Bahama Pundit

The Crisis of Leadership: Perry Christie & Hubert Minnis

by Simon

It is often a cliché to speak of a crisis of leadership in the political arena, a claim made by ancients and moderns alike. 

And yet, at the start of 2013 and approaching the fortieth anniversary of independence, we are beset by arguably the weakest and most incapable leadership at the helm of the major political parties since 1973.  

This is not an argument for a third party, especially as none of the current groupings offer much by way of leadership.    

Hands down, the governing Progressive Liberal Party is now led by the most lacklustre and unimpressive prime minister in an independent Bahamas.  At the end of last year, Perry Christie was again entertaining audiences with his signature Junkanoo shuffle.

The Christie shuffle is characterized by a frenzy of activity of limited duration, a fit of ersatz passion and performance art, and gyrating in place, giving the appearance of motion.  It is a fitting metaphor of his prime ministership since his return to office last May: Plenty activity but little forward motion.

At least Christie is able to project the illusion of leadership, much as the Wizard of Oz projected the illusion of omnipotence, at least for a spell.

For his part, Dr. Hubert Minnis is unable to disguise that he holds the joint distinction as the most unimpressive Leader of the Opposition and as the least capable Leader of the Free National Movement.

Despite Low Turn-out, Bahamians Vote Down Legal Gaming

by Larry Smith

The internet arrived in the Bahamas in 1995. The government drafted its first e-commerce policy in 1999. And by the early 2000s, so-called web cafes were scattered across the island. The shops were licensed to provide internet access to the public - with no overt promotion of gambling.

A new generation of Numbers chiefs had developed sophisticated online gaming software based on computer servers outside the Bahamas, where gambling was legal. Customers here could use the internet for anything they wanted, but the web shop's gaming home page appeared on every screen and most people understood exactly why the web shops existed. 

Fact is, anyone can sign up for an account from any computer anywhere to participate in a variety of gaming activities. For example, Island Luck's home page features poker, casino-style games and sports betting, in addition to a numbers lottery.

It's head office is in Malta, but it claims 15 web shops on New Providence, Exuma, Abaco and Grand Bahama. The number of web shops in the Bahamas has grown annually over the past 15 years, with 28 said to have been licensed by the government in January 2012. 

Bahamians gamble with impunity because of two factors. First, the authorities have never bothered to enforce the law with any vigour. Second, the Numbers business is now mostly electronic, and the Lotteries and Gaming Act was not designed for this. So our Bahamian web shops have become part of a booming global online industry worth more than $30 billion annually. 

It is interesting to look back at how the politically very well-connected Bahamas Uncensored website described the gaming situation in 2003:

Seven Reasons to Vote NO on Web Shops!

by Simon

There has been considerable confusion surrounding next week’s referendum, which was postponed from last year because of a lack of good and proper process.  Besides the confusion created by the incompetence associated with conducting the poll, there remain many questions of ethics and policy about the two questions.

There are various compelling reasons to Vote NO on the question of legalizing web shops, seven of which are offered in this week’s column, and which readers may wish to pass on to others. 

The overriding argument is that a national lottery is in the better interest of the Bahamian people, while legalizing web shops is not in the national interest.

Bahamians to Vote on Home-Grown Gambling Industry

by Larry Smith

For some, this whole gambling referendum controversy is a storm in a tea pot, a mountain from a molehill, a monumental waste of money, time and energy, and so much ado about nothing.

"No matter what you do in the Bahamas, people are gonna find something wrong with it," said one of those I surveyed. "This is a simple matter of individual choice - we should be able to do what we want, within reason. It's just like the nonsense they spouted about Sunday shopping.

"Maybe we shouldn't have let web shops proliferate, but we did and that's the reality now. Try to close them and they will set up a system where you can gamble on your phone. Their assets are outside the jurisdiction, and they are very sophisticated."

As for the question of public information and transparency, "Colorado recently voted to legalise marijuana, but are only now setting up a task force to figure out how to regulate it. Why spend time and effort on that in advance?"

The Bahamas Faces The Devil's Excrement

by Larry Smith

The Bahamas National Trust featured an unusual public presentation last week - on the subject of oil exploration and transportation. 

It is a theme that has all but vanished from public view in recent months, as we try to focus on the blurred gambling issues, but former College of The Bahamas geography lecturer Neil Sealey neatly brought it back into perspective.

A Bahamian who was born in the historic British naval town of Portsmouth, Sealey was an officer in the merchant marine from 1957 to 1964, working on cargo and passenger ships operated by the British India Steamship Navigation Company, once the world's largest merchant fleet. 

One of the vessels Sealey sailed on was the Ellenga, a 48,000-ton crude oil tanker chartered to British Petroleum. "Virtually all the tanker trade was from the Gulf to Mediterranean ports or the UK," Sealey told me after the presentation. "We did an occasional trip to the US, and sometimes picked up oil in the eastern Mediterranean - at Syrian or Lebanese ports."

After leaving the navy, Sealey completed a graduate course in geography at the University of London and began teaching, joining the COB in 1979. He has published several text books, and was part of the team that formulated the Bahamas General Certificate of Education curriculum in the early 1990s.

"Just like every other tanker back then," Sealey said, "the Ellenga's tanks were cleaned out regularly with high pressure hoses, and the oil, water and sludge was pumped over the stern. This produced most of the tar balls found on beaches around the world. It was not until the 1970s that new techniques were introduced and oil washings kept onboard to be discharged ashore at the next port."

The Progressive Spirit in Politics Today

by Simon

The progressive spirit and the movement for racial, gender and economic equality predate the formation of the Progressive Liberal Party in 1953.   Over the ensuing decades that spirit and the movement for equality were sometimes advanced by the party, though just as often abandoned or merely tolerated. 

The more gradualist, accommodationist and conservative mindset of the PLP’s founders were eventually superseded by a bolder progressive agenda and more aggressive politics thanks in large measure to the National Committee for Positive Action (NCPA) and others. 

Still, at critical junctures, Sir Lynden Pindling, a product of the relatively small black Bahamian middle class of his day, often proved cautionary and conservative as party leader and as head of government.  

It was Sir Milo Butler and others who pushed hardest on the course of direct action which came to be known as Black Tuesday.  While visiting London after becoming Premier, Sir Lynden was tentative about a date for independence.  It was Arthur Hanna who steeled Pindling’s back and who, among others, insisted on an earlier and firmer date for independence.

Notwithstanding the encomiums by the current PLP leadership of the leaders of the suffragette movement, a number of the leaders were cautious of the PLP for various reasons.  

Poaching and the Defence Force

by Larry Smith

"illegal poaching has put at risk our entire marine resources as it is done without regard to species, maturity or sustainability of the catch. Entire areas are wiped out by the poachers. We need to be serious about protecting this fragile industry so Bahamian fishermen can have a future in it." -- Ryan Pinder, November 2011

"We in the PLP have a comprehensive plan to secure our borders and deal with poaching. We have to do it because its the only way we can ensure that our fisheries and our fishermen are protected." -- Perry Christie, April 2012

Illegal fishing by Dominicans and others was one of the hot-button issues of last year's general election campaign.

Both the PLP and the FNM pledged to upgrade the Defence Force with more marines, ships and aircraft to address poaching. But fiscal realities have forced the government to cancel these proposed investments.

The scale of the problem can be judged from anecdotal evidence provided by fishermen, as well as by politicians - when they are out of power. For example, in 2011 then opposition MP Ryan Pinder (whose family is from the key fishing community of Spanish Wells) told parliament that Bahamians were being shot at by Dominican poachers.