The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

The seeming implosion of Baha Mar and the legal wrangling between the relevant parties, including the government, does not bode well for our economic and political viability. The moment that the Prime Minister announced a week or so ago that he’d have “dead good news” for Bahamians, I realised that the Baha Mar situation had evolved beyond his scope of capacity and was doomed to failure.

The PM dispatched the learned Attorney General, an unelected parliamentarian, whose family is rumoured to have contracted several store leases at the Baha Mar site, along with a crew of technocrats and assistants to the Peoples’ Republic of China. Ostensibly she was spearheading vital discussions with the Chinese partners and bankers of Sarkis Izmirlian, et al. This was, amateurish and designed for media distractions and consumption by the expectant public.

It is now clear that with the filing of pleadings in our Supreme Court by the government to move for the involuntary liquidation of Baha Mar, thus eclipsing the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filed by that entity in the USA, that talks have completely failed to resolve the seeming impasse between the stakeholders. I suspect that they have all now gone beyond the pale.

The antics and utterances by the PM in recent times, especially when he addressed journalist students at the College of the Bahamas a few weeks ago, show clearly that either he is in another dimension or that he is delusional, at best. His behaviour has been suspect for some time now and the hands of an amateur are all over the place.

Having spent more than 40 years in frontline politics, it is time that Christie and his colleagues in the Progressive Liberal Party bite the proverbial bullet and grapple with those economic and societal issues which are plaguing this wonderful nation and frustrating our people, big time. Only a pure unadulterated amateur could do a worse job at governance than Christie. As a PM he has proven to be an unmitigated disaster. I could care less about his orations, gyrations and bogus salutations.

An American author, Edward Klein, wrote a political masterpiece titled “The Amateur” last year. The book is about the meteoric rise of the then largely unknown Barack Obama from Chicago, Illinois. It traces his origins, politically, from being a community organiser to the State Senate and then into the US Senate. He was backed and embraced by many of the business and professional elites of Chicago, especially the Jewish components.

In that book, Mr Klein quotes someone who knew Obama way back then: “Ever since I have known him, Obama has had delusions of grandeur and a preoccupation with his place in history. He is inflicted with megalomania. You can explain it with any number of words: arrogance, conceit, egotism, vanity, hubris but whatever word you choose, it spells the same thing – disaster for the country”. Klein, of course, was referring to the now President of the USA. I contend that the description offered by Klein perfectly fits our erstwhile Prime Minister.

In my opinion, Christie is a rank amateur and it is showing big time. The proverbial emperor is as “naked”, politically and realistically, as a natural jay bird. Most sensible Bahamians are aware of this but there is a handful of political and economic vultures who are surrounding Christie and protecting him from reality. He has long forgotten the frustration, pain and suffering of the unwashed masses. He has, alas, evolved into an amateur.

Only an amateur could have crowed that he’d have some “dead good news for Bahamians” when, had he been a professional, he would have simply shut his mouth and sit small while sensitive negotiations were being conducted. Each time he made a public utterance he ran right out while throwing gratuitous insults at assorted stakeholders. He went so far as to question the mental status of Sarkis. He condemned media personnel, across the board, straight to hell.

The other day he was, by his own admission, walking on “egg shells“ in his relationship with the Commissioner of Police and his high command. He was in the Chair for Caricom when the Dominican Republic started the grossly inhumane exercise of rounding up and expelling individuals suspected of being Haitian, even if they had been born in that country, into Haiti.

As an amateur of the highest order, BAMSI lost a dormitory, Alfred Gray flaunted his “connections”, Rollins and Moss “cussed” Christie right out to his face and, as an amateur, he could do and in fact did nothing. He used to be a Minister of Tourism, et al, and presided over the now full bloom of the disintegration and integrity of our tourism product.

Again, clearly demonstrating that he’s been an amateur for decades, he was Minister of Agriculture when BATARD in Andros, ironically, went belly up. Scores of innocent and benign horses, cows, chicken and pigs died horrible deaths from starvation and malnutrition. I am persuaded that if animals have ghosts that some, if not all, of those same ghosts are haunting Christie.

I really do not mind if an individual acts and behaves as an amateur in his/her personal or private life. When an amateur, however, is ostensibly in charge of a country, that is when the rubber hits the road. My main objections to the continuation of this “comedy of errors” sort of leadership style of Christie is that he appears and sounds like a great speaker but is a lousy communicator. He is totally incapable of getting whatever his “message” is across to the average Bahamian.

It took two simple letters penned by Hubert A. Ingraham, former Prime Minister, to expose Christie as an amateur and a bumbler of unprecedented proportions. Christie, to put it gently, is too distant and too unconnected to reality.

God will have to come down from Heaven to “rescue” His people if Christie remains as leader of the PLP at the conclusion of the upcoming convention. Unless and until he is dethroned by the Dauphin Prince, dog will continue to eat our lunch; the nation will continue to drift; the ranks of displaced workers and the unemployed will continue and, for sure, crime and the fear of crime will continue to stifle all progress.

Only an amateur, such as Christie could have presided over the melt down of Baha Mar while toting that he’d have “dead good news” within days! What an amateur. I’d laugh if it was not so funny and tragic for my people. His amateurish behaviour and utterances, of course, do not affect me at all because I have known for a long time that Christie is full of bluster; hot air and vacuous vanity.

The good governance of a country is not, I postulate, predicated on so-called charisma and personality, it is about results. Apart from regulating and taxing the web industry and the roll out of Value Added Tax (VAT), show me one single other thing that Christie would have achieved since returning to high office. Except for one or two, show me the stellar performance of his out-of-touch cabinet colleagues.

It is obvious that the web industry operators are “being played” by this administration. Whether or not the administration is hoping to win a three or four ball is academic. What is clear, however, at least to me is that the operators while being held in the dance at least until after the upcoming convention. Where did all the talk about a National Lottery go?

I have no time to play doll house with a man who lives in the fifth dimension. Brave has only two options. Challenge Christie on the floor of the convention or remain in the shadows forever.

To God then, in all things, be the glory, but Lord, if it be thy will, please relieve us of the burden of having a amateur as our Prime Minister.

ORTLAND H BODIE JR

Nassau,

July 18, 2015.