This Labour government has no moral authority to interfere with citizens’ privacy
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, August 23, 2010 (PAM Secretariat) - As the nation awaited the result of the most recent General Election, held in January, on a panel of pundits discussing the unfolding events over the long election night Sir Probyn Inniss, eminent scholar, lawyer and former governor voiced his discomfort at the prospect of an elected dictatorship taking shape in these two hitherto halcyon islands. He was speaking about the shocking conduct that occurred in Half Way Tree and the cruel sham that masquerades as an electoral process but it is doubtful that even he contemplated that before this year was through this Federation would even contemplate much less actualize the power of government to violate the personal correspondence of an individual.
The Constitution of this Federation expressly protects the right of every person to privacy. In s 3 it states “whereas every person in Saint Christopher and Nevis is entitled to the fundamental rights and freedoms, that is to say, the right, c) protection for his personal privacy”. In s 12 it also protects the freedom to conduct private communication as the freedom of expression. It states that “except with his own consent, a person shall not be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions without interference, freedom to receive ideas and information without interference, freedom to communicate ideas and information without interference (whether the communication is to the public generally or to any person or class of persons) and freedom from interference with his correspondence”.
The Constitution also outlines the conditions under which a government may with the permission and supervision of the High Court abridge these fundamental rights and freedoms namely those “reasonably required in the interests of defence, public safety, public order, public morality or public health” but only if “the things done under the authority thereof are shown to be reasonably justifiable in a democratic society”.
It is clear the constitution foresees both that special circumstances may arise that require extraordinary responses and that even then it is important that governments do not have a blank cheque for no circumstance justifies arbitrary power. The proposed new law is intended we are told to deal with the explosion of criminality but such an assertion is extremely unconvincing. This Labour government has absolutely no credibility in its dealing with the crime scourge.
It has consistently refused to recognize the current situation as a crisis. The Prime Minister has infamously refused to take responsibility for crime and has declared that his tenure as Minister of National Security which saw the highest number of homicides in a calendar year, 27 in 2009; was a success. There have been 102 violent, mostly gun related homicides from 2006 to the present time and hardly any have been solved. The Commissioner of Police has had to complain to the BBC about the detrimental lack of resources given the police force to tackle crime. The police force has been politicized out of any semblance of professionalism or efficiency and abused verbally by the Prime Minister himself in parliament and in the inhumane conditions they are forced to work under. The former parliamentarian Mr. Astaphan has publicly revealed how him plans and programs as Minister of National Security were deliberately undermined and sabotaged by this Labour government and with the crime rate rising the budgetary allocation to this vital Ministry has actually been reduced in 2008 and 2010.
Basic interventions like consistent visible police patrols, enforcement of law against loitering on the streets which just creates targets, destruction of derelict buildings that are gang hideouts, putting the faces of convicts in public places and so on have been resolutely ignored but precious constitutional rights are to be infringed for “defense”. The only defense this Denzil Douglas administration is interested it is the defense of its own illegitimacy and power to rape the Treasury. The evidence for this is clear and not only in Half Way Tree. Citizens must rally to preserve constitutional rights or soon there may not be any fundamental rights and freedoms.
