The Tribune

IT SEEMS that the Christie government is now playing hide-and-seek with the Bahamian people in a proposed China-Bahamas Agriculture and Fisheries Initiative.

For some time now we have been asking that Bahamians be informed of all negotiations and/or proposed negotiations enabling China to get more entrenched in our country. This request has been met with stoney silence. The political attitude has been that it is none of the Bahamian people’s business.

The matter exploded in the House of Assembly last week when FNM MP Loretta Butler-Turner demanded that Agriculture and Marine Resources Minister Alfred Gray explain the permission he had given Bahamas Ambassador to China Paul Gomez to discuss with the Chinese government a proposed $2.1 billion agri-fishing project in Andros.

The proposed partnership would entail the incorporation of 100 companies – each to be owned equally by a Bahamian and a citizen of the People’s Republic of China. The Bahamas government would then lease to all of the participating companies – with an option to renew the lease for an unspecified number of additional years – 10,000 acres of Crown land in Andros. The agricultural products and seafood that would be produced would be used for local consumption, and exported to China and the United States for sale. In the letter of proposal, sent by Ambassador Gomez to Minister Gray for approval, it was provided that if certain of the benchmarks for the use of the land was not reached and it ended in litigation, the land leases would be cancelled by the Bahamas government.

After admitting that he had in fact given the Bahamian Ambassador to China permission to enter into discussions with the Chinese – “I felt as minister, it was a good thing if we can get them to invest in agriculture because agriculture is one of the those industries in the Bahamas where Bahamians seem to lack interest generally speaking” — Minister Gray dismissed The Guardian’s report of the proposal as “utterly false.”

“The government,” said Mr Gray, “is not considering the grant of Crown land nor any other matter as set out in the article.” Yet, printed in the same edition of the newspaper – and next to his denial statement – is Mr Gray’s letter in its entirety. And in that letter Mr Gray writes that also to be provided will be:

“4 (a) One hundred acres of leased Andros farm land with an option to access one hundred additional acres, provided certain performance benchmarks are attained. Unprofitable entities that end in liquidation will have their land leases cancelled by the Bahamas government.”

Mr Gray claimed that only the first page of his letter to Ambassador Gomez was printed by the newspaper. This is not true.

The first page of the letter was printed on the newspaper’s front page next to Mr Gray’s statement in which he dismissed the newspaper’s report as “utterly” false. It was clearly stated that the remainder of the letter was continued to another page inside the newspaper. If Mr Gray is this careless about detail, then he is a dangerous man to draft anything on behalf of the Bahamas government. Being a lawyer, he must have heard the saying – the “devil is in the detail.”

Although, Ambassador Gomez said he did discuss the proposal with other interested parties, Deputy Prime Minister “Brave” Davis apparently was not one of them. Mr Davis’ observation was that such a project would conflict with the efforts of the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI), also on Andros. Prime Minister Christie’s answers were evasive, so it is not certain whether the matter was discussed with him before it went public.

If not then it confirms our opinion that Mr Christie is not in control of his cabinet — some of them seem to be on missions of their own.

This Chinese partnership should have been discussed around the Cabinet table before there was any thought of Minister Gray drafting any letter approving Ambassador Gomez entering into negotiations with his counterparts in Beijing.

And, of course, there is the questionable “wisdom” of Bradley Roberts, who seems to be suggesting that maybe the deal with China would be acceptable, reminding us that there are few jurisdictions left in the world today from which capital can be obtained. He pointed out that the Bahamas is “cash starved” and China and the United Arab Emirates are today the only “two cash rich jurisdictions.”

This was also the dilemma that Sarkis Izmirlian faced when his agreement with Harrah’s and Starwood fell through because the Christie government failed to sign the necessary government approvals in time for the agreement to be consummated. When Mr Izmirlian was left high and dry, he too found China to be the only country lending money at the time that he needed new partners. After the experience with Beijing in the Baha Mar catastrophe, it is surprising that Mr Roberts would suggest that the Bahamas walk into the same spider’s web.

However, Mr Roberts “was confident that Bahamians will not make decisions that are harmful to their best interests.”

We are certain that Bahamians – if they were forewarned of what their leaders were plotting — would be more cautious.

However, after the Baha Mar stumble, we have no further confidence in our “leaders.”

That is why Bahamians should insist on knowing what further business government is planning with Beijing so that they too can sit around the table to help make decisions in their own best interest.