The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

My Morning Paper – April 18, 2016

Acquiescing to Corruption

“MILLER: We learned corruption from the US – Contracts for supporters will never stop.” – The Tribune

Excerpt from his article; “Tall Pines MP Leslie Miller yesterday insisted that the granting of government contracts to political supporters will never stop ‘because politicians must do what they have to do’ to win elections.

His statements came despite the US State Department’s scathing report pinpointing the government’s feeble implementation of anti-corruption laws buttressed by a vulnerable contract procurement process.

“In an interview with The Tribune yesterday, the senior Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) MP, added that if Bahamians “are crooked, it is because they were taught to be so by the damn Americans.”

Just when you thought you had heard it all from Mr Miller; from his comments about woman beating, to the comments about not knowing where those light skin people came from at a recent Raising Awareness of the Bahamas Landfill (RABL) protest, we now seem to have him openly admitting to corrupt practices within the government and in the country at large because we have been taught these ‘habits’ by the United States.

In no way will I stand before anyone and hold the United States of America as being a model to follow,  as they had their instances of blatant corruption, as any other country.  Examples of gross corruption would have been seen in the Iran-Contra affair, Dick Cheney’s ties to the company Halliburton that made billions off the war in Iraq while being Vice President, a war that he supported; to one of the latest instances in Flint, Michigan; no, in no way are they a model to follow but at the very same time, as they highlight corrupt practices in The Bahamas are we to simply excuse it by saying that the US is no one to talk or accept it as being a part of our ‘culture’?

It is indeed an embarrassment, when the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Perry Christie stands before our regional counterparts and delivers remarks under the theme, “The Ethical Anti-Corruption Framework of the Bahamas: Lessons for the Caribbean” and one of his very own members of Parliament concedes that the country is corrupt, implies that ‘it is what it is’ and goes on to say we learned it from the United States; are we not a sovereign nation?

Should we not be striving to do and be better? Is this a reason why Minister of State for Legal Affairs Damian Gomez tendered his resignation from his Cabinet post, as he had waged a ‘war’ against corrupt governmental practices?

The unspoken ‘sin’ about the awarding of government contracts, under both administrations, is that they always, for the most part, were awarded as a form of ‘pay back’ for political loyalty; under this government the practice has been highlighted due to the persons inability to carry out the task assigned to them which ended up putting a strain on the public purse to have their mistakes corrected; otherwise persons turned a blind eye to the practice, so Mr Miller just may be correct in saying that the practice will never stop but the question now becomes will we continue to do so at the detriment to our country and sovereignty?

In an amusing comment, Mr Miller is quoted as saying; “I don’t put too much weight on the US and what they say,”  the MP said when contacted by The Tribune. “I pay no attention to them. The report is baseless because they sure as hell didn’t provide any proof.”

And I sit back and laugh as I think about the tenuous link that Mr Miller and his colleagues have attempted to make between Save the Bays and a plot to destabilise the government. From these recent statements it seems that they are already not stable.

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

RAMSEY

Nassau,

April  18, 2016.