Dear Editor,
At the outset, I wish to remind readers that as the last Minister responsible for Junkanoo and various other cultural matters under the previous (FNM) government administration, with the exception of one instance when I acted as host of a radio talk show where Junkanoo bleachers was the topic, I have deliberately steered clear from public comment on the recent Junkanoo parades and the great degree of controversy surrounding them..
The parades and charades have all come and gone. The public and the politicians have commented and condemned from all sides of the divide. The reports have been made and the independent accounting firm has also reported, analyzed, compared and commented.
The government has now gone on record as having lavished high praise – in the form of a resolution – on the Minister of Culture for producing a wonderful series of parades, elevating the cultural form to new heights, providing an atmosphere of safety for the public and, in general, doing a jolly good job for the Bahamian people with the Bahamian’s people’s money.
Mr. Editor, at this juncture, I can no longer remain silent.
The resolution which was presented in the House of Assembly last Wednesday by the government, commending the Minister of Culture for the excellent job the government claims he has done with the recent Junkanoo parades is the greatest insult a government could have slapped in the face of a nation.
Imagine this, Mr. Editor: A government Minister enters into a multi-million dollar contractual arrangement without the consent of the Cabinet. That’s illegal as well as dis-respectful, not to mention reckless.
The Cabinet colludes and connives to cover the illegal action by agreeing to fork over the money and save the Minister’s face. That’s illegal and conspiratorial.
The deal is done and the contracted-for commodities arrive with many more costs and labour-related issues than anticipated, but the show goes on and once again, the Cabinet continues it’s conspiracy of silence and its assent by silence.
The public, the politicians, the print media, and the independent electronic media continue to ask questions and to wonder if the deal is a good one considering the economic times, the amount of money in question and the fact that at the end of it all, Bahamians would be left with nothing tangible to show for all the money. The Minister continues to assert that the investment is a sound one and that he will prove the doubters wrong by racking up great profits.
Show time arrives and the house is never full or even decently half-full for any particular show. Many reasons (excuses?) are identified for the lack of full houses, but the bottom line is that the warm bodies do not patronize the show in enough numbers to provide a break-even position for the initial huge dollar investment. The Minister tells us never mind the evidence of our eyes, all is well.
After the show, Mr. Editor, public comment does not die down and people now are demanding a full accounting and an explanation from the Minister about the obvious huge loss which occurred and why after such an investment, we have nothing tangible to hold.
The Minister and the government announces the hiring of independent accountants to make a report and to compare these recent parades with the last ones from the previous (FNM) administration.
The report is delayed for an inordinate amount of time, but when it finally arrives, it points to a tremendous loss of money, and again, Bahamian people have nothing to hold.
What we do have, Mr. Editor, is a show of the callous dis-regard which the Minister displayed for the legal framework which binds his actions. What we have is a display of total recklessness on the part of a Minister with regard to the spending of government funds. What we have is contempt for the system of public discourse. What we have is the decision of a Cabinet to cover up the Minister’s lack of judgment and disregard for the system of fiscal prudence and accountability.
That’s bad enough Mr. Editor, but it gets worse than that.
In a sinister and self-serving attempt to save face and close ranks, the entire government (Cabinet and Back-bench) connives and cooks up a plan to congratulate the Minister in Parliament – that noble house of honourable men and women.
I have never been so offended and insulted. As a citizen of this Commonwealth, I feel that I am being mocked at by the leaders of my country at the highest level in the place of highest regard and honour.
How could they conceive of such an insulting, ludicrous and untrue resolution about the matters which took place surrounding Junkanoo last winter? How can they show so great a degree of contempt for the intelligence of right-thinking citizens of these islands. How dare they come to the honourable House of Parliament to perpetrate half-truths and mis-conceptions on our people? How dare they contract our money illegally, spend it unwisely, lose it obscenely and then tell me the fellow who did it is a great guy?
How dare they use the high office of Parliament to make fools out of the Bahamian people? How dare they bring such an obscene resolution praising an arrogant bumbler before the Parliament?
One by one, members of the governing party got up to pay homage and lip service to an offensive and obscene resolution which attempted to tell the nation that the Minister did a fantastic job, each of them giving wide display to the utter contempt they all hold for the people whom they are pledged to serve. One of them (a Minister) was so arrogant in his disregard for the true facts, and insouciant about the sensitivities of the thinking public that he boasted about his party parliamentarians “sticking together.”
Surely, the Bahamian public deserves better than this blatant display of clannishness and cronyism on the part of members of the government in the face of an obviously expensive faux-pas on the part of a member. At best, the public expects censure, at very least, the public deserves presentation of the report with a minimum degree of debate and excuses from a rightfully remorseful and embarrassed government.
We do not expect a day of parliamentary praise and commendations, Mr. Editor. That’s an obscene insult to our collective intelligence.
Or is our Parliament a real life enactment of the story of the “Emperor’s New Clothes”?. Remember, the people saw no garments yet all rose up to sing about the splendour of the non-existent clothing for which the Emperor had paid vast sums of money.
In our case, the money has been spent, the goods have not been delivered and we do not wish the insult of telling us what a jolly good fellow the Minister is to be added to the injury of his having mis-spent our money in the first place.
Yours etc,
Hon. Theresa Moxey-Ingraham
27th March, 2003.
