The Tribune

By DANIELLE BARNES

THE members and supporters of Save the Bays were constantly cast in a negative light and denigrated, the group’s legal director Fred Smith, QC said in a presentation to the Waterkeeper Alliance last Friday.

“The most effective but unwarranted criticism of us was that [we] were a crew of racist elites, depriving people of jobs, obstructing good governance and economic opportunity for ordinary Bahamians,” he said.

During his presentation, Mr Smith addressed the abuse and exploitation of the marine and land environments which he said are severely challenged by pollution, urbanisation and destruction.

Mr Smith also denounced the country’s tourism motto saying “everything is not Better in the Bahamas.”

“The executive branch of the government under the past PLP administration rode roughshod over the rule of law, due process human and environmental rights,” he said.

“Through unregulated development, the executive branch, through the Office of The Prime Minister entered into . . . heads of agreements in which the government gave away hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes and Crown land for a pittance in consideration for what they called ‘anchor projects.’”

Mr Smith also said: “The Bahamas has become littered with the rotting carcasses of white elephant anchor projects.”

He said over the past few years, activists have been thwarted by opponents—”corrupt politicians and developers” he dubbed as “the exploiters.”

“They discouraged business from coming our way,” he claimed. “No permits, no licences, no approvals.

“They sought to repeal some of the good legislation protecting the environment through planning, development and permitting law. We were forced to and ran a very successful resistance to the repeal.”

Mr Smith expressed hope that the new Minnis administration would promote good governance.