The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

The sale of BaTelCo to a private foreign company is it a critical breach of trust and national security of the Bahamas as a free and sovereign nation?

In the wake of the recent, consistent and extended outages in telecommunication services by BTC, Bahamians need to consider whether or not the sale of the Bahamian owned BaTelCo by the Government to a private foreign company was in the best interest of Bahamians and the Bahamas as a nation.

The number one industry in the Bahamas is said to be tourism. It is a fact that tourism relies heavily on telecommunications provided by BTC. Banking is also another important industry in the Bahamas which also relies heavily on the telecommunication service provided by BTC.

Apart from residents, Bahamian businesses rely heavily on the telecommunication services provided by BTC.

Government agencies and departments rely heavily on the services provided by the BTC. Most importantly, the police, defense force, fire department, ambulances and other emergency agencies depend on the services provided by BTC.

It is obvious that any slight outage in telecommunications services provided by BTC, which the entire nation of the Bahamas is dependent upon, causes a significant disruption and loss to the nation as a whole.

Bahamians now need to consider if in fact the sale of BaTelCo to a private foreign company was a breach of the national security of the commonwealth of the Bahamas as a free and sovereign nation.

Unlike the Bahamas, where BTC has the monopoly on telecommunications services (Cable Bahamas also relies on BTC infrastructure), developed and industrialised countries provide for competition with telecommunication services and do not depend heavily on tourism and banking like the Bahamas.

Furthermore, developed countries have a separate telecommunications network separate and apart from the public network, secured and operated by the state and used specifically for military and government purposes. The big question is, why did the government of The Bahamas put the control of a government-owned, monopolistic telecommunication system, BaTelCo, in the hands of a privately owned foreign company who has no ties to the Bahamas? And whose sole interest is to make a big profit in a short period of time, and probably leave afterwards.

It seems as if a national crime has been committed and Bahamians deserves some explanation. It seems as if the sale of BaTelCo to a private foreign merchant was absolutely illegal and unethical, and the money paid to purchase BaTelCo needs to be returned to the buyers and BaTelCo returned to the Bahamian people, without any penalty to The Bahamas.

Otherwise, the sale of BaTelCo will go down in the annals of history as a breach of the national security of The Bahamas. It appears to be illegal and unethical to put the national security of The Bahamas in the hands of a privately owned foreign company, and make Bahamas vulnerable to the sabotage of their free sovereign nation. It appears as if BTC was apologetic to the nation for the recent outages by offering a five dollars credit to cell customers.

However, despite their sympathy to the nation, BTC has introduced a game plan for cell customers to win a Kia Rio car and other prizes.

The game plan deducts fifty cent ($0.50) for every answer correct or incorrect, and is guaranteed to collect almost three times the five dollars credit from every player. It seems as if they are handling the nation as fools and playing games with Bahamians.

There is nothing more important to the sovereignty of a nation than its National security. There is no easier way to breach the national security of a sovereign nation than to put the fate of its major industries and the quality of life of the citizens in the hands of a private foreign entity, especially in a monopolistic situation.

In this regards, Bahamians need to address the issue of the deterioration and sabotage of the quality of service in the interest of profitability, particularly in the monopolistic situation, to the extent of which it affects industries and quality of life of Bahamians as a sovereign nation.

Every undergraduate knows that profitability is the main interest and focus of private companies. Finally, Bahamians need to consider whether or not the sale of BaTelCo to a private foreign company was indeed a breach of national trust and national security, and if the sale was illegal and unethical to the sovereignty of the commonwealth of the Bahamas.

Word is that the present government has regained the controlling shares in BTC. The big question however is: at what cost to Bahamians and The Bahamas?

The belief is that the highly ambitious, foreign private company wants to expand its profitability by venturing into television broadcasting. To appease this interest, it is believed that the government had to throw in the ZNS corporation. First they get a leg; then in order to get control of your leg they had to get an arm; now they have a part of your arm and leg; despite the belief that the private company has sold off some of BaTelCo’s prime assets. Then you say “don’t worry over spilled milk,” and Bahamians should be happy. Are Bahamians really that foolish? I don’t k-no-w. Or are Bahamians bedazzled or bewitched?

But why was BaTelCo sold in the first instance, only to be bought back? Are the politicians playing games with Bahamians in order to tax them through VAT? With the profits from BTC Bahamians do not need VAT.

Since the government has regained the controlling shares, what is the name now? BaTeICoZNS. Does this mean more jobs for Bahamians?

SEE THE DANGER

Nassau,

April, 2014.