Editor,
It’s a standard expectation here in The Bahamas and I’m sure just about all all over the world, that voters are accustomed to politicians and their allies making big and daring guarantees to them about high-browed plans to make their lives higher while encouraging the economic and societal advancements of the nation, once elected. This can be a sad refrain that has played out in our wonderful nation for successive a long time ad nauseam.
Now we have had five Prime Ministers since Independence in 1973. The best one, to date, for my part, bar none, would have been the late great and deeply lamented, Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling. The person was a visionary and had a Messianic personality and traits. He knew almost instinctively what he desired to bring about for all Bahamians.
He surrounded himself with a gaggle of men and ladies who, initially, appeared to share in his vision and who worked in locked step with him to bring it about. Unkind individuals viewed him with suspicion and suspected that he had dictatorial ambitions. Well, I do recall way back within the Nineteen Eighties when Pindling proposed a National Youth Service.
His political opponents dismissed this suggestion out of hand and accused him of looking for to determine his own private army. He was laughed to scorn and demonized to the fullest extent. This concept was shelved and most of us have lived long enough to truly watched and witnessed the event and growth of the ‘armies’ of the gangs. These so-called ‘armies of the gangs’ have now morphed into the fabled Hydra or seven-headed monsters and are wreaking havoc and mayhem throughout the nation we love a lot.
The opposite three Prime Ministers, God bless them collectively, would even have made multiple guarantees while looking for to attain and secure political power. Ingraham was a workaholic. Christie was a pure showboater. He made guarantees that he should have known that might not be fulfilled on this lifetime. Minnis was a literal wrecking ball and purveyor of doom and gloom even before the antics, for my part, of the ultimate days of his ill-fated interregnum.
He was merely holding the seat of PM warm pending the inevitable ascendency of the Hon. Philip ‘Brave’ Davis, QC, MP After Brave would have solidified his unchallenged leadership of the New PLP, following Christie’s unceremonious rejection by the electorate in 2017, he swiftly laid out a plan of motion and agitation that brought concerning the calculated demise of the now rump FNM and it’s then maximum leader.
Brave, like all contenders before him, made quite a few guarantees on the campaign trail. Unlike the majority of them, he has, to date, kept near 90% of what he committed to. He told and promised us that his incoming administration would stop; review and cancel the ‘bad deal’ with the Grand Lucayan Hotel over in Freeport. The FNM and Minnis spent countless thousands and thousands of dollars purchasing the largest white elephant ever seen in The Bahamas.
Minnis and his people then acquired a badly dilapidated and ran-down so-called airport that looked like a war zone for thousands and thousands more. To this very date few, if anyone, knows what Minnis and his people spent and ‘wasted’ on these boneheaded schemes. We do know, nonetheless, that they made an absolute mess of each acquisitions. Brave had promised to repair each of them and he’s now doing so. The so-called contract to sell the hotel has been dropped at an abrupt end. The airport is currently been marketed by the Davis administration to draw serious and deep-pocketed partners from throughout the private sector. Guarantees made…guarantees kept.
Brave had also assured the those that once he and the New PLP were elected that they’d review the information and statistics relative to the gradual reopening of the economy and our borders. Inside weeks of coming to office, they’ve fulfilled these guarantees. The national economy is now booming to the extent where in certain sectors there are expert labor shortages. Most able-bodies Bahamians, even in challenged Grand Bahama are capable of secure a least one job while in some Islands, like Abaco and Exuma unemployment, is alleged to be in the one digits. Guarantees made…guarantees kept.
With the reopening of the nation, we have now yet to see or feel the doom and gloom points of the dire predictions made by Minnis and diverse FNM Ministers of Health. Minister Renward Wells loves to evangelise and teach about ‘herd immunity’. He was rejected, wholesale, together with just about all of his then colleagues within the House of Assembly. Dr. Duane Sands, whom Minnis removed as Minister of Health, was badly defeated and mauled up in his ‘favored’ Lizzie. He’s now creased up as National Chairman of the FNM, with no apparent shame.
Because the border restrictions were removed by the Davis administration, multiple thousands and thousands of tourists have visited The Bahamas and I submit that there are thousands and thousands more just across the bar panting to travel here. Hotels are packed to the brim. Passenger loads on aircraft carriers servicing The Bahamas are filled to capability. All of our major airports are bustling and ticking like clockwork. Major airlines like Sun Wing and American Airlines at the moment are back or soon will likely be in Bahamian skies. Guarantees made…guarantees kept.
Food stores while still challenged with availability and selectivity of some major favorite brands, are well stocked and costs, surprising, on some items have dropped dramatically, especially throughout the Super Value and Quality Food Stores. An enormous because of Mr. Rupert Roberts and his beloved daughter, Mrs. Candy Roberts-Kelly, Managing Director with distinction. Guarantees made…guarantees kept.
In opposition, the new PM and his team executed a Memorandum of Understanding with several umbrella trade unions and their affiliates. Brave promised them that their mutual interest could be higher served if all relevant parties were onboard, jointly, for nation-building. He promised harmonious negotiations on critical labor issues.
Now, we just witnessed a historic industrial agreement being executed between the Davis administration and an educators union, that evolved out of the Bahamas Union of Teachers with generous advantages and salaries. Guarantees made…guarantees kept
While Belinda Wilson and Kemsly Ferguson (of one other so-called umbrella union) are hosting wild cat walkouts and withdrawal of labor, despite pending legal matters) are respiratory fire and brimstone, The Bahamas Nurses Union led by a really able President. also just executed a long-elusive three years contract, with generous advantages and perks. Minnis is a medical doctor so one would have assumed that he ‘felt’ the frustration; pain and suffering of our hard-working nurses throughout the occupation.
Minnis dissed them, out of hand, are was wont to speak right down to them like little children. Brave got here into office promising a greater relationship. Guarantees made….guarantees kept. Each of the above unions are affiliated with Mr. Obie Ferguson’s Trade Union Congress, lower than a 12 months into the Davis administration. While others, who should know higher, are jumping up and down like Jack-In-the-Box and making unacceptable and blatantly unnecessary threats.
Obie is bringing home, literally, the bacon and beef sausage for his affiliates. Messrs. Wilson and her affiliated teams didn’t log out on the Memorandum and, in actual fact, vehemently denounced and deride it! Now, they’re, in the interim, on the surface looking in; fuming and beating their cardboard chests. Guarantees made…guarantees kept.
What Brave and his administration have completed in just a few short months, Ingraham, Christie, and Minnis found it difficult to bring about in all the collective years that they’d have been keeping the seat of prime minister warm for Brave, the people’s champion. More guarantees made are about to be fulfilled before the tip of this blessed and productive month of August, The Lord Jesus Christ willing. Guarantees made…guarantees kept. Thanks Prime Minister.
Ortland H. Bodie, Jr.
Business Consultant & Talk Show Host
