The Tribune

“LANDSLIDE - NO!!!

Who’s really in charge – God!

Will the real prime minister, please stand up?”

At the other end of the telephone last night was a group of laughing, jubilant women. They worked at one of the large hotels and this was the headline that they wanted to see on the front page of today’s Tribune. They were delighted that the gambling referendum had been defeated and wanted the privilege of writing a catchy headline for their favourite newspaper.

The “Yes” Vote team were everywhere — they had the money and they offered every inducement under the sun to buy the Bahamian’s vote. It was a tussle between the rich web shop owners, whose funds seemed limitless, and the Church, which could not match those funds, but outstripped them in their stand for morality and adherence to God’s laws.

Yesterday’s voter turn out was low, not because Bahamians could not leave their jobs to vote — many business either did not open yesterday or closed half day to give their staff an opportunity to go to the polls — but because they felt that it was a mere opinion poll that regardless of the outcome would not be taken seriously. So they decided to ignore it.

Yesterday we were in a hardware store that was closing at 3pm. One of the managers scoffed that he knew most of the staff were looking forward to the afternoon off. They had no intention of going to the polls, he said. However, we decided to engage the pleasant young man — in his early twenties — who was serving us. Yes, he was going to vote, and he was determined to vote “no.” Why? we asked. “Because,” he replied, “this island is much too small to have all this gambling around us.”

In fact, it became offensive during the campaign, when the gambling bosses offered Bahamians shares in their businesses, and Tourism Minister Obie Wichcombe envisioned a gambling paradise for tourists. “What they trying to do?” asked one offended Bahamian, “turn us into a sinful Las Vegas?” The more the dollar signs danced, and the bribes grew, something in the Bahamian psyche rebelled.

Crime was bad enough, but many Bahamians – and what surprised us was that they were young Bahamians — saw a Biblical Sodom and Gomorra in the making and decided to boycott the whole affair. Others decided to go out and make their statement by voting “No.”

Last week we ran into a respected civil servant, who had retired several years ago. During the course of conversation, he said that he had no intention of voting. However, he had changed his mind. Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham was a clever man, whose opinion he respected, he said. Mr Ingraham would understand the issues better than he. And after saying that he had no intention of participating, Mr Ingraham had changed his mind. Mr Ingraham, not only advised Bahamians to go and vote, but to vote No. He must have had a good reason for doing this, said my friend. As a result he too had changed his mind, taken Mr Ingraham’s advice, and intended to vote No.

Mr Ingraham had decided not to vote in a botched process. However, he was even more offended by the Bay Street demonstration, under the protection of the police, by persons who had brazenly broken the law for so many years. It was surprising how much this demonstration offended so many people. And it became even more offensive when Prime Minister Perry Christie praised it as a fine show of democracy.

This was the breaking point for Mr Ingraham. He said having served as an MP for 35 years and as Prime Minister for 15 years, it was intolerable to see the blatant disrespect and disregard of the laws of the land.

“It is impossible for me to see at least three self-declared violators of gaming laws parade through the main street of our city, demonstrate in front of Parliament demanding that the people endorse their illegal behaviour and make them legal, and fear no consequence for their actions from the law-enforcement sector of our country.

“To excuse illegal behaviour because it is supposedly too expensive to counter is unconscionable,” Mr Ingraham said. “To excuse illegal behaviour because it creates employment is inexcusable, and to excuse illegal behaviour because some believe that it will bring additional revenue to the Public Treasury is similarly inexcusable.

“I urge all law-abiding citizens of our land to vote on Monday and to vote no. Non-participation and hence a low voter turnout will work to the benefit of those opposed to law and good order in our country.”

On February 27, 2002 the Ingraham government lost a referendum that would have put Bahamian women on an equal footing with Bahamian men. In the House of Assembly, Mr Christie then Opposition Leader, agreed to support the referendum. However, it was turned into a political football when Mr Christie and his party decided — as did Mr Ingraham last week — to urge Bahamians to vote against it. Mr Ingraham’s government lost the women’s referendum in 2002, and a few months later lost the government to Mr Christie. Yesterday, Mr Christie lost his gambling referendum. Was it because, Mr Ingraham had decided to vote No?

Whatever the cause, the result was a match- draw between the two political rivals.