The National Republican Alliance (ARENA) is supportive of the new PLP and it's leadership but we are not at too pleased with the level of acrimony in some of the debates, or is it debacles, in the Honourable House of Assembly. A case in point can be found in the recently concluded debate on the so called departure tax 'scam'.
The new PLP has been in office for six months. While we concede that the House was prorogued for over three months ( a long vacation, if ever there was one ) , we certainly expected debates to centre around more urgent and pressing social and economic issues. Collection of governmental revenue has long been a vexing 'problem' for all administrations. Why? Half of them are staffed by party members and political hacks whose only apparent interest may be to 'feather' their beds while their party is in power and to hell with the rest of Bahamians.
Simple thiefing and more complex stealing conspiracies are, in our view ingrained in any system where there is the constant flow of money and no serious regulatory regime in place. When I practiced at the criminal bar, thousands of dollars; suspected drugs and countless firearms were alleged to have gone missing from the police exhibit room and even, in one memorable case, the vault of the Central Bank. We agree with comments attributed to senior justices that there is an endemic level of corruption and the thiefing mentality amongst too many Bahamians.
To cast aspersions, willy nilly, however, about a generic group of employees, in a privileged place, is dead wrong and in extremely poor taste. If current ministers know of persons who may have been fired by airlines for thiefing or withholding departure tax receipts for their own use, call in the police or take disciplinary action. To appoint a Select Committee to 'study' this so called issue, is a waste of parliamentary time and the taxpayers hard earned dollars. All that may be needed is a managerial restructuring and the implementation of fiscal controls at the Airport Authority.
Both Messrs. ldris Reid and Paul Major should be reassigned to other less sophisticated areas of the public sector. Clearly, in our view, they have no airport or airline experience. Major was a major 'disappointment, at the Development Bank. Even now, that institution is still reeling from bad and uncollectible debts made during his administration. Far too many 'loans' are suspected to have been granted due to politics; personal relationships and 'who you know, without being collateralized by 'good' assets.
Reid, with all due respect, was the Permanent Secretary when George Smith was at Agriculture . He may know something about agriculture and fisheries but the administration of the airports in The Bahamas is way above his head, in our opinion.
A Select Committee should have been appointed to 'investigate' Dion Foulkes ; the scholarship fiasco and the building contracts which apparently, did not go to tender. A whole lot more of the peoples' money went south in that case and the facts are easily verifiable. In addition, most of the potential players are easily identifiable without having to throw rocks and hope to hear some one holler, in the dark.
The National Republican Alliance (ARENA) believes that the new PLP and some of it's leaders ( they know who they are ) are 'protecting' someone or others in high and low places. Where is Dupuch and Wells in all of this ? Was there some quid pro quo in return for the new PLP not running candidates against them ? Last year Dupuch and Wells were all over the place 'attacking' their party for these contracts etc. In fact, Wells was a 'fixture' on Love 97 or so it seemed.
Now, they can't find their tongues to utter a single sentence requesting a select committee for Education. Wells used to be an Attorney-General. That department is in literal shambles and too many accused persons are 'getting off' on serious cases due to any number of reasons but the most glaring one is incompetence. A select committee needs to be appointed to dig deep within the Attorney-General's office. Many skeletons, we are sure, will be unearthed.
Hope and help are on the way, if not just across the bar. Until they do come, however, the new PLP must start acting as if it is, in fact, the government and not the opposition. It is really a national tragedy that the defunct FNM is rudderless; leaderless and clueless. Bahamians are caught between a big rock and an extremely hard place. God, however, is still on the throne and His mercies will endureth forever.
Yours etc.,
Ortland H. Bodie Jr.
A Letter to the Editor
