This is why the Progressive Liberal Party ﾖ eighteen months on ﾖ is no longer able to bask in the glow of slickly packaged promises.
As we have previously noted, people want purposeful action. They will settle for nothing less. Again, as we have previously argued, the current government can yet turn a bad situation around. The way forward calls for the government to take the lead in a focused re-conceptualisation of what it means to be concerned with nation building. This also implies that the government can and should take the lead in energising and animating a broader discussion of the social contract, under-girding the efforts of the entire Bahamian Nation.
So, instead of the current situation where most Bahamians are concerned with individual advancement and ﾑgetting over,ﾴ regardless the cost to others, the focus would be put on pulling together for the common good. For example, were unionised workers imbued with a deeper sense of commitment to the nation, they would surely temper some of their more extreme demands, sometimes for pay increases which are exorbitant. And too, were Bahamians more community oriented, fewer of them would engage in rapacious business practices. In extreme forms, this logic also applies to people who resort to even more extreme behaviour, sometimes violent ﾖ to get their share of the goods.
The fundamental issue, then, revolves around trying to find a way out of this self-indulgent morass. To move forward, Bahamians must ﾖ we submit ﾖ so conduct themselves that they are individually and collectively ﾑtransformedﾴ. This will only come about once they have a keener respect for the dignity and value of their brothers and sisters. In other words, if the Bahamian Nation is to be put on the path to real transformation, Bahamians must open themselves up to the good that comes from forging genuine community, and from the value of a social contract which emphasises caring, sharing, mutual respect, hard work and an abiding respect for the rule of law.
In other words, Bahamians should reject ideologies and arguments which appear to condone a savage capitalism, where ﾓdog eat dogﾔ is the order of the day. Were they to move in this direction, they would themselves be the precursors of a truly genuine ﾑsocial transformationﾴ.
Eighteen months have now elapsed since the supposedly ﾑNewﾴ Progressive Liberal Party was successful in wresting the reins of government from the Free National Movement. While the reasons for its triumph are many, there is no disputing the fact that the PLPﾴs victory owed much to weaknesses inherent in the FNMﾴs organization, design and purpose.
One extreme perspective holds that it is not so much a fact that the PLP won, but that the Free National Movement was in free fall months before its rout and implosion were made manifest and official on May 2, 2002. A year and a half later, a once triumphant Progressive Liberal Party is being obliged to contend with a persistent undercurrent of complaint, much of it directed at Prime Minister Christieﾴs leadership style.
His harshest critics excoriate him for what they perceive as his far too laid back approach to leadership. These observers ﾖ some of them businesspersons and entrepreneurs ﾖ say that there are any number of ventures which are dormant, as they await Prime Ministerial and Cabinet action. In addition to these kinds of issues, the critics often recite a litany of instances, where rot has been allowed to set in. While these kinds of criticisms may have been brushed aside as being little more than sour grapes from sore FNM losers, there is a germ of truth to the complaint that the government is insufficiently attentive to certain matters over which it can exert control.
Their main point is that much of the problems in todayﾴs Bahamas derives from a political culture which is rooted in cronyism, indecision and dependency. So, instead of focusing on efficiency, performance and productivity, attention is lavished on ﾑtaking careﾴ of any number of buddies and clients.
In times past, when money was abundant, some of these issues could be papered over. However, in a situation where ﾑthings are tightﾴ Bahamians tend to claw and fight to get what they say is their fair share. Those not in a position to curry favour with powerful politicos, are forced to turn to their own devices, thus what seems a rooted culture of greed, endemic corruption and slackness.
This is the situation which faces any leader in The Bahamas, who would wish to be concerned with ﾑtransformingﾴ The Bahamas. This applies as much to leadership in the Progressive Liberal Party as it does to their nemeses in opposition circles. When politicians come calling, and mouthing mantras about what they propose to do, sometime in the indefinite future, the sceptics are absolutely right when they put the barbed question as to when word and action are to come into congruent alignment.
Editorial, The Bahama Journal
