internationally did not always receive the support of the then opposition. When T was a young, fired minister in the 1980s I often times attacked the government about its relationship with the United States Government especially in relation to drug trafficking.

I am much older now and much wiser. I have had the opportunity to serve as: Prime Minister and that is not a role that I can or will play. I don't believe that is the way it ought to be either. I cannot speak for anybody else but I can certainly speak for myself that the great knowledge, of which I have much that I have gained in the Office of Prime Minister, should not be used to undermine in any way shape of form the Government in its relationship with foreign states at all and I shall not do so. If I have any thoughts I shall make sure the Government is aware of my thoughts.

In matters external to The Bahamas in our external relationship, from my point of view, I am going to be at one with the Government for the duration of my stay in this place and thereafter and I will make available to them any information I have or comments and so on not in a public way.  I will deal with them in a public way on matters that are domestic but outside the territorial boundaries of The Bahamas I shall be at one with them.

I also wish to note Mr. Speaker, and I thank you for your indulgence, that successive Bahamian Governments have had and are likely to continue to have a difficulty in satisfying specific interests of successive United States Governments when it comes to the question of the discipline of uniform officers in our country who come under suspicion by them for illegal or inappropriate behaviour.

There have been and I suspect there will continue to be occasions when the United States Government places a Bahamian uniform officer or other officials in the Government, I am not talking about politicians, I am talking about officials in the public sector, on what I would call the "American Government's stop list" but what is called I think officially something that is denial of visa, so their visas are withdrawn.

The United States Government has traditionally not shared with Bahamian authorities certainly during my time and I have no reason to believe it was different before my time, the basis the reasons or the evidence which they had for consideration prior to making their determination. But they have expressed disappointment on more than one occasion when such officers whose visas have been withdrawn by them are not disciplined or are not terminated from the service of The Bahamas Government.

It is a fact that a public officer in The Bahamas cannot be disciplined, cannot be fired, cannot be dismissed without some evidence of wrongdoing. The Government is unable to act arbitrarily and simply terminate somebody on the basis of suspicion. And if the only evidence available against such persons is kept from the Bahamian authorities then our hands-in my case, my hands, and in this Government's case hands their - will continue tied.

I want to note that suspicions existed and subsist in The Bahamas in respect of a number of uniform officers during the Commission of Inquiry of the 1980s.

Most if not all of the senior persons in the service have since either left or left... some voluntary, and others because of activities taken since that time and others because of the evidence which came out of the Commission of Inquiry which permitted their dismissal.

Suspicions also arose around a number of other persons over the years and also during my Government's terms in office.  When we came to office in 1992, Mr. Speaker, we were quite aware of suspicions that existed in relation to a number of persons.  Those suspicions had existed for more than eight years before we came to office and we did not feel that we were able to use that information eight years later.  If nothing happened in eight years to cause us to act against such persons.  Of course we kept them under close scrutiny and in some cases they ended up doing something else which resulted in their departure from the service.

But whenever ... sufficient evidence of corruption...was available for disciplinary action we took action.  And of course if when charges in court that also happened. So some people got fired, others got retired and still others left voluntarily.

I recall that a number of persons who were retired at some point in time during my tenure being represented by some of the lawyers on the other side and so on and so I am very happy that they are now in the position to get to know some of the things we knew.

But more than one or two uniform officers come to mind about suspicions and I want to refer to one in particular because this one I follow up.

There is a certain senior person whose department wanted to promote him and ... suspicions subsisted against him and the US did confirm that he was on their stop list and I personally sent for the US Ambassador at the time and he give me certain information. The information he gave me was not in my judgment adequate or sufficient to prevent this officer from being promoted.  Subsequently of course this officer did some other things that resulted in his early retirement from the service but those other things were not based upon information which had been provided.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to say that our friends in the United States of America and elsewhere, internationally, need to be aware that when they have well founded allegations or well founded suspicions of Bahamian officials, they suspect corruption for instance, they must share not only the fact of the suspicion but they ought to share the basis for the suspicion, the grounds for the suspicion, so that appropriate steps can be taken - investigations can be undertaken and determinations made.

When I was in office when we had such information ... I have no doubt that the current
Prime Minister Christie, Prime Minister, would do likewise as I did. You know both you and I went into the wilderness over the events of the 1980s and so I do not claim that I will have any greater interest in protecting The Bahamas against a bad name than he has. And I would say that he would do exactly as I would do and I had a very good relationship with the United States while I was in office and I would therefore expect that he too will have a very good relationship with the United States while he is in office.

I wanted to end by saying we must not be unmindful that while the United States authorities may have forgiven The Bahamas for the 1970s and 1980s they have not forgotten.  It is like in a relationship when one party discovers that the other party is unfaithful. Never mind them saying that you have been forgiven because the first time you are late and do not show up when you suppose to show up, their mind will go right back and they will say well he has gone back to the same old ways again. And that is the kind of thing that exists in this kind of relationship that needs to be based on trust.

And so I say one word of caution to my friend the Prime Minister of The Bahamas and that is: do not, do not go to funerals and speak that you do not have to go to.

Mr. Speaker, may I continue and speak to the matter at hand.

THE MEMBER FOR FOX HILL (THE HON. FRED MITCHELL):

    Mr. Speaker, I thank the Right Honourable Member for North Abaco for his important statement.  I think that statement is fully in accordance with the statement made this morning by the Honourable Prime Minister Perry Christie with regard to our approach to these matters and that is why I believe the Government has authorised me to ensure that he as a former prime minister is briefed on all of these matters relating to Foreign Affairs, as well as the Leader of the Opposition and the Opposition's spokesman on Foreign Affairs.

    For this side, such briefings will ensure the continuity of information and policy and also... to the benefit of the country. And also that benefit includes the collective experience of all of as working together; that is so when we face the outside world we face with a common border and a common face.