The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement chairman Dr Duane Sands has described as “unbecoming” the Prime Minister’s comments in which he said there had been no positive impact on national development since 2017.

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis made the comments on Tuesday while giving a lecture on the National Development Plan at the University of The Bahamas and outlined priorities along with historical context of the county.

Mr Davis also spoke at length about other administrations in an independent Bahamas and their contributions, including modern times.

“So, we come to the more recent years,” Mr Davis said. “In many ways it’s far too soon to tell what its ultimate legacy will be. I wouldn’t want this lecture to stray into some of the current political battles, but I struggle to see any positive impact on national development since 2017

“Before Dorian, and before COVID, it appeared that the approach to the economy was that of the small business-owner, where so-called ‘balancing-the-books’ was the holy grail of governance, with other goals for the nation barely articulated, and certainly not prioritised.

“We also see signs of systematic efforts to hand over many ordinary functions of the state, to the private sector. Although obscured by the lack of transparency exercised by a single man during the rule by Emergency Orders, the scale of the exercise recalls pre-1967, where extremely narrow economic interests were prioritised and favoured others over others.”

When asked if the Prime Minister made unnecessary swipes at previous governments, Dr Sands told The Tribune: “I think it was unbecoming of the forum and it was unbecoming of the Office of the Prime Minister when speaking about important issue as consensus building in national development.

“How do you come up with a national plan that we all buy into and the premise of your presentation is we are the only ones that are doing the heavy lifting and the rest of you are doing nonsense but you know we want you to approve this anyway.

“Notwithstanding the merit of the work that has been done, I think you make it that much difficult to get that in and reaching across the aisle is very important in order for us to build and to move forward …onward, together.”

The chairman said this was a “brilliant opportunity” missed by the Prime Minister to bring the country together.

“Here we are talking about a National Development Plan which ought to be a consensus document and it was in a forum of intellectual exchange at the University of The Bahamas and it could have been a wonderful evening for nation building. There were some moments where he hit some home runs,” Dr Sands said.

“Unfortunately, the partisan bickering distracted significantly from the presentation and the prime minister basically made it sound as if there are only certain people who have contributed and the others were in large part responsible for everything that’s wrong. Now whether that was intended to be some journey through ancient history, he was very pointed in his commentary about successive administrations in an independent Bahamas and I find those types of commentary unfortunate.”

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister revealed at the event that the country could expect a formal adaptation of the National Development Plan but noted a timeframe has not been set.

“The draft National Development Plan has been taken off the shelf and in very short order it is intended to have the committee reconvene to see how we could settle and not have a draft but a final national development plan for us all,” Mr Davis said.

“A timeframe hasn’t been set but… I did have a very brief conversation earlier this year with Dr Virgil when she paid a call on me and we just have to put those pieces together. There are a lot of things happening now and we need to prioritise.”

The Progressive Liberal Party’s blueprint for change said the party would implement the National Development Plan that was initiated by the last PLP administration.

“Without a National Development Plan, the government of the day has to make decisions and choices, most of which are based on short-term needs. Given our five-year electoral cycle, it is easy to spend money on visible outcomes which might be sufficiently impressive to inspire a few votes,” Mr Davis stated.

“But the money might be better spent on less visible outcomes, such as improving coastal defenses, which would prevent long-term coastal erosion. Without a plan, governments would also have to start every initiative from scratch, obtaining basic data, formulating options, and consulting the public before determining a course of action.”

He also spoke about the issue of a lack of trust.

“Principal among these is the issue of trust. We are at a stage in history, where there is very little trust between the people and the government. This is true not just of us here in The Bahamas, but we can do something about it here. In our view, the lack of trust has arisen because of a lack of transparency, a lack of accountability, and a lack of delivery. We have already taken steps and will continue to take steps to improve on each one.

“Our weekly press conferences, statements and video news reels are all produced in an attempt to keep the Bahamian people informed about what we are doing. We have also improved media access to ministers, so that ministers can give thoughtful answers to questions. Even though it is still early days, we expect to be held accountable for our decisions and actions. And we hope and expect that everyone in political life shares the same willingness to be held accountable.”