The Tribune

EDITOR, TheTribune.

It seems to me that we have had a second “Quiet Revolution”. Last week, in discussing the majority ownership of shares in BTC at the Chamber of Commerce Conference, the prime minister referred to himself as follows: “I, the country…”.

The day before in his appearance before members of the Chamber of Commerce, the Prime Minister pronounced Sir Durward Knowles “a brave man” for having dared to say to him – Perry Christie – that while he (Knowles) was a dedicated Bahamian, he was an FNM and that neither he nor his children would ever vote for the PLP. Apparently, in Mr Christie’s world, you have to be “brave” to declare a political affiliation for a political Party other than his PLP!

We had only days prior learned that the prime minister could find no more important matter to raise at the Commonwealth Parliamentary meeting hosted in Nassau in recent days, than to announce his intention to cause the construction of a new Parliament building and an official residence for the prime minister.

In seeking to entrap the Leader of the Opposition into his plan (which he did) the prime minister noted that Dr Minnis should have an interest in these things as he might personally benefit from such a residence in the future. It seems to escape the prime minister that it is highly inappropriate to be talking about spending scarce public moneys (borrowed at that) on the development of non-essential infrastructure while so many essential public infrastructural needs remain unmet around our country. To offer as a reason for supporting the nonsense notion of a new residence for the personal enjoyment of a potential future prime minister is intolerable.

It occurs to me that in dealing with all these matters the Prime Minister is adopting the position of the self-indulgent French King Louis XIV, who claimed: “I am the state” - meaning ‘I have a ‘Divine’ right to rule and enjoy the fruits of ruling.

On Saturday past, the media reported that Mr Christie, glowing in the aura of developments in Bimini that date back to the 1990s, declared the following: “They are wondering about how old I am. Tell them how I look. They are concerned about whether I have energy. Tell them to challenge me.”

Well, we have looked and what we see is an old man with dyed black hair trying to convince somebody – anybody really – that, as he famously declared on the floor of the House of Assembly, “he is a gladiator”. God help and keep us!

MARGARET COOPER

Nassau,

April 6, 2014.