The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I WISH to disagree somewhat with both letter writers under the headings: "Electorate has matured" and "No one guessed right in election predictions".

Concerning the first heading: first of all I wish someone would ask the new leader to desist his childish behaviour of throwing jeers at the Bahamian people by making crude remarks about the recent election and pontificating that "not only did I win but I sent ...."

It is so very unbecoming for a leader to behave in such a manner. So one must ask who matured the people or politicians?

The second letter relates to the first topic and speaks to the unexpected poll results by pollsters. Recently, I was reading replies to the question whether democracy is the best form of government. Surprisingly, nearly all respondents answered in the negative. The main factor against the system as it is practised today in most countries is that "the majority of people are not that (competent) or well informed and are massively prone to manipulation.

Government by the majority is essentially a government by the lowest common denominator - huge numbers of people with little understanding of an issue but a strongly held emotional viewpoint will vote on it led by their bigotry rather any modicum of sense..." He goes on to give an example of the Euro and how an economic issue degenerated into petty nationalism culminating in "save the pound" campaigns.

Cynical though that example might be, there is a Bahamian example which followed the independence campaigns. One member of staff enquired when the gold bars would be shipped from England to The Bahamas, I replied that I did not know about gold bars being shipped. Further, I told her that Britain would give a lasting gift, i.e. the Police College as one of our gifts upon attaining independence. I surmised that what she had heard was political rhetoric to sway the electorate to vote in one direction. Needless to say she was disappointed.

The other point concerning the recent elections was that there were no limits on campaign contributions.

Another point was that the leader of the opposing party maintained the view that there was no world recession that affected The Bahamas, and if there was, the Bahamas made it worse - how ridiculous.

Finally, there were those in the communities who epitomised the saying of "swallowing the slogans hook, line and sinkers." So what result could be expected but a totally skewed result.

Another bad habit of the incoming personnel is to blame the previous holders of posts.

This is ludicrous. Nowhere else whether in the civil service or the private sector can persons get away with abdicating their responsibilities by blaming the people whom they fought to take over their jobs. Now that they have been assigned positions, they are expected to function from day one for which they are being paid from the Public Treasury.

NASSAUVIAN

Nassau,

June 11, 2012.