The Tribune

Bradley Roberts says his party has made “incredible progress” since winning power in 2012. Malcolm J Strachan begs to differ

This weekend, the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) celebrated its fourth anniversary in office, having risen to power on May 7, 2012.

Instead of hanging their collective heads with shame, the party’s chairman, Bradley Roberts, was in his usual laudatory mode, heaping praises upon the PLP for its stellar job in office thus far.

Mr Roberts said the “incredible progress” that the PLP has achieved reflects the “indomitable spirit and confidence of the Bahamian people”.

So what have “we” achieved in these four long years?

A new crime record?

A culture of violence and criminality that is bleeding into even our armed forces - evidenced by the latest example of two police officers being recently convicted of stealing two inexpensive cell phones?

Higher unemployment and underemployment? Never before have more Bahamians remarked of the abject hopelessness of finding meaningful work in an economy that is hobbling on its last legs.

Higher levels of corruption in Government? Who would have thought that the disastrous stint from 2002 to 2007 could have been topped?

A near ruining of the economy? No one will forget, or forgive, the PLP for its shameful destruction of Baha Mar. A project that they themselves touted as 12 per cent of our GDP now lies stagnant on the Cable Beach strip. A white elephant if there ever was one; a monument to what a Government can do when it wants to bring a development to a screeching halt. Should we thank the PLP for that and the thousands of jobs that have been lost?

If we listened to Bradley Roberts we would.

Not only is Mr Roberts dabbling in voodoo mathematics in his old age, the chairman actually wants us to believe that the PLP has created 20,000 jobs since coming to office in 2012.

We laughed when we read this, then we got worried for Mr Roberts. We hope he isn’t balancing his own cheque book any longer. If so, he may want to contact his banker right away. This type of delusion with numbers could be a dangerous thing.

Carnival? At what cost? The first one was millions of dollars in overruns, and this one that just passed will likely exceed the first in rampant wastage. And what did the Bahamian people get for it? A party? So while we all huddled in our homes, fearful of the next robber or murderer to come kicking their way in, the PLP were out spending public money and dancing up in the streets. Don’t worry about jobs. We’ll party for three days. That makes a whole lot of sense.

A Stronger Bahamas? Another waste of public funds and the antithesis of the PLP’s motto “Believe in Bahamians” as millions of dollars were spent on a failed campaign run by foreigners who are out of touch with the realities that affect the Bahamian populace.

The National Development Plan? Another venture where money was pumped into study after study to tell the Bahamian people what they already know?

The Freedom of Information Act? As it approaches another campaign year, the Government seems to be attempting to spit out as many projects as possible, the recent Freedom of Information campaign being one of them. However, the poorly organised, poorly advertised, poorly run FOI campaign has resulted in low public turn out, lack of clarity or understanding.

I guess the only thing we can thank the PLP for is having the tenacity to rectify what they destroyed in 2002 by readdressing constitutional equality via its Yes Bahamas campaign. But even that seems to be a disorganised and failed attempt at a campaign. The Government’s own members/Members of Parliament can’t even remain on the same page regarding messaging and the utter confusion that has arisen over Bill 4 and the slapstick, last-minute campaign itself already signals a failure on the part of the Government.

When the public sadly votes “no” to one or all of the proposed amendments on June 7, it won’t be because of the issues. It will be because of the overwhelming lack of trust it has in the current administration. How sad: in 2016, we will all be paying for the political games that the PLP played way back in 2002.

But wait a minute, not just back in 2002. Didn’t the Government play games with the public in 2013 with the gaming referendum, which then turned into a non-binding referendum … which then turned into an opinion poll?

Yet, Mr Roberts commends the government for this fiasco and chalks up the decisions made due to the Government having the vision to do what needed to be done. This time, the people of The Bahamas will do what needs to be done in this upcoming referendum.

The dump? It’s been on fire for the last four years, which is symbolic of the PLP itself.

National Health Insurance? Mr Roberts notes that we remain on ‘the verge’ of universal health care. As long as the Government’s ineptitude keeps us on ‘the verge’ and not full steam ahead with this ill thought out plan, the better.

VAT? This succeeded in being a regressive tax that was forced upon the Bahamian people, to bleed us dry of the little we have.

What about Grand Bahama? In the PLP’s Charter of Governance, the then Opposition party bragged about “rescuing Grand Bahama”. We’ll highlight just three of the points in their plan for doing this:

• Getting closed hotels re-opened

• Removing uncertainty due to management issues at the Grand Bahama Port Authority

• Reducing the cost of electricity.

The PLP even created a Ministry for the island in the hopes of revitalising it. Anyone who can point to one of the above having been accomplished however, is clearly drinking the same Kool-Aid that Mr Roberts is trying to sell us. That could be the only reason why he is “especially optimistic about the strides made” on Grand Bahama.

I would venture that the only successful campaign that the PLP has run in its last four years is keeping Dr Hubert Minnis as leader of the Opposition for this long. This meets their objective of ensuring that they have the easiest road ahead to remaining in power for the next five years and beyond. Kudos to the party for this one. Minnis’ incompetence and lack of leadership is the only reason the PLP has a chance in the upcoming election.

So, let’s raise a glass to the fourth anniversary of the PLP since their victory in 2012 - and let’s hope our glass isn’t filled with the same Kool-Aid Bradley Roberts’ is drinking.

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