The Tribune

Politicole

By NICOLE BURROWS

EVEN as I continue to travel, pursuing dreams and opportunities and commitments beyond the borders of my country, I’m constantly thinking about what I can do for my people and my country while I do what I want and need to do for myself. Can I do both at the same time?

The question of running for public/political office has come up several times. It’s something I never would have considered even a few years ago, but I often wonder if taking that route would enable me to have a welcome and more effective hand in the changes I believe need to be made in my country in order for it to be better, the place it once was (safer, kinder, more socially wealthy), or the place I think it could be, the place I see it should be given all its potential. But, then I wonder, does having a direct hand in the government of my country make a difference?

I know many people, who, if they united, could more easily bring a necessary positivity to the way things operate at home. But will banding these people together bring the desired outcome … who’s to say? And there’s no way of knowing. Moreover, there’s no way to get them together without them all believing it is possible.

But who wants to give away what could easily amount to the rest of their lives? Leadership is such a thankless job, especially in the administration of a country’s governance ... especially with a population of people who don’t like to be told what to do … especially with a people unmotivated or ill-prepared to make very difficult changes.

What makes me think I’m qualified to lead my Bahamian people anyway? Well, there’s either one of two things that would drive anyone into politics, the way I see it. Either they think they can get something out of being a politician, which, as far as I can tell standing on the outside with the rest of the governed, is what most enter politics to do … get something. Or, they have a passion to make changes that convert to an overall positive difference in the lives of the people they serve. The latter is the reason most would officially disclose, whether or not it was actually the truth. They say even with those noble intentions, though, once you enter politics and government, it is so easy to get caught up … to go with the flow, to accept the norm of the environment of which you’ve become a part, to milk the system for your personal benefit or that of others you know … to please people.

But I’m not, nor have I ever been a people-pleasing person. I don’t, cannot, brown nose. I know how to express myself better than most, and I know how to use my charm to achieve something when I really want it, but it will never be driven simply by the desire to have friends or satisfy the whims of anyone who makes a request.

In fact, even though people tend to think they can take advantage of me when they first meet me because I appear quieter, gentler, that they can get by with things ... I’m pretty severe and unyielding. When I open my Pandora’s box on them, they are painfully surprised. But is that the surprise they want to get? They don’t want a harsh leader … in some places they call that tyranny. But what strained version of that can we have, something not so concentrated, a ‘tyranny’ more palatable to the people of my country, because this diplomacy/democracy doesn’t seem to be working. A strong hand is needed for every problem that we face.

In reality, the number in favour of a better place to live are outnumbered by those who don’t even recognise that it isn’t a good place to live.

Does the average Bahamian think that things are awful all around in The Bahamas? Their pockets may be empty, but they’re not relating that immediately to a deficiency of good governance, are they? All they know is they can’t get the money they want or need and that must be because someone is not giving it to them.

For years the nature of our tourism and finance industries meant money was good, frequent, flowing, but there was nothing of real value backing that up. We were not an industrious people as a result of creating an industrious environment. If we were, we would have that industry available to us now. We were getting our pockets filled by the money that fell from the tables of those with lots of money to spend enjoying life or getting wealthy. We might as well have been standing at the table with our hands out. And when you’re used to ‘earning’ this way, what do you do when the bottom falls out?

You have no other industry so you sit and wait for another benevolent donor to send food down the chute. Believe me, as the child of someone who worked in tourism for 40 plus years, I understand that having that dollar was better than not having it. I got to go to college because of those droppings from the table. But because we didn’t create other industries while those scraps were dropping to us, by the time I got back home from college all I could do was sit at a table and wait for scraps too, a situation made worse by the fact that the structure of our economy was never so much for the benefit of the people of the Bahamas, but for the people who came to the Bahamas, on a vacation or on paper in offshore banking funds.

The Bahamas was never built for Bahamians. You have to understand the root source of the problem in our economy to have any hope of fixing it. Knowing that, we can diversify. So why, after so many years, has there not been a leader of The Bahamas who saw that it would be necessary to diversify the country’s economy? That is why the people who “blame successive governments” blame them.

So what does it take for those who govern The Bahamas to make changes in a system that was never built for Bahamians? Think about the answers to that question.

The first requirement is you cannot think traditionally about that question. There is nothing done before that would improve the status of all Bahamians, or else we would already be better. It will require leadership by new people who think differently … who don’t buy into the “tourism is our bread and butter” slogan and can see more for The Bahamas with its magnificent resources. People will always want to travel to other countries, they will always seek to do business outside their own countries, but that all changes over time. It was never going to always be The Bahamas.

I look at my country and I see a failed opportunity to be a rare and brilliant gem in a paradise. Our people could have been further along, had there only been some folks who had greater vision … who saw their opportunities to lead their people as more than the opportunity for the provision of another handout in exchange for misplaced loyalty. Because now our handout community doesn’t understand why it can’t qualify for more in life. It got so accustomed to getting the extra from the table, so caught up in the temporary dollars that were passing through their hands that they didn’t even realise when the tides were shifting away from their favour.

Who can govern people who are not qualified for much? Who is the best person to lead a people who are so desperate now that they will do anything to eat? When good education is an elective or luxury item? When they are so mired in misery that they can’t see a way out other than desperately grabbing at the things that float past them to survive?

Who can lead these people? Because this is a dirty job. This is a thankless job. This is a job where it will easily take decades to see any kind of gains or commissions from your hard labour. Who is prepared to give up personal opportunities for national needs?

What do Bahamians require of the people who lead them? What will make them vote for one person over another in 2017? Are they looking for more handouts? Because, if they are, that will seal the fate of the future of the Bahamas … you might as well sign the promissory note of national allegiance over to another sovereign country. Put England on speed dial. If other countries defect the UK post ‘Brexit’, maybe they’ll take us back? Yes, that’s a joke.

We would be a more strategic interest for a country that is closer to us, or to a country that wants to have a formidable presence in or near to a country that’s closer to us.

We have a host of problems, few of which are solvable tomorrow. If we don’t choose the right leaders next year, we are fodder for the larger nations around us. If we don’t see the worth in being truly independent, which, let’s face it, we are so definitely not, then what are we fighting for? For a country where no one can survive? Where no one with any decent amount or quality of education wants to live?

What’s your sovereignty worth, Bahamas?

What do you want in two years? Five years? Ten years? 20? Can the people you see before you now in government give you what you need in the way of opportunities and not handouts, to have a life in the Bahamas that’s worth living? If not, replace them with some others who can, no matter how humble they appear. Tell me, tell them, what it is that would get your vote in 2017. Otherwise, this wheel you are on will keep spinning with you on it, while you’re getting exhausted and going nowhere.

And while you’re at it, tell me what you’d want of me, if I could help you get the country you deserve …

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