BTC Union President Bernard Evans should read some more history and get his facts straight before making himself look more foolish than he already has. He wants to compare what’s going on with the sale of BTC to what’s going on in Egypt. Start talking sense. He’s the one act ing like Mubarak.
First of all Mubarak in Egypt was not elected. Hubert Ingraham was elected on behalf of the Bahamian people to do our business. It is Mr. Evans and his union that is acting in an undemocratic manner, threatening to shut down the country because they can’t get their own way.
It was union leaders who threatened to shut down the House of Assembly.
It is Mr. Evans who refused to accept a letter from the duly elected Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, who through the constitution and our laws speaks on behalf of the Bahamian people. I guess Mr. Evans is above the law and the constitution and even bigger than the Bahamian people and the PM. By the way, I wonder if most Bahamians know that BTC employees get 24 per cent of their salary paid into the pension fund every year by BTC, with no contribution by the employees. This is way beyond what employees in companies in the Bahamas and around the world get.
The problem is that many BTC employees want everyone else to have to pay for their big salaries and benefits even as we get poor service and BTC continues to lose value year after year. It’s time for cheaper, quicker and better service.
It is Mr. Evans, who is acting like Mubarak in Egypt, refusing to change and move with the times.
It is Prime Minister Ingraham, the democratically elected leader of The Bahamas who smashed the state monopoly on the broadcast media years ago.
It is our Prime Minister who is getting the state out of the business of monopolizing the telecommunications sector. This will make the country freer and provide more opportunities for Bahamian consumers, shareholders and BTC employees.
As the democratically elected Prime Minister, Mr. Ingraham has to be concerned with the needs of all Bahamians, not just some. This is the way a democracy works, Mr. Evans, something that you and Mubarak in Egypt are now learning. It is you and Mubarak who are concerned with your own special and narrow interest. Thank God for democrats like the Prime Minister and those young people and others in the streets in Egypt who want the kind of change that will make their country and our Bahamas freer and more progressive.
Wake up, Mr. Evans, you are on the wrong side of history.
AVS
Nassau, Bahamas
February, 2011
