The Tribune

NO MATTER what political party individuals identify with, it’s pretty hard to find anyone who doesn’t think that the current Prime Minister Perry Christie is a nice guy.

He has a smile, handshake or warm hug for nearly everyone. He shows up to open nearly every conference, institution and event he is invited to and he is always gracious and attentive.

In person-to-person meetings, he is most personable and demonstrates a remarkable memory for members of your family or a place where he met up with you last.

In the recent debacle over the song that personally attacked his family, deriding their challenged son, the Prime Minister took the high road and when the song writer and the Christie family finally met in person at Mr Christie’s invitation, the young man who penned the toxic words cried and apologised. Yes, it is hard to find a nicer guy than the Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Perry Christie.

But the next election is not going to be based on nice. It is going to be based on the greatest demands, we believe, that any government of the Bahamas has ever been called on to answer to.

Why? Because the Bahamian people are tired.

They are tired of being kept in the dark.

They are tired of not seeing a brighter future ahead either for themselves or for their children.

They are tired of not feeling safe sitting out in front of their own homes in the evening.

They are tired of electricity that costs four times what it costs an hour’s flight away in Florida and is neither reliable nor consistent.

They are tired of back door deals that impact communities without the community being consulted until after the fact.

They are tired of living in a land where the breathtaking beauty of the environment and its waters makes some of the other struggles digestible and yet there is no environmental protection act to ensure that those land and marine resources will be preserved and protected for future generations of Bahamians.

They are tired of being taxed and not knowing where the money is going or why they are not seeing improvements in their schools, clinics, public buildings until the government goes and borrows more money leaving their children with even more debt.

They will soon be tired of worrying about what their dollar is worth.

And never have they been more tired of not feeling connected with government than in the past week since Hurricane Matthew blew through the Bahamas, tearing off roofs, uprooting giant trees, wiping out power for days on end, destroying homes and businesses in Andros and Grand Bahama, disrupting lives nearly everywhere. Where were the plans that were supposed to be in place after Hurricane Joaquin’s “teachable moment” last year?

Where was the leadership? Where is the accountability?

The Bahamian people are tired and they have a right to be.

They are tired of arrogance. They have had enough of the style of a Cabinet minister who says that he will do as he pleases regardless of a court ruling that ordered him not to read any further e-mails in the House of Assembly. The same Cabinet minister who, according to reports in the media last week, has not acknowledged receipt of consolidated recommendations for the draft Freedom of Information Act 2015, nor agreed to meet with the organisations who support principles that make a lot of sense, including a non-political appointment of a Freedom of Information Commissioner.

We recommend that the Prime Minister pay very close attention to examples of arrogance exhibited by those around him if he wants to be remembered as a leader and not just as a nice guy. Maybe he needs to be reminded of that old adage that nice guys don’t always finish first.