Kudos to The Bahamas Government on better late than never publishing of new law

Lo and behold, what do we see in the Tribune Business section today?

Why, it’s the publishing of the new Immigration work permit fee schedule, today being the 15th of July, fifteen days after it became law or would have if it had been published by that date of stated enactment, the 1st of July.

My understanding is that laws must be published in order to become law, after all how is a citizenry supposed to observe and obey that which they cannot know?

Of course, they still have not published the new laws relating to stamp taxes on property sales and exemptions from for first time home buyers, nor have they published the new tariff rates and the new excise tax regime, but maybe they will appear tomorrow or the day after…….

The new tariff rate book is as large at least as a phone book, so publishing it may have been difficult in the Normal way i.e. Tribune or Guardian but the law does not say publish, but if too big, sell it instead.

If it must be produced by the Government printing office by all means do it, but make it available for free, as to charge a citizenry for access to the law has got to be unethical if not outright illegal. Talk about creating a political elite, able to afford the knowledge of the laws of the land.

To be ignorant of the law is no excuse, any judge will tell you that, but if the law remains secreted from the public, how could a judge convict? Would he even know the law himself? Did he also have to buy it, in the case of the Tariff and excise tax law, for $300?

Some of the utterances from elected officials are ludicrous to boot, apparently showing complete ignorance of the rules, but also showing complete contempt for the citizens of this land.

“We have done nothing different than any other government...”

Pathetic at best, but no doubt, if the people are to be kept ignorant, more of this sort of arbitrary action will follow.

I understand that the fiscal situation of our country is dire, and I understand that the government needs more of our money to waste and to fund the feeding of the ever expanding public sector bureaucracy, but do they have to come by stealth?

There are also real world problems in store, as there is an apparent retroactive component to these enactments, not spelled out in the new acts that Immigration and Bahamas Customs is applying to permits and imports either approved or landed and submitted prior to July 1st.

For the time being, they seem to have gone to ground, but they cannot hide forever. They have a public to answer to.