The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie yesterday repeated that he was not “delusional” while again promising that this year his administration would get a handle on crime, focus on stabilising the economy and ensure that the stalled Baha Mar resort opens its doors.

With a little more than a year remaining in his administration’s term before the next general election, Mr Christie told reporters that he was confident that his critics would be silenced when the government’s plans for the nation were manifested.

He added that these plans were not just focused on New Providence, but that Bahamians in the Family Islands would see changes as a result of his governance.

He spoke following the launch of e-services at the Registrar General’s Office where he also said the government plans to spend $50m on airport expansion initiatives.

“You may not recognise, for example, that I know, for example, this year I have to trigger off certain developments in the economy – one of them is Baha Mar,” the prime minister said after the event.

“So you are going to therefore find that all the talks about delusion and dreaming and so forth and so on (the plans) will manifest itself where people, young people in particular, where there is an acute need to let them know and let them feel confident that there is a future for them and that they are going to be able to see that around the Bahamas in what is taking place.”

He continued: “I know and I have a commitment to doing it that where Bimini has an exceptional future where there is nothing that people can ask for in Bimini that they are not getting now. It will be the same thing in Abaco where there will be increased development, the same thing in Exuma and the same thing is going to happen in Eleuthera and it’s going to happen this year.”

Members of the Free National Movement have frequently accused the prime minister of being “delusional” in the face of his optimism in the midst of adversity and unfulfilled promises.

Last year, Mr Christie’s public stance on the two biggest issues of the year - the stalled Baha Mar project and the rise of violent crime - was characterised by false signals and vague allusions to impending actions that never materialised.

From May to December 2015, Mr Christie predicted an imminent resolution to Baha Mar’s problems that would result in the remobilisation of the resort, even as some stakeholders increasingly cautioned him in the press to choose his words more carefully on a matter hardly under his control.

With respect to crime, he told the press throughout autumn that his government would roll out new policies to counteract the rise in violence.

But in both instances, the actions he alluded to never materialised.

Mr Christie frequently spoke indirectly about when the impending action would take place, an analysis published in The Tribune earlier this week shows, often using ambiguous terms and phrases that granted considerable and convenient flexibility to the timeline of his promises – pledging action “soon,” “in the not too distant future” and “in a few weeks.”

Regarding false signals, among his greater errors, Mr Christie on May 13, 2015 said Baha Mar was not running out of the cash needed to finish the multi-billion dollar project, a view reiterated by Baha Mar’s public relations director at the time.

However, Baha Mar filed for bankruptcy in a US Delaware Court a month later, fearing that its financial situation had become too precarious.

And as 2015 ended, Baha Mar’s subcontractors remained unpaid.

More recently, Mr Christie told the press on December 26 that he expects Baha Mar to be completed early this year, although he failed to give a specific date for the restart of construction at the resort or a date for when the property might open.

With respect to crime, Mr Christie increased his utterances on the matter as homicides soared to record breaking heights in 2015. During his Christmas address to the nation, he pledged that stronger measures on crime would be rolled out in 2016.