St. Thomas Aquinas in his treatise on Kingship is quoted as saying, “Now the higher the end to which a government is ordained, the loftier that government is.” The present government is the outgrowth of the pre-1992 FNM government, whose avowed lofty goal was to wipe every tear from every Bahamian eye. In other words, pain and suffering would be eradicated through the efforts of the Progressive Liberal Party government. This indeed is an extremely tall order, which no one really believes can be fulfilled on this side of life, but it does indeed connote an underlying philosophy and sensitivity that should motivate the Progressive Liberal Party to good governance. But has it?
The new PLP has now been in government for more than a year. Supposedly grounded in the old philosophy, it gained the confidence of the people by offering help and hope, because the country under the Free National Movement was being sold to foreigners who had more power than Bahamians in their own country. Furthermore the government of the day, it was said, was too arrogant and insensitive.
That government offered help and hope from oppression through openness, honesty, transparency and freedom of speech, which eventually led to its undoing. Despite efforts to live out those ideals, the people loudly rejected it in favour of equivocal language, which helped to create a great deal of unease and mistrust among the people. But what are we now seeing and hearing from our government?
In the main people want to see their government succeed. However, there appears to be an uneasy feeling among the electorate, that they were duped, when time and again they see and hear our government not living out those lofty ideals that were so loudly and persuasively proclaimed prior to ascending to power. Many of the words and catch phrases continue to be used, but very often actions fail to support them.
The Prime Minister, for example, stated on assuming office, that the treasury was broke, that he didn’t know that it was in such dire straits. His government, as a result he said, had to borrow $186 million to satisfy unpaid debts. He was chairman of the national accounts committee, yet his colleagues even today continue to echo that position as reason for not being able to carry out many “government functions.” Yet the electorate has observed the appointment of an extremely large cabinet, along with numerous parliamentary and quasi-parliamentary positions at fairly handsome salaries.
Yet when the leader of the official opposition requested financial documents surrounding the loss of more than $1 million for the last Junkanoo parades, he was roundly chastised for not knowing the information as chairman of the accounts committee. In fact the minister responsible for the loss during these belt-tightening times, was greatly acclaimed, which has created some credibility problems in the minds of the electorate.
In The Bahama Journal of Monday, 19th May, the major front-page headline read, “Tax Breaks Hurting Economy.” The article said that government officials were expressing increasing concerns that the ‘unusually large level of duty free concessions’ was contributing to the rigidity of government spending during its first year in government. It would appear that this observation was targeting concessions granted to foreign investors.
Here again the prime minister, who was leader of the official opposition at the time (2001-2002) and chairman of the public accounts committee, must have known the impact of the situation; yet one of the first pieces of legislation during the first year of his leadership as the government was to grant tax exemption to first time builders of homes under $250,000.00. Other exemptions were also granted with a view to stimulating the economy, thus improving the employment situation.
Under the previous government the concessions seemed to have worked and it was thought that the same results would follow under the present administration. Now the suggestion seems to be that the foreign investment incentives were overly generous and contracting them would not affect an already sluggish economy, which, a few months ago the government said was doing better than had been suspected.
Some months ago, this present government as did the previous, stated its opposition to the introduction of income tax, even though external forces appear to be pressuring us to pursue other forms of taxation. The government has gone on record admitting that the present tax regime falls short of providing the necessary funds to accommodate the demands of a modern and efficient government. Commission reports have begun to make this very clear, yet government refuses to make the necessary move, in an open and honest fashion, to study alternative tax regimes.
If government expects to achieve some measurable success as ethical teacher of the nation, it will have to display more honesty and openness and consistency in words and actions. Failing to do so, will lead to more and confusion and uncertainty in foreign investors and electorate. Let’s hope that the Christian values, the higher end to which our government should aspire, will prevail and undergird our public life.
Viewpoints, The Bahama Journal
