The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

“Mitchell highlights BTC’s disappointing service” –

The Nassau Guardian, 14th April 2014

Excerpt from this story; “Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell on Saturday highlighted the ‘disappointing’ service provided by [the] Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) since it privatization.

“Speaking in Hong Kong, Mitchell welcomed the end of BTC’s monopoly on the telecommunications market and suggested that competition would improve the quality of service.”

I find it odd that a seasoned politician and diplomat such Minister Mitchell would find this forum an appropriate place to voice his displeasure with BTC. I find it out of place and rather distasteful as a diplomat representing the people of the Bahamas. He is quoted as saying, ‘The main telecommunications player was privatised in our country, but the results have been uneven and universally disappointing in terms in quality of service and the delivery of the product,’ said Mr Mitchell at the South-South Cooperation and Sustainable Development conference.”

Why is it that the Foreign Affairs Minister would feel that this was the appropriate audience for these remarks? It would be reasonable for someone sitting in the audience to draw the conclusion that the telecommunications company, after being privatised, has had most of its staff replaced, maybe even by foreigners. If there was anyone sitting in the audience that actually knew anything about the privatisation of BTC, then it would be reasonable to draw the conclusion that they, the Bahamas, was not to “foreign investor friendly”.

The long and short of it all is that when Minister Mitchell chooses to criticise BTC abroad he is really speaking to the service being provided by our very own people because BTC is still comprised of mostly Bahamians, I would dare say over 90 per cent. I do stand to be corrected and the technicians are the very same Bahamian technicians that have been in place before the company was privatized.

Minister Mitchell does tend to cross the line when he speaks, this being the third time that he has done so. He did so in the Cuban Detainee situation and also when bringing remarks on behalf of the government and the people of the country in a speech before a Caribbean forum earlier this year.

So what is Mr Mitchell’s point in making these remarks, especially in this setting? Is Mr Mitchell calling the person at BTC, the technicians and other service people, incompetent at their jobs and if he is why would he choose this international forum to do so? What message does this send to other foreign investors as he attempts to ‘bad mouth’ one set of foreign investors in front of the world?

VERY CONCERNED

Nassau,

April 14, 2014.