Mister President, last week this side moved a request for a select committee of this House to investigate all matters connected to the cultural development of The Bahamas with the usual powers.  That request, like every request for a select committee from this side has been rejected by the Government.  I hope that the public as a result of this has the clear impression that this is a Government that has plenty to hide.  It does not wish the scrutiny of a Committee of the Parliament to review its policies.
    The reason for rejecting the last request was of course quite laughable.  The Government has come up with some excuses in my time but that one took the cake.  Essentially the mouthpiece of the Government side said that this was the 11th hour in their term and this was not the time to have a Committee look into the matter about which we were concerned.  Why have you come now, they asked?
     In light of what we are later going to be asked to do in connection with the amending of the constitution, I find that statement to be incredible.  Because, if that is the position with regard to a simple request from a  Select Committee, that must certainly apply to the request of this Parliament to agree to amend the constitution without any thought or discussion.
     Of course this Government makes up in chutzpah for its lack of logic and common sense, so we are not surprised at anything they do.
     This is my last request on the order paper for a select committee and I have no expectation that this House, given its built in majority for a hostile Government, that it will agree to the request.  But there is of course value in the debate of these issues and revisiting these issues and with it to try to express to the public what the PLP would do if it were the Government.
     I move a request to look into all matters relating to the development of Clifton Cay in New Providence and other gated or financially upscale communities in The Bahamas, more particularly to investigate their social and environmental impact and to look into all matters connected to the protection of traditional Bahamian communities, with the usual powers.
     This request has been on the order paper since the spring of this year.   The request was put on the order paper at the height of the controversy over the Clifton Cay project that is now widely regarded as dead in the water.  It was put on the order paper following a statement by the Leader of the Opposition in which he enunciated the PLP’s position on Clifton Cay.
     You will remember Mr. President that developers Chaffin & Associates and the Bechtel Corporation proposed to develop the last wilderness of 600 acres on the western end of New Providence into a golf course, and a gated community right next to Lyford Cay.  This announcement brought howls of protest from the Bahamian people. The Bahamian people have scuttled this project.
     The development of Clifton caused the Bahamian people to re-examine their heritage.  There were guided tours of the features of Clifton community including its environment, its anthropological heritage and the social history of Clifton, including the artifacts, remains and archeological finds that date back to the pre-Columbian times in The Bahamas.  There are the remains of three cultures to be found on the site: the Lucayans, the aboriginal inhabitants, the English settlers and their slaves.
     Perry Christie, the Leader of the Opposition was so impressed by the evidence of the environmental and historical importance of the site that he developed in conjunction with colleagues the statement on Clifton Cay on the beach at Clifton.
     Mr. Christie said: “We are firmly of the view that the Clifton Cay property is too sacred a component of the history and cultural heritage of The Bahamas, too valuable a part of the natural environment, and too central to the future social planning needs of Bahamians, to be sacrificed on the altar of real estate profiteering for the benefit of the foreign few at the expense of the many.
     “We hereby put Chaffin & Associates, the Bechtel Corporation and all other partners or financiers of the proposed Clifton Cay Development project on public notice that when the PLP regains power following the next general election, we shall forthwith rescind all building approvals and permits which may have been issued by the FNM Government for that project.  Any construction then in progress will be terminated immediately and no new construction will be permitted.
     “Further, we will simultaneously take the necessary steps under the Acquisition of Land Act to compulsorily acquire in the public interest all of the land that would have been sold to the developers.  In so doing, we will of course, pay compensation in accordance with the provisions of the act and the constitution of The Bahamas.”
     That remains the position of the PLP today on the matter.
     Last year Mr. President, this House together with that other place passed a resolution approving the transfer of the land owned by the Government by acquisition back to Nancy Oakes, its rightful owner.
     Of course what we say is that the PLP will acquire the land for use as a World Heritage site.
     Mr. President, the Bahamian people voiced their disapproval of this project on many levels.  They reasserted their right to have access to the beaches for recreational purposes.  Clifton has one of the last big stretches of beaches open to the public.  They reasserted their right to their heritage.  Clifton has historic ruins, slave houses and plantation houses.  They reasserted their view that the environment must be protected. It enlivens the public debate about land use in The Bahamas and in New Providence.
     In this House while speaking on the subject, I raised the issue of the folly of the approval of this project given the record of the failures of land developers in The Bahamas who have come here with promises of development, only to sell land to buyers who hold the land for speculation and do nothing and who now cannot be found.  The list is easily verifiable: San Andros development in North Andros, Columbus Landings in San Salvador, Cape Eleuthera in Eleuthera; Bahama Sound in Exuma; Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands; Coral Harbour in Nassau.  If you visit these developments you will find roads and buildings all abandoned, the developers have long since disappeared and the country is no better off for this so-called development.
     I believe it is that which caused the residents of Lyford Cay to revolt as well.  Indeed it is said that much of the money that came for the opposition to the Clifton Cay development came from the Lyford Cay owners who were concerned about a down market development next to their upmarket homes.  Whatever the reason, it was the right public policy by the PLP to scuttle this project.
    I believe that a select committee of the Senate could investigate how this project came about and who stood to benefit from it.  For example, there were suspicions voiced about the lack of enthusiasm for the environmental strictures required by the BEST Commission.  That Commission then headed by Lynn Holowesko, now a Senator and a former head of the Bahamas National Trust was criticized for not being serious and strict enough with regard to the environmental impact that this project was going to have on The Bahamas.  Their alleged lack of watchfulness and a full-scale abuse of power at the level of the Bahamas National Trust led to a revolt at the Trust meeting following their approval to the Government of that project.  The Bahamas National Trust later reversed itself and said that the project would be harmful to The Bahamas.
     And so a select committee would have the responsibility of seeing whether or not the public actors in this business performed their duties as they were supposed to perform them.
     But the larger issues loom before us.  I told this House last week of my visit to Long Island.  Long Island is as we speak being parceled up in subdivisions.  There is no land use plan.  And we know that Long Island was a major island for the settlement of Lucayan peoples.  You will remember that it was the island that gave us the two pristinely preserved ceremonial duhos, the ceremonial seat of the chief of the Lucayans that now reposes in the archives.  There must be some kind of land use programme developed for Long Island and other islands before it is too late.  A select committee could speak to those issues.
Senator Wilchcombe has a special interest in Bimini. There, Gerrado Capo of Treasure Cay has been allowed through his development company to rape the land in North Bimini.  It is an ecological disaster in that already the scientists are reporting a drop off in the shark populations that they have been studying in and around Bimini.  This is of great concern to the persons who make their living off fishing.  Both the National Trust and the Government have completely turned a bind eye to this development that is harming North Bimini.
    But I think that the Select Committee can also investigate what communities in New Providence and the other islands ought to be studied and are of significant archeological, anthropological, historical or cultural significance, and recommend that the Museum and Antiquities Corporation be given the task, together with the Department of the Archives to continue their research into these areas for the benefit of the Bahamian people.
    You will not be surprised if I put on my list the community of Fox Hill.  Fox Hill as you know is the largest of three unique communities in New Providence that are said to have been settled originally by freed slaves.  At the time of abolition in 1834, there were 10,000 African slaves in The Bahamas.  But what may surprise you is that there were also 6000 liberated Africans living in The Bahamas.  The liberated Africans settled in Gambier and in Adelaide around 1831 following a decision of then Governor Sir James Carmichael Smythe to set aside an area for liberated Africans to live.  The liberated Africans got there because the British outlawed the slave trade in 1807 and the British Navy captured slavers and freed the slaves and settled them at the nearest British port.   The Morris family is said to be one of the families that came to The Bahamas as liberated Africans and who settled at Gambier.  Fox Hill continues the tradition of celebrating Emancipation Day as does the community of Gambier.  They also celebrate Fox Hill day one week later.  That is a celebration unique to Fox Hill by the Baptist Churches in the community that celebrates the heritage of the people of Fox Hill.
    There is a town centre at Fox Hill.  The Fox Hill Parade was developed in 1988 by George Mackey to start a new town centre.  The idea was to develop this traditional part of Fox Hill and a bi-partisan citizen’s community came together to do so.  That of course was under a PLP administration.  And as soon as the FNM administration came into being the idea was abandoned.  So that today there are less services available to the people of Fox Hill and the surrounding eastern community than there were in 1992.
    The representative for the area has virtually abandoned the people that she lived amongst.  In fact many of the people of Fox Hill were concerned that she fought so hard to get a piece of Fox Hill taken out of the constituency of Fox Hill, that one wondered what she was up to.  It was most incredible.
    But today Mr. President if you visit Fox Hill, you will find that while the community is still intact, it was not for the work of this administration.  They have done everything to destroy that community.  They have removed the services of BaTelCo from Fox Hill.  They do not clean the parks and playgrounds on a regular basis.  The parks require constant maintenance and that maintenance is not done.  As soon as the FNM administration came to office they discontinued the services of regular attendants at the parks.  The seat has been an FNM seat for five years.  Those decisions taken in 1992 have not been reversed.  Now that the election is here they have finally pushed down the brush from the roadsides.  And in that small polling division that the representative was fighting so hard to keep out of Fox Hill, that voted PLP in 1997, the Government has refused to pave the roads.
    So this administration has attempted to gut Fox Hill of its identity.  It did not pay attention to the development of the Fox Hill festival.  It gave no support to its elected representative to ensure that the community’s traditions continued.
But persons of good will like Eric Wilmott, a son of the Fox Hill soil has struggled on valiantly to keep up the traditions.  Further one must thank the church for its role; men like Rev. J Carl Rahming, Rev David Johnson. Bishop Austin Saunders, Rev Carrington Pinder, Fred Ramsey,  Richard Moss, Dr Philip Rahming, Pastor David Johnson, Bishop John L. Ferguson, Monsignor Preston Moss, Fr Crosey Walkine.  And then of course, the former representatives George Mackey and Frank Edgecombe.
    We on this side pledge to do differently for the community of Fox Hill and for the other liberated African communities like Gambier and Adelaide. That heritage of this country must be protected.  I think a Select Committee will go a long way in bringing these matters to the attention of the public.
    The Ministry of Tourism ought to look into the development of the blue hole at Fox Hill as a tourist site.  It is one of the more beautiful natural formations in the country, and should not go unnoticed.  It is unacceptable that a feature that was well known to Fox Hillians one generation ago is now being lost to the present generation.  That ought to be reversed.
Samuel Fox was a free African slave according to Gladys Manuel who wrote a brief history on Fox Hill.  It is believed that he came to the colony during the pre emancipation period.  We do know that slaves were freed in the colony as early as 1733 and that Samuel Fox may have already moved to the far-eastern region of New Providence Island in 1752 where he settled on property said to be situate where St. Augustines Monastery now stands.  Fox was officially granted 23.5 acres of land in 1801 and the community in the vicinity of his estate was to become known as Fox Hill.
    On an 1850 map of Sandilands Village, Fox Hill Village is marked as the section east of James Jarrett’s land.  This is now known as Burnside Town.  And it is that Burnside Town Mr. President that the FNM administration in 1997 took out of the Fox Hill constituency so as to distort the political result in the constituency and which they have refused to put back in the constituency.  It is bordered by St. Anselm's on the east and Adderley Street in the West and Step Street on the north.
I believe Mr. President that this Committee can go far in its recommendations.  Because ultimately we have to find some way to preserve our heritage in a practical way.  I believe that this will mean bringing local Government to New Providence.  It is clear that the national Government is unable to adequately maintain New Providence.  To do this, I would suggest that New Providence be divided into four countries.  The counties ought to be made up of 6 constituencies each.  The constituencies can be named after the national heroes of the Bahamas like Pindling, Butler, Wallace-Whitfield, and Johnson.   Elections would be held every three years.  Real Property Tax revenues would be collected and levied by the local authorities.  They would elect a Board and a Mayor, and the legislative authority for upkeep and maintenance, for licencing within the county will all be the responsibility of that Mayor and his council.
    My own view is that there will then be stricter and more direct enforcement of environmental laws, and issues like noise pollution and pollution by illegal fires can all be addressed through local enforcement.  And in the Bahamas there is no more vexing problem to residents that the inability of unwillingness of the Department of Environmental Health to be able to keep the high bushes down and also to ensure that garbage is not being dumped in residential areas.
     Mr. President, I will now lay on the table copies of two papers: A Short History of Fox Hill by Gladys Manuel and People with Grateful hearts by George Mackey.  I think that these are interesting texts and I recommend that each member get a copy and read them.
     I so move.