LAST WEEK we wrote about how foreign investors, Bahamian lawyers, businessmen, and many Bahamian families and others with immigration entitlements were suffering from governmentﾴs failure to consider their applications in a timely fashion.
We are told that since the Christie governmentﾴs election more than a year ago, there have been no more than two Immigration Board meetings on these applications. At least that was the situation up to Juneﾗ two months ago. We have no reason to believe they have bestirred themselves to hold any meetings since then.
Many residents blame the Immigration department ﾗ the civil servants ﾗ for the delay. However, the blame is misplaced. The Immigration Board is not the civil service, it is the Cabinet ﾗ the very heart of government.
We are told that these applications have to come before the Cabinet ﾗ even spousal permits, which under the Ingraham government were treated as automatic after the couple had lived together for five years.
In nothing that is done is there any sense of urgency, or appreciation that because of delays a personﾴs life or business has to be put on hold until a government official makes a decision. There seems to be no appreciation that in most instances ﾓtime is of the essenceﾔ and contracts can be lost because precious time was lost. Mr Christie as a lawyer should understand what this can mean.
For example, we were recently told that it could take up to a year to probate a will. We know of a will that took seven months to probate, and the persons involved, although they thought it an unacceptable length of time to wait, were pleased they had got it under a year.
ﾓHow can a family carry on a business,ﾔ commented a lawyer recently, ﾓwhen his children canﾴt get his will probated?ﾔ
And what does government care. The dead hand of inefficiency is felt by almost every business in this country. There are so many ways that private enterprise is held back, either by the slow pace of various government departments or governmentﾴs lack of a broad vision for the country.
Recently, we have heard too many young Bahamians, who have so much talent to offer this country, say they have to get out because they feel their dreams are being smothered by narrow-minded bureaucracy.
It is such a shame.
In the tourism business we have heard that communication between the Ministry of Tourism and the Tourism Board has never been worse.
During the last administration the Ministry of Tourism and the Tourism Board would pool their advertising resources so as not to duplicate and thus waste precious dollars.
There was a concerted effort and a joint plan to use governmentﾴs and private enterpriseﾴs tourism dollars to best advantage in a joint promotional strategy.
We understand that these lines of communication have now broken down and the private sector ﾓhasnﾴt a clueﾔ what is going on.
In other words, they are each going their separate ways. As anyone with an iota of business sense knows this means that there is now wastage of public funds that we are constantly being reminded should be managed prudently.
Not too long ago Prime Minister Christie was describing the ingredients of a true leader.
He said the test of leadership is not to feel insecure about oneﾴs job or position, but to allow those around the table to blossom into their own.
Mr Christie might be content to allow a certain amount of blossoming, but this canﾴt be allowed to go on at the countryﾴs expense.
In the end there is only one man who can hold the political fibre together and that is the leader. He can listen to the opinions of others, and weigh the advice that is given, but in the end there is only one man who can make the decision ﾗ the leader, not those spreading their wings and blossoming around him. There has to be a strong tug from the centre to keep the whole together. The Bahamas is getting too much ﾓblossomingﾔ and not enough of a strong tug forward from the leader.
ﾓVision is not enough, it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs,ﾔ said Vaclav Havel, president of the Czech republic.
The Bahamas needs a prime minister who is prepared to lead his people up those stairs.
Editorial, The Tribune
September 1, 2003
