The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet Minister yesterday conceded that the Bahamas was “in a mess by many measures”, and warned that painful “radical surgery” was necessary to haul both the economy and society back on the right path.

Khaalis Rolle, minister of state for investments, said the Bahamas was still trying to treat the symptoms rather than the underlying causes of its numerous problems, while expecting the same strategies to deliver different results.

Addressing a luncheon given by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) Bahamas branch, Mr Rolle said that when measured by United Nations (UN) protocols, this nation’s murder and gun crime rates defined it as a ‘war zone’.

He contrasted this uncomfortable finding with his view out of the Luciano’s Restaurant, featuring the multi-billion dollar Atlantis resort and the mega yachts moored in - and cruising - the Nassau harbour.

Placing this within the context of the proposed National Development Plan, which is being produced under his watch, Mr Rolle said the data collected suggested the Bahamas had also “flat lined” in terms of tourism and foreign direct investment (FDI) growth.

The Bahamian economy, he suggested, largely remained a tourism “one trick pony”, and was “paying the price for the infamous 1980s”, when it failed to capitalise on the momentum created by its 1973 independence.

Noting the “wide gap” between what tourism and financial services both contributed to Bahamian gross domestic product (GDP), Mr Rolle said: “The Bahamas has, for lack of a better word, been a one-trick pony.

“Why haven’t we been able to diversify our economy in a substantial way so that tourism is not the only major contributor to our success?”

Sticking to the ‘questioning’ theme, the Minister recalled how ex-Court of Appeal president, Dame Joan Sawyer, had earlier told the CIArb lunchon that the Bahamas was “in a mess”.

“The question that we have to ask is: Why?” Mr Rolle added.

He suggested that “the only thing that separates us” from the high-growth economies such as Singapore, Island and Hong Kong was the absence of a National Development Plan.

“By many measures we are in a mess,” Mr Rolle admitted, adding that when the Bahamas “started out in the 1960s” as an independent nation it was well ahead of these countries, and others, that the National Development Plan was benchmarked against.

“Our growth pace was extremely steep, and we were focused on doing things the right way; decisions that made sense that allowed us to grow and prosper,” the Minister added.

“Then we hit the 80s, the infamous 80s, and we hit a brick wall. All the countries we are benchmarked against showed growth, and we flat lined. We’re paying the price for that.”

Although Mr Rolle did not specifically state it, his reference to the “infamous 80s” is likely alluding to the ‘drug boom’ years, whose long-lasting impact continues to affect the Bahamian economy and society to this day.

The National Development Plan team is headed by Dr Nicola Virgil-Rolle, with the steering committee chaired by Felix Stubbs. Mr Rolle declined to give specifics on the data and conclusions it has assembled, promising these will be released in an upcoming ‘State of the Nation’ report.

“Of all the work done throughout my career, this is probably the most exciting and rewarding work that I’ve done,” the Minister said, adding that it had gathered “the most comprehensive date ever seen in the modern Bahamas”.

He acknowledged, though, that many of the Bahamas’ issues were “seemingly getting worse year after year”.

Focusing on crime, Mr Rolle said: “If we were to use the protocols established by the United Nations, particularly for murder and gun crime, we are in a conflict zone.

“You look at the expensive yachts out there, over to the most expensive building in the Caribbean [Atlantis], and realise the definition given to this country by the United Nations of a conflict zone..... it’s a cause for concern.”

Acknowledging that the Bahamas was finding it “extremely difficult” to achieve positive results in the fight against crime, Mr Rolle said the National Development Plan team had analysed the resources thrown at the problem and compared them to the outcome.

The findings, he added, showed that the Bahamas was experiencing diminishing returns because it was throwing more money at the crime problem but still achieving the same results.

“What it teaches me, and teaches the team, is that if we continue to make decisions in silos, we will continue to have laws of diminishing effect when we spend this money,” the Minister said.

Mr Rolle reiterated that for the National Development Plan to succeed, it had to be embraced by the entire Bahamian society - including every political party.

“When this State of the Nation report is unveiled, I hope we put aside all those things that make us who we are to solve this problem and make us who we want to be,” he said.

Then, speaking directly to the FNM MP for Montagu, Richard Lightbourn, who was in attendance, Mr Rolle added: “I can tell you that if we don’t, as a country, make a decision that we’re going to value this problem...... it’s beyond politics, because I want Dick to take that message back.

“Whoever has to manage the country has to manage the same set of circumstances.”

Using the example of a relative suffering from an acute illness, Mr Rolle said his family member had realised that time was “perishable”.

He suggested that this applied to the Bahamas’ current predicament, and added: “We can’t treat the symptoms without understanding the underlying pathology.

“We can’t treat cancer with tablets. We need radical surgery, and radical surgery is painful.”

Warning that Bahamians would have to accept the need for further sacrifice and pain, Mr Rolle said Cuba had already “surpassed” the Bahamas on tourism even prior to opening up to US visitors.

“We have some issues we have to face head on,” he warned, “because otherwise that brick wall we’re facuing will come crashing down upon us.”

Still, Mr Rolle emphasised that his message was intended to be “one of real opportunity, not doom and gloom”.

“We have a complete understanding of where we are,” he added.