THE NEWS MEDIA announced in the last few days that Dominica’s Prime Minister Mr Roosevelt Skerritt and a cabinet minister are to answer allegations about their dual citizenships.
The petitioner’s view is that, if the prosecution is successful, the two members should no longer sit in Parliament, they should step down from office and that the election should be declared null and void. This is despite the fact that the electorate in December 2009 voted 18-3 in favour of the present administration.
Apparently in Dominica, as in some of the other Caribbean countries, citizens with dual citizenship are not allowed to hold public office. The Dominican courts will rule on this matter in the coming weeks.
In the United States those holding dual citizenship can assume any office in the land except that of president. The founding fathers were worried that a non native born American citizen might be influenced by their old colonial masters. This has had the effect of denying many loyal and gifted Americans to this great office. Britain, on the other hand, has taken a totally different stand from most countries and has opened its political doors to all citizens, irrespective of whether they were born in the country.
The concern the news item from Dominica has raised is not the intricacies and interpretation of the constitution or the law, but rather the deafening silence from our legislators who have failed to address the issues of dual citizenship. This contributor has written at length on the topic (The Dilemma Of Citizenship – November 8, 2009 SUNDAY SUN) and is not proposing to go over the same ground.
Nevertheless it is becoming increasingly clear that many governments throughout the world have moved to accepting dual citizenship, with the exception of the Caribbean. We in this region are either not aware of the “bubbling” concerns of this issue or we consider the matter to be of low priority.
Unfortunately the problem seems to be getting worse as we have seen from recent reports from Haiti, Jamaica, Belize and now Dominica.
On the one hand, our political masters have rightly encouraged us to improve our education and working skills. Often this means living abroad for several years in uncomfortable surroundings, away from family and friends and living on a tight budget.
For some this represents a gruelling experience, made acceptable only by the expectation that the sacrifice will be worth it. For others the experiences have far exceeded their expectations and many decided to remain longer in their adopted country, even though they hope to return home at some point.
They may even take up full residence and citizenship.
To say now to these and other skilled groups that they cannot hold public office because of their dual citizenship is the height of silliness. It’s like saying a Dominican on taking up a Barbadian citizenship would be unable to hold public office in Dominica, his place of birth. Multiply this scenario across the 15 CARICOM countries and it becomes a recipe for social and economic unrest.
The sceptics among us might say the solution is to have a single citizenship across the region and perhaps we might call ourselves Caribbean. My difficulty is that I thought we were already.
But perhaps it was only a dream.
