Crime Matters Most

The portfolio of Attorney General has been held temporarily by Minister of Foreign Affairs Brent Symonette since the resignation of former Attorney General Michael Barnett who was appointed Chief Justice. The first Attorney General of the new administration was Mrs. Claire Hepburn, now a Supreme Court Justice

In addition to the usual matters in the portfolio of the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr. Delaney’s portfolio will also include Relations with the Financial Services Industry and the Bahamas Financial Services Board as well as responsibility for Promotion and Development of Financial Services.

The 45-year-old Mr. Delaney received his early education at St. Augustine’s College in Nassau and earned his LL.B. degree from the University of Birmingham and a Master of Laws degree from the University of London, England. He was admitted to the English Bar in 1987 as a Barrister of Lincoln’s Inn.   Later the same year he was called to the Bahamas Bar. 

Prior to these appointments, Mr. Delaney was a member of the law firm of Higgs & Johnson and managing partner since 2007.  He specializes in commercial litigation and financial services law and has for years been cited by international legal directories as a leader in his field.

Now that Senator John Delaney has been sworn in as the nation’s newest Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, we pray and hope that he wastes no time in becoming as familiar – as he could and should – with the innermost workings of that troubled office.

Those who would serve in any post that requires high competence should be – to say the least – sufficiently qualified to hold such a position. With this as our axiom, we presume that John Delaney is sufficiently qualified to hold the post of Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs.

As we wish this man well in the post to which he has been called, we draw reference to some criticism we have heard [ none of which bears directly on Attorney John Delaney; but which relates directly to the fact that in a period that does not exceed thirty months, the nation has had some four attorneys general.

This revolving door approach to such a vital post clearly does not bode well for a ministry that is so dreadfully important to the government itself and to the wider society.

As we recognize that the business of the state continues regardless, we remain somewhat chagrined at how the post of Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs has had to be treated in the past short while.

Now that the deed has been done – and that the record now shows that Senator Delaney is the Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, the Bahamian Nation waits to see what difference – if any – this new man will make in that office.

We wish him well.

But even as we wish this newest Attorney General well, we counsel and caution that unlike some other posts, this one does not come with a time for learning-on-the job attached somewhere in the fine print.

This new attorney general must – if he can – demonstrate that he has what it takes so as to bring some relief to an office that has been wracked with strife, burdened with responsibilities beyond its capacity and [as some routinely complain] burdened, over-worked and underpaid.

Then there are all those immediately pressing concerns as regards a justice system that is broken; and one which is clearly in need of urgent overhaul.

Added to these generalized concerns, there are all those other inter-related issues pertaining to a national economy that is struggling to cope with any number of unprecedented challenges. Like other nations that are struggling, the Bahamas has been – as the saying goes – ‘trying its endeavor-best’.

The political response they get – as should be expected – is to the effect that their best is just not good enough.

For the moment, this is neither here nor there since the people will – when the time is both right and ripe – have their chance to express themselves in elections that are reasonably free and fair.

Meanwhile, crime is still on the foot throughout our beloved land. And as the predation continues, an expectant and increasingly troubled public watches and waits to see and hear what the government proposes to do about the problem.

Despite the fact that we now have a new Attorney General, crime still matters most.