The Tribune

THE late Sir Stafford Sands, the Bahamas’ first finance minister, would often warn that “a piece of paper will stay still and let you write anything on it.” It was his way of saying: “Don’t believe all that you read” as he dismissed a proposition he knew was bogus.

The same with politicians. Let a politician sniff an election and he is at his creative best at promising a gullible electorate “all the world and more besides,” knowing if he wins he can’t deliver a fraction of what he promised.

But never mind – that’s just politics, the callous politician will laugh as he tucks his conscience in a bag and sends it packing. The lesson to learn from this is: Never believe the promises of a politician.

We were recently going through old files in The Tribune’s “morgue” when we came across the edition of Saturday, April 27, 2002. The first paragraph read:

“The Progressive Liberal Party will honour all agreements made between the government and investors, including agreements entered into by the FNM, if elected to office, said Perry Christie in a 15-minute address to the nation.”

Mr Christie, desperate to become prime minister the following month, was also desperate to change the image of a party noted for being anti-business. Investors smarted under the PLP’s anti-foreign attitude, although their investments were urgently needed to keep`the country in business.

Mr Christie promised to replace the “red tape” with a “red carpet” for investors, in order to provide shortened periods between their proposals and the approval of land development projects. He promised local and foreign investors that they would find his administration a “dependable ally.”

Then the edition of June 19, 1990 caught our eye. There we read a solemn pledge by no other than Sir Lynden Pindling, the Bahamas’ first prime minister.

“Unlike the FNM,” he said, “which will break any agreement, this PLP government prefers to honour our agreements even those of a former government.”

In making this statement, Sir Lynden seemed to have forgotten that he had already taken his big “bend or break” stick to Freeport to humble investors. He later moved in to break an agreement that protected Freeport licensees. British constitutional lawyer, Tasker Watkins, QC, when consulted by the licensees, told them that if government attempted to amend the Hawksbill Creek Act to remove their rights, it could do it, but it would be a “rare abuse of the legislative powers which the government undoubtedly possessed, a breach of faith and a breach of contract.”

Government broke the contract and Freeport has not been the same since.

Now fast forward to the present. Here we see Prime Minister Christie entertaining Digicel, which wants to move into the Bahamas’ telecommunications market. What is offensive is the way Mr Christie is touting Digicel’s sales pitch during a period when, under a contract signed by the FNM government, the market is controlled exclusively by Cable & Wireless until 2014.

Is this Mr Christie’s way of bringing further pressure on Cable & Wireless, which purchased 51 per cent of a collapsing BTC in 2011 for $210,000? Although Cable & Wireless had done its due diligence, it had no idea how bad BTC’s network was until it took possession. “It was close to collapse,” we were told. “In fact when they were changing over it almost collapsed – that it why the public was having so much trouble with their phones.”

We understand that the finances were in a “terrible state” with tremendous “wastage of public funds.”

As a result it is reasonable to believe that Cable & Wireless in an effort to get BTC strong enough to face competition in 2014 probably had to invest more than planned to get the network up to standard.

In the meantime, they have a hostile government that wants to take over their majority shares and put them in a minority position. This is the very reason that the Ingraham government had to agree to sell 50 per cent of the company — no sensible businessman would invest so much money and not have control of such a crippled enterprise.

But the pressure is on. Mr Christie has said his government is trying to negotiate a change of the C&W contract. His government obviously favours a link-up with Digicel. However, we suggest that Digicel do its own due diligence before it gets too cozy with this government– remember “paper will hold still and let you write anything on it!” Already the unions are kicking up because Digicel is not unionised — and if Digicel were wise it would remain so.

Internal pressure is obviously being brought to bear. Government is allowed to appoint a certain number of its own to the BTC board. It can also appoint the board’s deputy chairman.

Government has announced that PLP chairman Bradley Roberts will represent it on the BTC board. Imagine, Bradley Roberts! Someone who wants government to renegotiate the contract to get the majority shares for itself, and, as has been suggested, seems favour doing business with Digicel. In our opinion he would appear to be a “hostile” member of the team. But maybe this is a part of the strategic pressure to make C&W capitulate under government pressure.

In the meantime some of the Bahamian staff loyal to the new owners, suggests that something is amiss in their company.

“While we’re trying to fix the company, certain mysterious things are happening. Something is afoot. Operatives seem to be about trying to destabilise the company,” we were told.

If Mr Christie wants the world to believe that his government is a friend of business, then he certainly is going about it in the wrong way. And don’t think the business world is not watching. They’re not only watching, but thumbs are all pointing down on doing business in the Bahamas.