The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

When asked if the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) received a financial donation for its 2012 election campaign from Canadian billionaire and fashion mogul Peter Nygard, Prime Minister Perry Christie told The Tribune newspaper that he was unable to say so until campaign finance reform is finalised.

The most powerful man in the entire commonwealth of The Bahamas told the press that he needed permission to answer a simple, straightforward question. What would have been the consequences of him answering in the positive? Had he said yes to the question, what he had transgressed a law many Bahamians are oblivious of?

The whole idea of campaign finance reform is for having transparency on who exactly are the financial backers of the PLP and the Free National Movement and how much they donate to the parties.

This was the first of two off-the-wall statements Christie made.

Nygard has gone on record as stating he donated to the PLP. I take his word at face value. After all, why would he lie and what would he gain by lying?

For the past several weeks, the Nygard saga has been discussed ad-infinitum in the two major newspaper publications and by virtually every other media outlet in the country, to the extent that it has become overwhelmingly nauseating.

Like thousands of other Bahamians, I am tired of hearing about this Nygard story.

First, it was the numbers men, now it is Nygard. What next?

If the PLP keeps this up, the small man or the commoner who placed it in the government will begin to wonder if this party is only into wealthy people.

This country has spent at the minimum 13 months arguing about the wealthy numbers men and Peter Nygard when people in Farm Road are still relieving themselves in the bush and using toilet latrines.

The other astonishing and off-the-wall statement by the prime minister is him mentioning the fact that former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham flew around in Africa with Sol Kerzner and nobody has an issue with it, yet everybody wants to harp on his PLP MPs who went to Nygard Cay and met with Nygard.

If Christie wants to know why so many Bahamians are up in arms with the Nygard Cay visit, he should sit down in the front of his PC and Google up ‘‘Peter Nygard: Larger Than Life.’’

This is a 45-minute video documentary on the life of Nygard which was produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for its television news-magazine Fifth Estate. After watching this film, he will then understand the reason for the brouhaha.

Not wanting to put words into Christie’s mouth, for awhile there, though, I was beginning to wonder if he was comparing Nygard with Kerzner in The Tribune interview.

Somehow I have this gut feeling that Christie was itching to say that Nygard has made just as much contributions, if not more, to The Bahamas than Kerzner.

Few Bahamians would have an issue with Ingraham travelling with Kerzner.

You see, Kerzner’s Atlantis Paradise Island is the largest private employer in The Bahamas bar none. At any given time, Atlantis has in its employment 8,000 Bahamians, half of whom are probably PLPs. And these are good paying permanent jobs.

Indeed, it was the Kerzner brand which resuscitated this country’s dying tourism sector in the nineties.

When the Ingraham regime took office in August 1992, the tourism industry was in complete shambles, as even the current prime minister can attest to.

Atlantis has become a household name around the world; and has put The Bahamas back on the map as a leading tourist destination.

Had it not been for Atlantis, The Bahamas, particularly New Providence, would have been up the creek.

Kerzner has been good to The Bahamas. Any objective person who takes the time to evaluate the contributions of Kerzner to those of Nygard will see for himself that the contributions of the latter are hardly worth comparing to those of the former.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, Grand Bahama,

July 18, 2013.