Tweedledum & Tweedledee in The Bahamas

by Larry Smith

“Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.” - Robert Louis Stevenson

Remember politics? Sure you do.

How can we forget? That ceaseless drip-drip drivel we have to put up with year in and year out.

And now that the political season has begun in earnest, the spigot has opened wide and we won’t be able to shut it off for quite a while.

Funny how Bahamians get so heated about politics when there are so few differences among those vying for our attention.

Perhaps Hubert Ingraham is more effective. But then Perry Christie seems more reasonable.

The PLP routed the racist Sands gang. But the FNM broke the corrupt Pindling gang. Both parties made some useful reforms, and then slid into arrogance and cronyism.

Christie and Ingraham are good buddies and former law partners. And both were Pindling proteges.

Both parties support foreign investment, and want to protect and expand our tourism and financial service industries. But both have failed to revive our top tourism asset – the airport – despite heavy pressure from the nation’s number one investor.

Both see no other option but to bribe self-indulgent voters with welfare that includes rising public service salaries and perks, social insurance and forced pensions, with few corresponding obligations.

But neither has any fresh ideas about how to fix our failed education system or modernise our backward society. And neither has been able to make our justice system work or enforce basic laws and regulations.

Both can sense the unease of most Bahamians towards the Haitian influx and fully understand what the consequences will be down the line, yet neither will take the necessary steps to confront our number one problem.

Neither have been able to reform the hardly working public service, and both kowtow shamelessly to self-interested labour leaders and other special interests while spurning the responsible advice of those who make our economy work.

Despite much talk, time and money, both have failed to privatise the bloated state corporations that retard our modernisation, waste our taxes and serve only as reservoirs of political patronage.

And neither party seems capable of drafting a strategic plan to guide national development.

Mr Ingraham had a slight heart attack. Mr Christie had a slight stroke. Both are around 60.

The retired Mr Ingraham returned to loud hurrahs as the “new” FNM leader, while the exiled Bernard Nottage returned in triumph to the PLP as the “new” leader-in-waiting.

The FNM’s “second generation” was leapfrogged by Mr Ingraham, just as the so-called PLP “comers” were brushed aside by Mr Nottage.

Mr Ingraham’s return was a political plot. Mr Nottage’s return was a political deal.

Longtime PLP Edison Key defected to the FNM. Longtime FNM Pierre Dupuch defected to the PLP. Both complained about their leaders. And both are white Bahamians.

The two wannabe parties – Cassius Stuart’s Bahamas Democratic Movement and Mr Nottage’s Coalition for Democratic Reform – are both non-viable, despite having some good things to say from time to time.

“Write about politics”, everyone says. Well, we just did.

Comments

[Rick Lowe]

If I were leader???
What an interesting proposition.
I would first reduce the size of parliament and implement real local government within our present system.
I would then immediately privatize as many of the government agencies, corporations and ministries - yes ministries - as I could.
This would reduce the tax burden and the runaway spending that continues unabated and unleash the entrpreneurial spirit more so than the original attempt at privatizing BaTelCo did.
Of course I would be voted out in the short term, - no the very short term - but the benefits to the country, and by extention its people, in the years ahead are more important than retaining power.

[Dr. Dexter Johnson Leader the BNP]

You missed one, but that's OK. In time you will get to know us well. Visit us at www.bahamianationalparty.com and see the first real major departure from the Pingdomite era. A departure from the current PLP and FNM, based in a definite and explained Philosophy, pledged to smaller government,land reform, solution to immigration and true local government. Look for yourself. Doubt now and join us in time.