MUSINGS by Sam Cooper: I have a growing concern over the way in which our country is being governed by a small circle of relatives, friends and associates which smacks of pre-1992 PLPism.
We were told that the ‘New PLP’ was different. They said that their ‘fresh breeze’ would ensure that old, bad PLP habits would not be allowed to tarnish our country again. But, with every new announcement by the Prime Minister, I am forced to acknowledge that nothing has changed- nepotism and cronyism continue to be the way of the PLP; Bahamians who expected different must now admit that they were mislead and betrayed by an extravagant and deceptive election campaign funded from secret sources.
I have noticed that even after taking many weeks, and sometimes months, to fill posts, Prime Minister Christie has appointed an inordinate number of individuals from a small circle of his family and friends and the friends and families of old PLPs to the Senate, to Statutory and other Boards and Committees and to Bahamas overseas offices.
What does this mean for the new, young PLPs and others who believed that they would have an opportunity to make a contribution? I suppose it’s later for them, while the old PLP continue with their “All in the Family” philosophy. The FNM warned us. Tommy Turnquest(above) said that the PLP, like a leopard, couldn’t change its spots, but the majority of people decided to vote PLP anyhow. Well, as Sir Etienne Dupuch told us – you get the Government you deserve.
Consider these family connections:
George Smith, the disgraced former Cabinet Minister forced to resign his position in the Cabinet due to revelations in the 1984 Commission of Inquiry is today the Chairman of the Hotel Corporation; his nephew, Frank Smith is the MP for St. Thomas More; his ex-wife, Lorrie Smith, and his first cousin, Lester Smith, sit on the Board of the Bank of The Bahamas Board, and Mrs. Smith also serves on the Airport Authority. Philip Smith, his brother and the pre-1992 PLP Member of Parliament for North Long Island has been named Bahamas High Commissioner in Ottawa.
Alfred Sears the MP for Fort Charlotte and Attorney General and Minister of Education is the brother-in-law of Dr. Marcus Bethel who was appointed to the Senate and made Minister of Health in Mr. Christie’s Cabinet. His sister, Dr. Paulette Bethel has been named Bahamas Permanent Representative to the United Nations; their brother Owen Bethel is a member of the Antiquities Commission.
Mr. Max Gibson, husband of Allyson Maynard-Gibson, the MP for Pinewood and Minister for Investments and Financial Services sits on the Bank of The Bahamas Board; and brother-in-law Larry Gibson sits on the Financial Services Forum. Mrs. Gibson is, of course, the daughter of former PLP MP for Yellow Elder and Deputy Prime Minister in the last PLP Government.
Baltron Bethel won two posts, one as Deputy Chairman at the Hotel Corporation and another as a consultant at the Ministry of Investments and Financial Services, while his son Gregory, is the sole hold-over from the old Batelco Board appointed by the FNM (the FNM Government didn’t practice the “all in the family” philosophy – a generous number of PLPs and Independents always made their way onto Boards and Committees under the FNM).
The late Prime Minister’s daughter, Michelle, has been named to the Senate, while her husband, Robert ‘Sandy’ Sands was appointed to the Bank of The Bahamas Board and his father was named Chairman of Bahamasair’s Board.
Another PLP Senate appointment is Mrs. Cyprianna McWeeney, wife of former PLP Attorney General, Chairman of the Christie promised Clifton Cay Committee and new principal advisor to Mr. Christie, Sean McWeeney.
Brother Paul McWeeney, who came to head the Bank of The Bahamas during the tenure of the FNM Government, was appointed to the Financial Services Forum by Mr. Christie.
And, former magistrate Sharon Wilson, wife of accountant and major PLP financier, Franklyn Wilson, was named President of the Senate, while her husband was appointed Chairman of the Board of the College of The Bahamas.
Prime Minister Christie didn’t shy away from appointing his family to position of influence either: while his cousin, appointed by the FNM Government, remains as Director of Public Health, another relative Al Jarret, the spouse of a first cousin, was named Chairman of the Bahamas Electricity Corporation, a Board on which Mr. Christie’s sister-in-law Cleopatra Christie, also serves. Another brother-in-law, Dr. Earl Cash serves on the Board of the College of The Bahamas, and yet another brother-in-law, John Fowler has been appointed Director of Human Resources at the national flag carrier, Bahamasair. The spouse of another first cousin, Mrs. Phillipa Delancy , serves on the Board of the Water and Sewerage Corporation.
Indeed, it seems that Mr. Christie found so few members of the PLP fit and proper persons to serve on Boards and Committees that he was forced to name married couples to Boards – Gerry Butler to the Securities Commission and wife, Georgette to the Gaming Board.
Former Exuma MP, Mrs. Ruby Ann Darling has found new life as a consultant to the Ministry of Housing. And, reversing the decade-old practice of not appointing politicians to head the Gaming Board, Kennedy MP, Kenyatta Gibson was named Chairman.
Against that backdrop, I read Sir Arthur’s unselfish support for Minister Whilchombe’s appointment of Barbara Pierre’s daughter to head the North American marketing post for the Ministry of Tourism, based on her reported qualifications and experience, and found it difficult to share his generosity. What Sir Arthur didn’t acknowledge was that Ms. Pierre is the daughter of the former Director of Immigration (under the last PLP Government in which her brother the Hon. A.D. Hanna served as MP for St. Anne’s, Deputy Prime Minister and Minster of Finance until his resignation from the Cabinet in 1984 and his election loss in 1992). Hence, Ms. Pierre is the first cousin to Glenys Hanna-Martin, MP for Englerston and Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation.
Sir Arthur will forgive me and the staff of the Ministry of Tourism if we are not as understanding as he. Its just that its hard to accept that so much of the competence and experience in our country, and indeed, in the PLP, rests only in a small circle of family and friends of so few senior PLP leaders.
Junkanoo
The Prime Minister seems set to ignore the financial mismanagement of the 2002/2003 Junkanoo Parades created by his friend and Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture in the hope that it will ‘blow over’.
I am beginning to believe that there may be some truth to “the word” going around that the Prime Minister has been supportive of Mr. Wisdom because he gave the Minister permission to rent the million dollar bleachers and to spend another half a million on tickets and other related costs even though his Cabinet did not agree to the ‘hair brain’ idea. If this is so, the Prime Minister must own up to his poor judgement and let the people know. Mr. Wisdom should not be left to take all the heat and the blame on his own.
The other story making the rounds is that Mr. Christie is seeking to find a way to buy the ill-fated bleachers. Hopefully before that folly is committed the Prime Minister will recognize that throwing good money after bad never made a bad situation any better. I can only repeat the advice of Dr. B.J. Nottage – stop holding your head man, use it!
The Prime Minister’s Schedule The Prime Minister’s schedule, or the absence of a schedule which he follows, continues to embarrass our country. Now, it is reported that his penchant for arriving late, or not at all, at scheduled functions is being adopted by some of his Cabinet colleagues who routinely keep individuals with confirmed appointments waiting for increasing lengths of time.
Such lack of respect for other people’s time is rude and inconsiderate. And, any misconception that keeping people waiting is a sign of one’s importance must be gotten rid of quickly. It certainly is not reflective of a government “laying out a plush red carpet for investors”, national and international. In a service-based economy, such a cavalier attitude toward other is a lethal flaw.
Trouble in The Cabinet
I share The Tribune’s “Insight” concern over Mr. Christie’s troubles in three Ministries – Tourism, Trade and Industry, and Youth, Sports and Culture. If only that was the sum of his problems. Mr. Christie has yet to find office space for his “dynamic” Minister of Financial Services and Investment, Allyson Maynard-Gibson, and reports are that she is smarting. The other dynamo Minister at Foreign Affairs, Fred Mitchell is also reportedly increasingly frustrated by his Prime Minister who won’t take important decisions and who has been lukewarm in support of his Minister’s position with the American Ambassador with whom he travelled to a sporting event in Florida. Both Mrs. Gibson and Mr. Mitchell have great ambitions and their restlessness can’t be good for Cabinet harmony.
At least a part of Mr. Christie’s problems must come from his poor portfolio allocations.
Mr. Leslie Miller is no doubt desperate to get his hands on BAIC because without it, his Ministry has little of great import to do. Unfortunately, for Mr. Miller he is stuck with Mr. Christie’s man – Sidney Stubbs. Of course Mr. Miller considers himself an expert on BAIC having served on the Board for the better part of the last decade.
Mrs. Gibson has a similar problem as does Mr. Miller – she has no statutory responsibility for many of the matters falling within the purview of her Ministry. Additionally, because Mr. Christie chose to name a gussiemae Financial Services Forum, she must now deal with two private sector advisory groups – the Forum plus the Bahamas Financial Services Promotion Board (BFSB) established under the FNM and which receives Government budgetary support.
Mr. Christie must not have known that BFSB has wide membership across the investment sectors including law, banking and trust, investment, real estate, insurance and accounting firms. In his haste to appear hands-on in reviewing the financial services legislation, he appointed many of the BFSB membership to his Financial Forum. Now one set of financial people (BFSB) must provide input to another advisory group (the Forum) before advice is given to Government. And while Mrs. Gibson will no doubt be active in filtering and coordinating advice offered by these two groups, much of the legislation concerned actually falls within the portfolio of the Minister of Finance – talk about red tape and walking in circles.
Then, Ministers Shane Gibson and Melanie Griffith who together have only a single Ministry, while Alfred Sears drowns under the burden of both the Attorney General’s Office and the Ministry of Education with Minister Alfred Gray having little to do. Having won an election, Mr. Christie is in dire need of advice on how to form and run a government. Eight months and running, he still appears to have not a clue.
The Prime Minister and the Church
The Prime Minister continues to get high marks in the Press for his Party’s rhetoric about partnership with the “Church” even while no one can determine how that partnership amounts to more than his frequent attendance at church sponsored events particularly when “the lights and the cameras are on and rolling” and his appointment of flamboyant ‘men of the cloth’ to Boards and Committees where their presence add little value as far as I can see.
The Bible exposes Biblical hypocrites who sit in the front pews of the synagogue in expensive garbs and make dramatic their goodness and holiness. Mr. Christie and the PLP nonsense with the Church must stop. God will find it hard to smile on a country so full of Godless church goers. Responsible men and women should take note of the deteriorating social condition in our country since the last election. Clearly, the PLP partnership with the Church is not promoting a more peaceful community.
I cannot disagree more with those in the Press and in the Church who claim that the PLP are a church-friendly Government as compared to the more secular FNM-led Administration of the past decade. Those who understand the true meaning of Christ’s teaching will acknowledge that the Ingraham led-Government gave a far more effective example of true church and government partnership to the benefit of all the Bahamian people and not for the aggrandisement of any individual Religious Minister or Minister of Government.
The FNM doubled Government Grant-in-Aid to Church schools, extended that assistance to a host of church schools excluded from the programme by the pre-1992 PLP Government, saved Kingsway Academy from bankruptcy, contributed to the expansion of St. Cecilia’s Catholic Primary School in the heart of the poor inner-city community; contributed to the development of science labs in the Seventh Day Adventist School system; assisted the Anglican School system in the operation of the Freeport Anglican High School and contributed to the establishment of the Beacon School in Freeport; granted Crown Land on concessionary terms for the construction/expansion of church and church schools and made cash grants to numerous church and social outreach programmes.
Mr. Ingraham never ceased to say how impressed he was with the work of the Church in our community and how his Government would make it their business to support those efforts so that they could be expanded. What Mr. Ingraham refused to do, to his credit, was to pander to hypocrites who measure religion by the frequency of church attendance, in fancy dress, at the greatest number of different churches. Clearly, he was a man who preferred to pray humbly and quietly and to let his actions speak for him.
The FNM Government’s social programme was clearly influenced by Christ’s teaching to help the poor who are always with us – that’s why the FNM increased benefits to old age pensioners, widows and orphans; expanded the school lunch and after school programmes; and made improved health care available close to home for thousands of low and middle income Bahamians.
Recognising all Bahamian citizens as God’s people must also have played a part in the FNM-Government’s determination to bring modern labour laws to our land, and to change laws which sought to steal the dignity and self-worth from children born out of wedlock.
The FNM Government chose to live as Christ taught, to walk the walk, and not just talk the talk. Soon enough many Bahamians who turned their backs on the FNM in May will come to realize that they turned their backs on the wrong political party.
The PM and Crime It seems to have taken machine-gun wielding policeman at his residence to have convinced the Prime Minister that now was the time to declare war on crime. I suppose Bahamians being “shot down like dogs” (his words not mine) was not enough. I don’t know what overcame Mr. Christie as he spoke to children on Sunday. Perhaps, as the newspaper have suggested, he’s “stressed out” – No doubt by the job which he never expected to win and from which he cannot now duck.
Sam Cooper
Columnist on the Official Site of the Free National Movement
31 January, 2003
