The Tribune

APPARENTLY, it was Mission Impossible for the FNM.

So says Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis, who tells us today “it was impossible” to fulfil his pre-election promises for good governance reform.

What were the hurdles? Hurricanes Irma and Dorian, plus COVID-19.

Now I think we all acknowledge the scale of the hurdles that have faced the FNM government with the impact of hurricanes and the pandemic, but… is that really a good enough excuse for some key promises falling by the wayside?

First things first, the FNM won by a landslide. The number of votes it had available for legislation was unassailable by an opposition reduced to just one seat on New Providence and a handful elsewhere. At no stage was the PLP ever going to outvote the FNM.

Secondly, any party aspiring to lead The Bahamas knows it faces the risk of being hit by hurricanes – and should plan accordingly. Irma hit in 2017, and severely impacted Ragged Island, but left pretty much the rest of The Bahamas unscathed. It was two more years before Hurricane Dorian, two years in which a lot of the FNM agenda could have been enacted.

Even after Dorian, you expect the government to be able to do more than one thing at a time. Sure, a lot of energy and resources needed to be spent on helping people affected by the storm that ripped through Abaco and Grand Bahama – but that shouldn’t stop the government from being able to drive through legislation in the meantime.

The biggest hurdle that has brought the economy grinding to a halt and occupying the focus of all parts of government has been COVID-19. We absolutely accept that the past year and a bit has been a huge challenge – but there was plenty of time beforehand to deal with matters.

Let’s take a few examples. Term limits for Prime Ministers, for one. Why has that been left so late in the day that it’s slipped off the agenda, that should be a fairly straightforward vote in the House.

How about the Ombudsman Bill and Integrity Commission Bill. They were tabled early on, but never debated. The FNM had the opportunity to act on them – but didn’t.

We’ve seen a late flurry on the Freedom of Information Act with a commissioner appointed at last – but let’s not be fooled, with the announcement that the commission wouldn’t be up and running for the public for another six months, that’s effectively going to run out of time to have an effect before any election.

Catastrophes have happened – but governments need to plan for catastrophes too. We live in a hurricane zone, they should come as no surprise that we need to prepare for them, both in getting ready before they hit and in being ready to deal with the aftermath.

There are pieces of legislation that would have a considerable price tag attached that we understand might have to be delayed because of the drain on the public treasury from the pandemic – but many of these have little to no cost value. How much would it cost the treasury to put a term limit on Prime Ministers? None. Just get the vote done. There’s no reason why that should have been impacted by either the hurricanes or the pandemic.

The frustration for many is that some of these pieces of legislation are low-hanging fruit that would be easy to deal with. When the government doesn’t hurry to do so, it makes voters wonder why. If you promise transparency, then fail to fulfil your freedom of information promise until shortly before you might be out of the door, is that really transparency? Where is our opportunity to use it to examine the work of this government?

What about campaign finance reform? Surely that should have been on the table and resolved long before parties were ready to launch the next campaign? Election signs and banners are already going up – and we don’t know anything more about their financing than ahead of the last election.

There has been a lot for the government to deal with, but it should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. To protest otherwise sounds like excuses.

Travel limit

We roll our eyes a little at the news that the health visa website is having problems. The government is having to limit applications to within 14 days of travel after a surge of interest in coming to visit The Bahamas.

Holidays are, of course, frequently booked months in advance – so who knows how many tourists we’re driving away with this two-week limit.

The limit is to “ensure the system does not get overwhelmed”. This is surely what we were supposed to be preparing for – and now we find out we weren’t ready for more interest?

Dionisio D’Aguilar says it is “all hands on deck”. Well, Mr D’Aguilar, if not enough hands is the problem, we would point out the number of unemployed people right now. If you need extra hands, go hire them.

The country needs to be ready to go – and website problems shouldn’t be holding us back.