Today, we note what appears to be the penchant and preference of any number of elites in The Bahamas, namely that of pandering to mass emotion. Those who orchestrate political conventions and election campaigns are past masters at constructing such spectacles. The problem with these is that they are often long on glitter, and woefully short on substance.
This is the fear we currently have for the Progressive Liberal Partyﾴs upcoming convention. If that organization goes into convention with a view towards merely putting the best face on their partyﾴs performance as government, it will please only its most diehard supporters. However, if the PLP goes into convention and subjects itself to honest soul-searching, it will gain for itself new respect and deeper support among the masses of Bahamians.
Our sense of the matter tells us that Bahamians ﾖ in their majority ﾖ are tired of hype and that they know sense when they hear it. But as we continue to suggest, Bahamians ﾖ in their majority ﾖ will not be led by people who are not prepared to lead by example. Even now, the Progressive Liberal Party can straighten up and fly right. As in all such matters, a word to the wise should be sufficient.
At a time when very many Bahamians are struggling to cope with any number of lifeﾴs vicissitudes and challenges, the Progressive Liberal Party ﾖ in convention ﾖ promises that their 48th convention will be a ﾓspectacular showﾔ of the new kind of Bahamas that they promise to create. As their party chairman, Raynard Rigby underscores ﾓWe resolve to transform the island economies and social dynamics of this country one island at a time.ﾔ
While we have no objection in principle to such brave words and lofty pronouncements, we caution and counsel Mr. Rigby and his colleagues about the inherent power of words. As perhaps he already knows, words have the power to enthral and seduce. They also have the power to return as a mockery to those who use them, without sufficient thought.
When, for example, words are strung together to suggest that those who mouth them are somehow miracle workers, the day is not far off when the supposed miracle workers are exposed as fraudsters and hucksters. There is already a dawning realisation on the part of many people inside and outside the Progressive Liberal Party that many promises made in the run up to the last general elections cannot be met. As one government minister after the other solemnly attests, the administration is in a tight spot fiscally.
While the government is in a position to tread water, so to speak, it is not in a position to do much more. This reality should oblige them to tone down the rhetoric about ﾑtransformation, island economies and social dynamics,ﾴ and focus their energies on formulating and implementing realistic plans and projects.
If the government was to move in this direction, they would find that Bahamians in their majority will go along. Even though it may appear counter-intuitive, there is a case to be made for a radical reorganization of the way social services are funded. From our perspective, those who consume them should be obliged to pay something ﾖ if only a token amount ﾖ for them.
As things now stand, there is still a prevailing view that when something is free, it is not highly valued. Paradoxically, the situation also obtains that when there are truly useful public goods, many who can pay more opt for the ﾑfreebiesﾴ. This then has the perverse effect of depriving some of the neediest, people who have no other resort than state assistance. So, as far as we are concerned, the Progressive Liberal Party ﾖ in convention ﾖ should be concerned with substantive issues.
Questions concerning education, labour, immigration, training, citizenship and genuine local government throughout The Bahamas, are matters which should be highest on the PLPﾴs convention talk sheet. Again, as we have previously noted, thought and talk should be precursors to effective action.
Editorial, The Bahama Journal
