The Tribune

By ADRIAN GIBSON

ajbahama@hotmail.com

EVERY now and again, I like to feature Bahamians who are making sense in their everyday lives and offer sensible input in issues of national concern. I have a great appreciate for anyone who speaks from the heart and candidly.

Today, one such person is former independent candidate for Bamboo Town Craig Butler, who levelled scathing criticisms at the current government and expressed some disappointment in the mishandling of certain matters of national importance.

Recently, I had a chat with Mr Butler about a number of matters. He expressed concern about the high rate of interests that Bahamians are “burdened down with paying to commercial banks.”

“If the government was serious about helping people, they would lower the prime rate from 4.75 per cent to two per cent and that would automatically bring down all the interest rates in the country,” Mr Butler said.

The one-time PLP national treasurer further said that the country will go “belly up” if the government continues its spending trends since there is “no tax base to support our spending.”

“The government has a recurrent annual income of $1.5 or so billion, with recurrent expenditure of some $2.1 billion. No matter how it’s sliced, the government is in a deficit of some $400-$600 million. When you count the government backed loans, that then takes our national debt closer to $7 billion—just think of those loans to BEC, to students, to Water and Sewerage, to Bahamasair, etcetera!” Mr Butler exclaimed.

He went on: “If you want to do something to help the Bahamian people, there is a need to look at government procurement. There is no centralised procurement system and so we’re not taking advantage of the economies of scale like we could. Look at it, all the ministries and ministers are just doing their own thing! We have $300 million of pure wastage on an annual basis, via government kickbacks and the like! And, there is a non-transparent tender process, which ends in all the money being kept at the top and split among the good ole boys. Why can’t we have a real transparent acquisition of goods and services, distributed among many people and clear for the public to see. Plenty people can make a living and have a little money, but we put most of the contracts and so on in the hands of less than 10 per cent of the people.”

In examination the current political landscape, Mr Butler declared that “tribalism stinks in this country.” He said that due to political partisanship, “you can’t get nothing because you are branded.”

According to the former Bamboo Town hopeful, he would often hear people commenting: “Boy, this is a PLP government and we can’t give him nothing; boy, that’s an FNM idea and we can’t take that!”

“Why do we have to have policy shifts per minister, sometimes within the same government? We are not mature as a people. You know what’s so funny, when one considers that the same road problem that the PLP was deriding when the FNM was in power, one can only ask how much money have they borrowed since? They were talking about foreigners having jobs, how many Bahamians have they put in place since? I still see Jose Cartelliones vehicles all over the place. They did nothing to change the problem!” he said.

In scrutinising the PLP’s 2012 general election campaign’s promises to take back BTC, juxtaposed to what actually happened, Craig Butler erupted in laughter and described it as “lame and laughable at best.”

“They talked so bad about the BTC sale. They claimed that they would’ve gone after the two per cent. Tell me, if you truly acquired two per cent, how was it acquired? Do you call acquiring two per cent the placement of money in a trust fund? You did not gain any additional voting rights or seats on the Board, so what are you talking about? You still don’t control the two per cent anyway! Come on man, let’s stop with the foolishness!” he remarked.

In discussing the fire at the dump, Mr Butler—an attorney and businessman—said: “There are ways that the garbage dump can be used to produce all kinds of energy, to make money for the country, to create jobs. But, Ken Dorsett (the Minister of Housing and the Environment) was on air talking air about all these different people who are coming in to convert the garbage to energy—foreigners—when Bahamians such as Keno Cambridge can offer input and perhaps invest in doing the same.”

Relative to tourism, Mr Butler did seem to think that more can be done.

“Our tourist product is lacking. The hotels are saying that there’s a need for more airlift. The airports throughout the islands are rundown and already running close to capacity. We need alternative means of bringing people to this country. What about broader use of ferry services? Why are we not approving facilities for people to be brought in by ferry—and I’m not just talking about people coming here on a cruise ship for three hours to spend $100 dollars? I’m talking about people coming here for a few days to spend more serious money,” he asserted.

Craig Butler—who served as the former treasurer of the PLP under Mr Christie—mockingly referred to the Prime Minister’s recent utterances when he said “that the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance have not had an opportunity to talk yet.”

“If there was ever cause for concern, that one statement was major cause for concern,” Mr Butler said. Here, it appeared that the PM was suggesting that both portfolios were held by two separate persons when both are held by him leading to persons such as Mr Butler derisively referring to the comment.

On crime, Mr Butler—a grandson of the country’s first Governor General Sir Milo Butler— seemed to have taken a position where he not only felt that the fear of crime was being politically exploited, but that the root cause was due to a lack of education and poor parenting.

“Given the state of crime in this country, I hope that Bahamians who cast ballots every five years have now learnt and fully understand that crime is not to be used as a political football because neither the PLP nor the FNM has an answer to criminality. Despite all of the PLP’s protestations whilst in opposition, saying that they can solve the crime problem, crime remains the same and I daresay we’ve actually seen an increase in criminality regardless of whatever massaged figures they choose to level at us. Again, I repeat, as I said during the election campaign, if we do not address this via educational initiatives to equip our young men and women to enter the work force and earn a reasonable income, we’re doing nothing more than supplying a platoon of soldiers on an annual basis to the drug and crime lords!” the attorney said.

Lastly, in addressing the controversy concerning embattled VAT spokesman Ishmael Lightbourne, Craig Butler said his view was not as harsh as others, saying:

“A lot has been said of Ishmael Lightbourne and him owing more than $100 thousand in taxes. I’m not about to jump on Mr Lightbourne because he has outstanding taxes. I can understand how it could be. Many of us have gone through hard times in recent years. The question that affects Mr Lightbourne is whether or not he should’ve been appointed to the position as the person to explain VAT in light of the fact that he is documented to have allegedly fallen prey to a scam some time ago. How much of his personal wealth did he lose then, if any? The question then is, since the Prime Minister likes to say that he’s the PM of second chances, was this then a second chance granted to Mr Lightbourne? And, if so, how does the fact that he (Lightbourne) owes all these taxes weigh on the PM’s decision to leave him in the position? Was the PM unaware that Mr Lightbourne is alleged to have experienced financial loss in such a scam?”

Indeed, Craig Butler’s blunt and outspoken point of view was refreshing.....and whether one agrees or not, one must credit him for not cowering to the whims of being politically correct.