The Tribune

A dear friend was asked after her public service as a contract officer whether she was disillusioned by government. Her response: “I now have a greater appreciation of the complexities of government work. But after working in government I am more disillusioned about the Bahamian people!”

She understands the strengths and weaknesses of government bureaucracy in the country and the need for ongoing reform. But she was deeply disturbed by the poor attitudes of many Bahamians and the difficulties inherent in governing a shockingly ill-informed, entitled populace with an insatiable appetite for handouts.

She was especially shocked by the selfish behaviour and mindset of many Bahamians in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian and during the COVID-19 pandemic, both of which exposed often deplorable attitudes by many citizens. The lack of a shared sense of purpose or common good was especially troubling.

The problems with our political culture are not confined to the political class. The quality of our leaders reflects the quality of talent from whom we choose our parliamentarians and public officers.

Moreover, many of our leaders are content to feed us patronage, favours and money as a part of our deep-seated “throw me out” culture.

Reports about the amount of money spent buying votes during the recent West End and Bimini by-election says as much about voters as it does about the politicians bribing us supposedly good upstanding Christian people.

In a small country in which who you know often trumps what you know and the quality of your service and talent, there is little incentive to perform well at any task.

Despite our glib and self-serving rhetoric about excellence, we are decidedly and mostly a culture of indolence, slackness, indifference and low expectations. The examples of excellence in The Bahamas are precious few.

Amidst the independence hoopla and fanfare there were a few notable attempts to genuinely reflect on the parlous state of Bahamian culture. However, some of us were content to beat our chests in an orgy of empty nationalistic triumphalism.

While we should rightly celebrate our successes over the past 50 years, we have not been equally as serious in researching, analysing and addressing the deep cultural problems that are at the root of our major social challenges.

The number of murders in a country our size is abnormal. So too the high incidence of obesity, which too many of us actually celebrate. We are normalizing the abnormal and the unhealthy in our culture.

The stories and examples of poor cultural attitudes and habits are evident everywhere and experienced daily. Good and consistent service now comes as a surprise. Such service is the norm in an ever decreasing number of places.

A high performing and diligent teacher in a government-operated primary school is regularly chastised and shunned by lazy colleagues who resent that she is setting a high standard. In their minds she is showing them up: “Who she think she is?!”

A former cabinet minister recalled his lament to education officials. He estimates that a high percentage of teachers in the government school system are incapable of passing the BGCSE subjects they teach.

One of the more disturbing and revealing stories heard by this columnist this year was from an acquaintance who was asked: “What do you like about living in The Bahamas?” The acquaintance is highly intelligent and articulate. He happily admits to not realizing his considerable abilities.

“What I like about The Bahamas,” he insisted, “is that I can be mediocre and a little lazy and still outperform the majority of Bahamians!” He was referring to both the quality of talent in the country and, equally, the attitude toward hard work and quality performance.

A friend with a retail store exasperatingly observes that it is commonplace for someone to say they are coming in for an interview or to perform a professional service, but never show up and never call to say they cannot come.

In most first world countries this rarely happens. It is normal in The Bahamas. So, what exactly is better in The Bahamas?

With majority rule in 1967 we adopted the policy of Bahamianisation which had a number of successes. Institutional racism was dismantled. But the policy was not as well thought out as was necessary for long-term development.

We could have learned a number of lessons from Lee Kuan Yew, the father of modern Singapore. Lee was a pragmatist who combined liberal and conservative ideas with a strong capitalist ethos tailored for his country, alongside compelling insights into the sociology and cultural mindset of his people.

At home, a certain leftist mindset by some blindsided and limited our labour and national development policies. The necessity to provide education and populate our institutions with Bahamian talent was critical, but insufficient.

The late Lee educated Singaporeans and ensured their elevation to positions within the public and private sectors. Simultaneously, he ensured continued high rates of immigration at multiple professional levels. Today, approximately 40 percent of Singapore’s workforce is non-Singaporean.

Our Bahamianization policy often reflected an anti-foreigner mindset, with politicians playing games with work permits, permanent residency and citizenship. To be sure, there were some who should not have been granted any of the aforementioned.

But there were too many examples of immigration policy used as a political weapon, a money-making tool, or as a personal device at the whim of immigration officials of the day.

One particularly sad story was of a Canadian woman who dedicated her life to The Bahamas. She was a volunteer extraordinaire. Yet she was denied citizenship because she lacked certain connections.

Lee also ensured that there were institutions and programmes dedicated to the elite in his country. The demise of the Government High School as an elite institution was a singular mistake by certain Progressive Liberal Party leaders who sent their children to private high schools.

Equality, including equality of opportunity, does not obviate the need for elite institutions and high-skilled international talent. We needed all the talent we could muster, both Bahamian and foreign, following majority rule and independence.

As a small country we needed foreign labour with various skills and talent. Now, with significant high-skilled talent lost, we still need a vigorous liberal immigration policy.

Even the most successful countries require considerable foreign expertise and talent to develop. What arrogance and insularity one must have to harbour the conceit that a small country of approximately 400,000 has most if not all the talent necessary for national development.

The talent we need today is more than at the level of skills. We need talent that will exemplify discipline, timeliness, customer care, a desire to work. Our country is sorely lacking in many hard and soft skills.

What made matters worse was a certain doctrine of “we reach, we can do whatever we want now.” It was preached by some at the highest levels of politics who instilled in many Bahamians a view that because they were now masters of their domain that they did not have to be as productive as necessary.

A number of our majority rule and independence leaders did not have a fuller sociological understanding of our cultural deficits. Lee understood the deficits of Singaporeans more acutely. He wrote and spoke in detail about these deficits. He had few to no illusions about the poor habits of his fellow citizens.

Politicians tend to pander. Because his was a more autocratic country and because the people trusted him, Lee was exceedingly upfront and at times brutally honest in reminding Singaporeans of the cultural deficits they had to overcome.

Because most Bahamians are fragile and cannot accept constructive criticism, our leaders will have to find ways to address our deficits, including through humour. But leaders do a disservice when they pander and glibly express how wonderful we are even as our culture continues to deteriorate.

We must also find ways to inculcate basic habits in our people. One such idea being proposed is a basic customer care programme that can be introduced through the University of The Bahamas.

The initiative would teach students and enrolees the most basic habits needed in public and private service: civility, punctuality, the qualities of productivity, basic discipline, how to answer a telephone or respond to a complaint, etc.

Like the Bahamahost Certification Programme, such an initiative would be open to employers and anyone wishing to enrol to be certified in client and customer service.

In essence, such a programme is really about teaching basic human skills that have atrophied and are sorely lacking. We are in desperate need of programmes that will help to develop basic human and citizenship skills in current and new generations.

Given the state of the country, and how cultural habits are instilled and maintained, such programmes will have to endure way past our 100th anniversary of independence.