Lent is a very good time for persons to reflect on their lives and what is going on around them, and if your position in society is one where that influence extends beyond life’s normal pale, reflection becomes a necessity. It is possible to spend too much time having something to say for the sake of having something to say. The Leader of the Opposition may have found himself in this position. With the possible upturn of the economy looming, one would think that a politician would be more tactful in his remarks about anything that is a part of the machinery that impacts the lives of persons who vote.
His public statements about BTC make good copy, but if he has been looking, he will see that he has been making these statements “alone”. If I did not know better, I would think that he was being set up. Going on record that the BTC deal “will not stand” will put him in a quandary if his party is elected and he keeps his promise to have an inquiry into the BTC sale. He will have to bear the scrutiny of his own judgment, where comparisons are sure to be made between a deal that was able to stand and a deal that could not stand, as the inquiry will have to cover the BTC privatization process, not just the sale to CWC.
It is very difficult to be an Opposition leader in a timeframe where it looks like the party you are opposing may be the caretakers of an economy that is going into an upturn. I will admit that this administration is spending a lot of money, but a lot of what they are spending can be seen. I am still concerned about the progress of the road-work, but those concerns are just incidental because it is common knowledge that most of the stuff we are seeing now could have been completed if all of the administrations were doing their work since 1967. It is just lately that political wannabees are speaking about their visions for the Bahamas, but it may be too late for us; the vision belongs to the persons who are prepared to spend their money in this country, but we (Bahamians) are pre-occupied with talking about it. We cannot continue to support a status-quo that is based on the money from government agencies or foreign investment; the latter may find it convenient but the former cannot survive its continuation.
The Leader of the Opposition and his party have a couple of adversaries who will be speaking by their presence in the national landscape: The Airport Project, the new Straw-Market, an expanding infrastructure, rising oil prices that will cause an increase in tourist arrivals from the U.S., the possibility of having a road system that really works and an economy that may be heading into an upturn. Bahamians have very short memories if they can move around and pay their bills. It is time to change the spiel, any one can be negative when things are going bad, but you cannot afford to let it continue for too long, if you see yourself as a replacement; common sense will tell you that you have to embody some of the positivity that you will have to bring forth as leader. It is not sensible to think your words and attitude are going to change over night, people have to see and hear certain things from prospects; it is not enough to spend a lot of time promoting negativity in the name of naïve political expedience.
Edward Hutcheson
