The Tribune

By MALCOLM STRACHAN

THE great and the good of the PLP gathered yesterday for a church service to mark the third anniversary of the party being in charge of government.

These occasions are a chance for the party to slap itself on the back – whichever one happens to be in office, though lord knows the PLP seems to love a chance for a celebration.

But it is also a chance to look back and take stock of where an administration is at in terms of its progress.

Three years in is a pretty important landmark for any government. By that stage, any administration should be well in its stride and showing off the reasons it was elected in the first place.

With Parliament back on Wednesday this week, it is also a moment for the party to gather itself for the legislative agenda ahead.

So with that in mind, let’s take a look at what the party has – and has not – accomplished so far.

The tricky part is, what yardstick do we use?

Ideally, we should take a look at what the party said it would do and measure it against that. But the yardstick the party campaigned on, its Blueprint for Change, seems to be something the administration is increasingly distancing itself from.

Still, that is what we have got, so we will start there – and start with the good.

Right from the off, the blueprint talked about an “Economic Revolution”, and in terms of economics, so far the PLP is doing broadly well.

Particular praise goes to Michael Halkitis as Minister of Economic Affairs, who seems a steady hand at the wheel. The deficit is dropping, and the economy has been doing pretty well.

Some caveats with that, however. Coming off the back of both Hurricane Dorian and the global COVID-19 pandemic that shut down tourism and our economy with it, any administration would have benefited from the rebound that came once travel restrictions were lifted. I do not mean that as a way of criticising the current administration – it certainly seems to have managed the rebound well and not fumbled the ball. Rather, it is not overpraising, either.

There are some holes there. There seems to be a general feeling of a slowdown at present, and we will see how that affects matters. Again, coming off the speed of the rebound, there was always likely to be a point where things would slow down again, so no great criticism there. But one of the problems with the rebound we have seen is that the benefits of it have perhaps not actually been felt in the pockets of the people. There has been talk of more to come and that people will feel that, but “it coming” doesn’t win a vote when election time comes around.

Some of the economic gains have not been as substantial as perhaps they could have been, too. There has been much made of record numbers in tourism – and yet a lot of that has been cruise ship trade rather than overnight stays, and with that goes a much smaller financial return. Cruise ship passengers don’t pay out as much as those who fly and stay in hotels – and that means less money stays here in The Bahamas.

Overall, though, the handling of the economy has to be a positive – I’m just not sure whether voters will think it has been positive enough for them individually so far.

There has been other progress too – the marijuana legislation looks like it will come into law. I have my personal doubts about how some of that will be implemented, and whether this really will be an opportunity for small businessmen or whether some of the big sharks will swallow up that industry too. But those are my doubts – the party said it would do that, and so said, so done.

Elsewhere, there has been good and bad in different ministries. Clay Sweeting seems to have done a good job across two ministries now, while elsewhere Social Services seems missing in action when it comes to promises not delivered. Energy reform is – whether you agree with the method or not – being delivered, and we shall see what the outcome is. Ministry of Transport seems to be the centre of dispute and complaint, and wondering how a ministry can manage not to be able to give people a licence plate for their cars.

Pia Glover-Rolle seems to be doing very well at dealing with unions and agreements, while the Ministry of Environment is astonishingly quiet for an administration that talks so much about climate change and the damage our environment risks facing.

Where there is a major black mark for the administration is on any idea of transparency and accountability – which given that was one of the first things the Prime Minister spoke about in his speech on gaining office is frankly outrageous.

Contract reporting has not met the government’s own requirements, financial disclosures continue to be taken as if they are not the law, Prime Minister Philip Davis has now backed away from campaign finance legislation despite that being right there in the Blueprint for Change and something that Mr Davis spoke about while in Opposition. Indeed, he said of his predecessor that the failure to fulfill a campaign finance promise showed Dr Hubert Minnis’ election victory was built on “empty promises and political expediency”. What does that say for Mr Davis’ victory?

Then there is the pittance of funding allocated to the Freedom of Information Act that does nothing to implement it fully but just keeps the wheels spinning, and the absence of any noteworthy action on marital rape legislation (again, contained in the blueprint, even if Mr Davis has said otherwise) or bringing equality to women in terms of citizenship (yes, also in the blueprint).

Look back two years, rather than three to the election, and Mr Davis was also talking about having a referendum on whether The Bahamas should become a republic, just a day after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Nothing has come of that either.

So where does all of that leave us? It seems that the story so far is in terms of economics, not bad; in terms of various pieces of legislation promised, must do better.

And remember, it is not me or the other political commentators out there who need to be impressed – it is the voters. Has it really felt like a New Day? That is a question the PLP should be asking themselves.