by Rick Lowe
Parliament is debating the Disaster Preparedness and response Act, 2005 this week.
There is no doubt that every member of Parliament will be encouraged to support the Act (and probably will) because of the very sad events in Grand Bahama as a result of hurricane Wilma.
Of course there is no better time to make people believe the government can fix everything than when they are living through a disaster. Unfortunately, when the rubble is cleared, the citizens will be burdened with yet another bureaucracy that can fine or imprison them for failing to comply with the legislation.
Some people will say “why worry, you know the law is never enforced in The Bahamas”. This is the very reason to be concerned in our opinion because the law can always be selectively enforced.
At this point we can only hope that Parliamentarians will take the time to read each and every clause in this Act, rather than just the Objects and Reasons, to see for themselves if they are creating a disaster of an Act or not.
