The Tribune

IN June 2010, there was an interesting exchange in press statements between the then Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and Opposition leader Perry Christie. Their statements were made just after the Opposition had walked out of the House without voting on the Budget, which among other things would have decreased the salary of parliamentarians.

During the exchange, the issue of the completion of the BahaMar agreement came up — it was an agreement entered into by the PLP government, but not signed before the election removed them from office. The paper work was left for the Ingraham government to complete. Bahamian vs Chinese jobs became an issue, because the financing for the project was being provided by the China Export Import Bank and the China State Construction Company. Under the Christie government, it was estimated that the project would create 10,000 Bahamian jobs.

“When we approved it,” said Mr Christie, “there was no question then of 5000 or any other number of Chinese labourers. Indeed at that point in time there was no Chinese involvement at all. The PLP agreed to the project to enhance our tourism industry, diversify the tourism plant so as to create a strategic counterbalance to the dominance of Kerzner and Atlantis; and to create jobs.”

We find it hard to believe that the Christie government would have negotiated a contract up to the point of signing, but at no time was the question raised about Chinese labourers being imported to fill those jobs.

The Chinese are a smart people. They have a large population for which they too have to find employment. How better to create those 10,000 jobs for their own peasants than to employ them in whatever construction they are engaged in in a third world country — after all it is their money being spent on their own people. Not only is the labour cheap, but at the same time they are solving their own country’s labour problems. And what does the recipient country get? Well, in the case of the Bahamas, we received a magnificent sports stadium, and the BahaMar hotel, to open soon, which was created with another foreign investor. The partners as well as the country will benefit from the visitors it is hoped the modern hotel will attract.

Wherever the Chinese build in the world, they employ their own people — so we wonder about the depth of the discussions they had with Mr Christie if the major tenet of their investment-employment policy was never mentioned.

Based on the political rhetoric at the time, many local businesses expected a boost in business with the construction of BahMar – especially lumber yards with their building supplies. However, that’s not what one hears from that sector. “We aren’t even aware they are in town,” was the sarcastic remark of one construction supplier. “They import everything from China, they don’t even consider the locals.” And so the expected investment forecast from this enterprise has not been fully realised,

These are the same complaints coming out of Africa and the Caribbean islands in which the Chinese have invested.

Again during the June 14, 2010, exchange between Mr Ingrahram and Mr Christie, Mr Ingraham said that Baha Mar had “publicly stated that its arrangements under negotiations with the China Export Import Bank and the China State Construction Company includes a provision for the engagement of a large number of Chinese labourers on the project”.

Mr Ingraham said that his government was “committed to ensuring that foreign direct investment in our economy benefits Bahamians. It would be unconscionable for large numbers of foreign workers to be engaged in The Bahamas if large numbers of similarly skilled Bahamians are available to take up those jobs”.

Mr Ingraham had said that the matter of the number of foreign jobs that would be allowed would be a decision that government would not make without going to parliament. “It has been estimated,” he said, “that at some point there could be as many as two foreign workers for every one Bahamian worker. This contrasts with the ratio at the Kerzner International worksite, where at the height of construction seven out of every ten labourers were Bahamians.

“Mr Christie,” Mr Ingraham quipped, “while certain to seek credit as the ‘father’ of the BahaMar Project is already seeking to find shelter from becoming a part of a tough decision on the labour component for the construction of that project.” This is an issue on which Bahamians are very touchy.

Afterwards, Mr Christie commented to the press that as far as foreign workers for the BahaMar project was concerned, Mr Ingraham was “on his very own”.

That was true then, but it is not so now. Now, it’s Mr Christie turn to be on his own.

At the end of last month, Daniel Liu, China Construction Company’s senior vice-president, urged the government to quickly “make a decision” on the proposed masterplan to revitalise downtown Nassau. He described Bay Street as an “unfulfilled dream” for 50 years that, to date, had failed to move forward.

Now, however, a Chinese state-owned construction company — not a private Chinese investor — has bought the historic British Colonial Hilton, with plans to redesign downtown Nassau and turn it into a “Bahamian Riviera”.

In October, former deputy prime minister Brent Symonette expressed concerned that Bahamian businessmen who owned extensive property on Bay Street and who would certainly be affected by any decision entered into with the Chinese government, complained that the Chinese could receive instant answers and the “red carpet treatment” from the Christie administration, while Bahamian investors — like himself — had been waiting for the same answers for 30 years.

On his recent trip to China, Mr Christie took the opportunity to get a commitment from no less a person than Chinese president XI Jinping that the paradigm relative to the number of Chinese labourers would be changed to accommodate future projects in the Bahamas — including the Colonial Hilton. Apparently, Mr Christie has a commitment that 70 per cent of the workforce will be Bahamian in all future Chinese-led projects.

This is important to note with whom our prime minister was negotiating. It underscores that the Bahamas is not going into business with a private investor, but rather a state owned company — in other words Beijing will have the last say.

Not only are the Chinese interested in being in control of Bay Street — the seat of our government — but, according to Mr Liu China Construction is eyeing such projects as roads, water treatment and renewable energy.

Remember the hullabaloo created by the PLP – and the Bahamian people — when the FNM government had the audacity to sell BaTelCo — our very birthright — to a foreign company? But now that our financial centre and various other projects are to go — not to a privately owned company — but to a state-owned company in Beijing – there is not so much as a whisper of protest.

So far we have heard about how our debts will be paid off, how we shall have full employment and – if we believe the fairy tale — live forevermore in Nirvana.

When we awaken from our money-induced stupor we should consider the meaning of the world “sovereignty” and what becomes of our sovereignty if a foreign state acquires too much control of our affairs.

In this column yesterday, there was an Associated Press commentary about China’s displeasure at President Barak Obama having breakfast in public at the same table as the Dalai Lama. This spiritual leader of the Tibetan people was driven into exile as the Chinese took over his Himalayan kingdom. Imagine a foreign country telling our prime minister with whom he can break bread! He might not mind, but many Bahamians certainly would.

Have our leaders given any thought to the position they could put this country in when the time comes in the UN that a decision has to be made on whose side to vote — China or the United States?

Remember we are Bahamians — our culture and all of our traditions are anchored on this side of the world, so whatever decisions our politicians plan to make we suggest that the Bahamian people are consulted – and that there is an iron clad agreement that there is to be no interference in the affairs of the Bahamian people.