Bahamas' MP slams government's proposed terrorism bill

Saturday, October 4, 2003

NASSAU, Bahamas: Saying the government's planned Anti-Terrorism Bill has too many "negative possibilities" for Bahamians, a local Member of Parliament in the Bahamas says the Christie administration should instead needs focus more on the things that can "undermine our freedom" and "disrupt" the economy. 

The Nassau Guardian quoted Mr. Kenneth Russell as saying in the House of Assembly recently that government should instead initiate public discussion about what measures are needed to protect the security of Bahamians at home and abroad. 

Mr. Russell, according to the Guardian, said the bill would open up The Bahamas' bank secrecy laws to total strangers and agencies that profess to have reasons to investigate a person. 

This, he said, can act as the catalyst to totally collapse the offshore banking sector, destroy lives and reduce the industry to a "mere shadow of its former self." 

"We risk destroying those same industries that we hold sacred as the pillars of our economy. Let us move forward with caution under the stewardship of a government that has not thrown caution to the wind, simply because it knows not what else to do," said the MP. 

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