It is good to give thanks. Thus did the PLP brass gather in church Sunday past to celebrate the first anniversary of its election to office last May. Verily, the PLP might have also invoked the patron saints of lost and hopeless causes given the abysmal record of its first 100 and now 365 days and counting.
Addressing a less than overflowing crowd at the service, Prime Minister Perry Christie struggled to offer any significant accomplishments even as he sought to lift the mood of various disconsolate and frustrated party members. While church is a place of hope, many have lost hope in Christie.
If a day can be a lifetime in politics, what a seeming lifetime it has felt like for scores of Bahamians over the past year given the PLP’s charter of unfulfilled hope and broken promises. And, oh the blunders.
A national survey to gauge the public’s views of the party’s major blunders since May 7 would likely produce seven times seven. Though not exhaustive, the seven outlined here showcase a pattern of blunder and a prime minister hardly in command of his freewheeling and chaotic administration.
The blunders outlined are specific missteps and mishaps. In addition to these and significant others, is the abysmal failure of the PLP in keeping promises such as those 10,000 new jobs and doubling the government’s investment in education.
Now we are told that the promised National Health Insurance program is really, really, really on the way. There is just now appointed an Implementation Committee. Really? Why wasn’t such a committee appointed a year ago? Fear not, uninsured Bahamians, the Christie administration has a plan and even a committee. What amazing progress.
In a reprise of its last disastrous term, the Christie administration is as shambolic as before. A chronically indecisive Christie has slipped comfortably back into his late-again routine; routinely late for various appointments and reliably unable to make decisions in a timely manner.
Surprising
What is surprising is that quite a number of people are actually surprised that Christie and his colleagues are not much different than last time. How amazing is the human capacity for short and repressed memories, and magical thinking.
In addition to the “déjà vu all over again”, as Yogi Berra might say, is the game-playing by the administration on matters ranging from gambling to the spectacle involved in the quixotic quest to supposedly buy back BTC.
The buyer’s remorse of many voters is capsulized in an online poll in The Tribune with an overwhelming number of respondents grading the government as a failure. A dire critique has come from columnist and stalwart PLP Philip Galanis, whose blistering commentary of the administration is revealing and may be a bellwether.
A blunder is a “stupid or careless mistake”. A blunder may result from poor judgment, ideological bias, blinding self-interest, misreading the public mood, and other blinders.
Power reveals, with the PLP’s blunders offering insights into various unspoken mindsets and private agendas within the administration. Blunders are events people remember, which sometimes come back to haunt politicians, often searing an impression or a feeling into the consciousness of voters.
The seven blunders following are in no order of rank, except for the first, which ranks as the mother of all blunders.
One: Christie’s gambling referendum debacle was a comedy of errors, a study of sheer incompetence, conceived in arrogance and hush-hush, wrapped in flip-flopping, ending in defeat and a loss of significant political capital and goodwill.
What an amazing feat: Christie and his cohorts managed in one sweep to offend numbers’ bosses and their employees, much of the church, pro- and anti-gambling supporters, as well as a general public amused and confused by the spectacle. The critique of the referendum by Dr. Myles Munroe will have a lasting impact.
Two: One of the pledges which helped the PLP to secure its relatively slight margin of victory was the promise of mortgage relief, which the party aggressively touted as a lifeline to homeowners desperate for help.
Elected, the party repeated the promise. A year later, not a single homeowner has been helped, though we are now told that a paltry four or five homeowners might qualify for help. It is one of the most egregious and heartless of the party’s broken promises.
Lest we forget, the government allocated $10 million for its mortgage relief program. The program has been a colossal failure.
Christie’s response on his failure to ensure relief was stunning. He claimed he was disappointed. He doesn’t get to be disappointed on this issue as if it has nothing to do with him.
The failure on this is squarely his as minister of finance. He should have issued a groveling apology for not providing in a timely manner the relief he promised. This failure crystallizes the public’s perception of the kind of prime minister he is: late-again, stunningly incompetent, almost as if he’s living in alternative reality.
Three: The manner in which the administration has handled the issue of work permits for foreigners has left PLPs and FNMs stunned, riling permit holders for domestic workers and frightening much of the business community.
While there can be reasonable debate on various immigration matters, the politics of nationalism can easily backfire in the wrong hands. The government has come across as belligerent and ham-handed, smacking of xenophobia.
Four: The prime minister has certainly improved his flip-flopping skills in the last year. He did so again on the promise of a referendum on oil drilling. It remains curious why the announcement of a deferral came from the environment ministry and not the Cabinet office. Perhaps this mystery will one day be solved.
As with the gambling referendum, the PLP appears more intent on putting private interests ahead of Bahamians first. Much of what Dr. Munroe said on the gambling referendum seems applicable on the issue of oil drilling.
Five: Though the PLP attempts to spin its promise of doubling the public investment in education, Christie made such a promise year before last in a national address on crime.
The clumsy and at times high-handed manner in which it has handled the hike of fees for COB students has hurt a party which has a history of reaching out to college students at home and abroad. This matter is doing enormous damage to the PLP with students and younger voters.
Six: Relatedly, that infamous barring of the students from COB from attending a meeting of the House of Assembly is going to haunt the PLP for a long time. The event has resonance, a resonance that exploded on social media, giving a potentially lasting, poor impression of the PLP in the minds of potentially thousands of young people.
Seven: This blunder is more of a rolling and collective one, with each appointment adding fuel to the widespread impression that the Christie administration overwhelmingly seems more like a retirement party for a largely old boys’ network and decidedly less like a bridge to the future.
From diplomatic missions to ministry after ministry, the mostly old boys are back including at the police force where certain retirees have been reengaged and placed over gazetted officers.
With buyer’s remorse for say a new cell phone, one can often return the item fairly quickly. Not so with a government. Sadly, the PLP’s first year after returning to office is likely a harbinger of things to come. More worrisome, given Christie’s style of leadership, things can get even worse.
By: Simon
Author of the ‘Front Porch’ column in the Nassau Guardian
and contributor on www.bahamapundit.com
