The Tribune

FOR five years, with lips sealed on serious matters that affect the future of the Bahamas, this government has sat on the Freedom of Information Act. If ever this Act was needed it is now.

This week FNM Deputy Leader Peter Turnquest complained that Bahamians were only “bit players” in China’s investment in The Bahamas, mainly through Baha Mar, but also through other investments, some of which Bahamians probably know nothing about.

Shortly before the 2012 election when the Ingraham government was replaced with our current government, a Freedom of Information Act was passed to come into operation “on such date as the minister may appoint by notice published in the Gazette.”

After much prodding the Christie government announced that the 2012 Act had been put in the portfolio of Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald. However, it would have to be redrafted and presented to parliament for further consideration. Mr Fitzgerald has made noises from time to time with Citizens for a Better Bahamas spending much time on its study and drafting many helpful suggestions for his consideration. The last we heard of our missing Act, which is supposed to enable us to discover how government is handling our affairs, the Citizen’s committee hadn’t even had acknowledgment that its suggestions had been received.

Now surrounded by the devastation of Hurricane Matthew, this is probably the end of our precious information act — four years of ministerial dodging.

Bahamians seeing the devastation all around us in the wake of the hurricane are becoming anxious about what has been happening behind closed doors with China’s investments in this country. Last month Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell, who has been unusually quiet for some time, commented that racism and jingoism — for which he himself is noted — is seeping into the dialogue and public discourse of many Bahamians as they attack the Baha Mar investment because, he claims, the investors are Chinese. Mr Mitchell can stop right there. The problem of Baha Mar is not that it is owned by a Chinese citizen, but that it is owned by a government — Beijing — and a dictatorial one at that. Bahamians have long since ceased bowing their heads to the dictates of “massa.” They are used to asking questions and have the right to expect answers – and if they don’t agree with those answers they have a right to make noise about it. This is what they are now doing as they object to being kept in the dark about Beijing’s investments in this country.

This is why in this column we often refer to Beijing and not Chinese ownership, because we have no quarrel with the Chinese - after all we have a large and loyal Bahamian community here of Chinese background. They are as Bahamian as anyone of us.

However, we agree with Mr Turnquest that it is not wise to “have any one entity, whether Chinese or private, to have such a big stake in the economy that they have the power to affect your GDP overnight.”

And this is the concern that Bahamians have about the Beijing controlled Export-Import Bank of China (CEXIM). China’s objective for this investment is not the same as that of the Bahamas. This country was depending upon Baha Mar being the investment — the biggest and best tourism resort in the Caribbean — to save us from the grim reapers —Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s – financial ratings, which for The Bahamas is a notch above junk. What with the disaster of Baha Mar – yes, it is still an unnecessary disaster — coupled with the devastation of Hurricane Matthew, as the old people would say: “The Bahamas is not in a good place right now.”

From the beginning, we have always thought that Beijing’s interest in investing in The Bahamas was political. And so when nearing completion the resort-to-end all resorts fell apart we were not surprised. In our opinion it was of no concern to Beijing how long it sat idle. After all Beijing now had a big footprint in The Bahamas - only about 189 miles from Florida. In Freeport there was Hutchinson Whampoa and at the other end of the Panama Canal sat China Construction (CAA) – moving to the Canal before the completion of Baha Mar, which they had brought to a standstill — to continue the economic growth of Panama. Here was the great United States locked in her southern moat of security. Often in the mornings when we spin our Atlas and see the havoc China has also caused in the South China Seas, we break out in cold sweats for the future of our small grandson and his generation.

Last year, lawyer Carey Leonard complained that Hutchison Whampoa had “fallen miserably short” on Grand Bahama. He urged it to “step up to the plate” and correct the “management disasters” that had caused the failure of many of its investments. He blamed much of the company’s difficulties in the Bahamas on being “micro managed” by a head office 9,000 miles away — Hong Kong.

“To date, Hutchison Whampoa has fallen miserably short of what it can, and should, deliver to Grand Bahama in the terms of their management and, in some instances, the quality of their operations.

“Hutchison Whampoa,” he said, “must take responsibility for much of the unemployment and hardship currently experienced by Grand Bahamians. Hutchison Whampoa’s Hong Kong management must take responsibility, as they are the ones who make the decisions 9,000 miles away. Nothing gets done here without Hutchison Whampoa’s Hong Kong management’s approval.”

A few weeks before Hurricane Matthew, a businessman complained that Freeport was dead. “The government sold too much land to the Chinese — there is no development, there are no jobs,” he said. “They are developing nothing, jobs that were once there are gone.” He saw little hope and wanted to move to Nassau.

Earlier this year, the US House of Representatives Committee of Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere pointed out the need to build a stronger US-Caribbean partnership. We think this is overdue.

Last year at the Caribbean Energy Security Summit held in Washington US Vice President Joe Biden told Caribbean leaders — Prime Minister Christie being among them — that Caribbean leaders had to get a handle on corruption and pick the projects that make the most sense. He said although the US was willing to help, it would not do so with its eyes closed.

“I guarantee you we will do our part,” he said, “And we can afford it. But we’re not going to waste money. We’re not going to waste money. We’re going to insist on considerably more transparency, greater coordination and changes in regulations. We’re not here to replace one flawed financing scheme with another.”

We hope Mr Christie conveyed Mr Biden’s message to his government.