The Tribune

RE: The PLP uses the church to win elections and then kicks it to the curb after having accomplished its goal of winning.

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Some smart aleck within the Gold Rust government of PM Perry Christie conjured up the bright idea of importing the foreign carnival festival to The Bahamas and pumping $9m of the Bahamian people’s hard earned money into it.

Adding injury to insult was news of carnival commission members’ failed plan to spend $2m to bring in American pop singer Janet Jackson to perform at the said event. What is equally deeply disturbing are reports circulating in some segments of the media that the PLP is flirting with the idea of bringing in Barbadian pop singer Rihanna instead, who is featured on several Dailymotion and Youtube videos in scantily clad bikinis at the 2013 and 2011 Barbados Crop Over Festival. The videos are tasteless, crude, explicit, vulgar and sexually suggestive. Has the PLP lost its cotton picking mind?

I thought the PLP said during its Gold Rust campaign that it believed in Bahamians. So why is it so hellbent on promoting a foreign cultural event and bringing in a foreign entertainer to perform? Recall that it was this same administration that bent over backwards to accommodate Canadian Peter Nygard in passing stem cells legislation. Believe in non-Bahamians should be the PLP’s 2017 campaign cliche.

The PLP under Christie finds itself in the all too familiar predicament of locking horns with the Christian community over its ill advised policies. The Bahamas Christian Council was well within its rights to warn the government of the lewd and sexually suggestive costumes women usually adorn themselves with during the orgiastic and vulgar carnival festivities. In typical fashion, the Christian Council’s wise admonishment was nonchalantly dismissed by PLP Chairman Bradley Roberts, who obviously spoke on behalf of Christie and his Cabinet underlings. If Bahamians have learned nothing else about this government, it is that it does not respect the church.

One high ranking member of the Christie Cabinet called the late Dr Myles Munroe ignorant. The Gold Rust government thumbed its nose at the church by legalising web shop gaming, despite the results of the January 28, 2013 gambling referendum, in which the majority of voters voted ‘‘no’’ to legalising the said industry. The Christian Council opposed the PLP’s decision. But this did not seem to matter to this administration.

The PLP’s arrogant, smug attitude towards the church is eerily similar to the attitude it displayed towards the church in July 2004, when Christie, serving in his first term as PM, allowed lesbian American entertainer Rosie O’Donnell and her sponsored gay cruise ship to visit The Bahamas, despite loud protests from a cross section of the religious community.

Interestingly, that year of 2004 was only two years removed from the PLP ‘s 2002 lopsided victory at the election polls with the aid of Bishop Neil Ellis and the church. In 2004, Christie and several Cabinet ministers were busy ranting about religion in Bishop Ellis’ revival is here crusades, even though the revival did absolutely nothing to spiritually transform the lackluster character of the PLP, as it was wallowing in corruption. The PLP used the church in 2002 to win the election. It also used the church in 2012 during its Gold Rust rallies. Several prominent church ministers were featured in its rallies, as the party sold the Bahamian people a pipe dream.

It can probably be argued that over 80 percent of the promises outlined in the Charter for Governance remains unfulfilled. After having won the elections in 2002 and 2012 with the aid of the church, the PLP has kicked the Christian community to the curb. This government under PM Perry Gladstone Christie does not regard the church. The church has faced similar shoddy treatment from the PLP under Sir Lynden Pindling’s stewardship. Recall that the late Baptist pastor and educator Carlton Francis, who once served in the Pindling administration, was treated like trash for taking a stand against casino gambling. Even back then, the PLP was in the habit of using the Christian community, specially the Baptist denominations.

In 1965, Pindling along with a Bahamian delegation, including popular Baptist preacher Rev H W Brown, visited the United Nations in New York in a quest to end minority rule in The Bahamas. Without the church’s support, the PLP would not have gained majority rule on January 10, 1967. Despite all the religious overtures, including the biblical appellation of ‘‘Black Moses’’ given to Sir Lynden, the PLP under his watch was a hardcore secular and irreligious government that stumbled from one scandal to another.

The church must stop allowing itself to be used by these people. The year 2017 is only 23 months away. In its desperation to retain power, the party will once again seek to utilise its stalwart supporters who are high ranking members of the church in an effort to pull the wool over the eyes of the Bahamian people.

THE WHISTLEBLOWER

February 9, 2015.