The Tribune

THE LITANY of disasters surrounding the beleaguered Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government seems to be never-ending.

The latest is the massive fire which broke out last weekend at the dump on Harold Road and which may be considered one of its worst calamities, not only because of the immediate and long-term damaging effects involving so many people but also for the reason that it was clearly avoidable if the government had addressed the issue properly during the last five years.

This is already being seen as yet another example of incompetence and mismanagement by an ineffective and failed government which is also lacking leadership and direction. Nonetheless, we were able to sympathise with Mr Christie on a personal level as he cut a lonely figure surveying the huge blaze and reflecting, perhaps, on this latest misfortune of his ill-fated premiership as being the final nail in his political coffin.

Only last week he was being lambasted over his unacceptably crude, single finger gesture at a political rally in Fox Hill and the equally intemperate public use of offensive language by the sitting MP about a well-respected human rights activist lawyer. But it must be all the more galling to him that this latest catastrophe of the dump fire was directly attributable to his own and his ministerial colleagues’ lack of effort and action.

With a general election fast approaching and evidence of growing numbers of disaffected voters, we detect the raw beginnings of fresh support for the opposition Free National Movement (FNM), whose fortunes have been at least marginally revived recently by a return to the fold of some of the party’s dissident MPs and by the decision of former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Brent Symonette to re-enter the political fray.

There is clearly much to be done, however, to achieve sufficient unity within the FNM in order to prevail against a PLP which can always rely on its traditional grassroots supporters since they see the party as having an inalienable right to rule, irrespective of its shoddy record of governance.

For some time, we have also been arguing in these columns that the Opposition parties, which include the Democratic National Alliance (DNA), should unite in order to ensure that a failed PLP is prevented from winning another term which would be disastrous for the country. If they do not do so, there remains a danger of the DNA splitting the FNM vote again and thus ensuring another PLP victory.

Given the PLP’s shameful record, however, it is hard to believe that there can be a realistic prospect of its return to power with so much dissatisfaction among voters, including younger people coming on to the electoral roll imbued with new ideas and attitudes about how the country should be run. Its failures have been well chronicled and they present a sorry picture of scandal, ineptitude, wrongdoing, victimisation, poor decision-making and alleged corruption.

The list is endless - worsening crime; unemployment; economic mismanagement with the investment downgrade to junk status and the national debt soaring by 40 per cent to $7 billion and the latest half-year deficit up by no less than 112 per cent; the Baha Mar debacle; the BAMSI, Urban Renewal and Bank of Bahamas financial scandals; the missing millions at Road Traffic; the government’s loss of two referenda and its refusal to accept the result of the one on gambling; a Cabinet minister thumbing his nose at the judiciary; and, most recently, blatant gerrymandering in the delayed Boundaries Commission report, and the ‘Spying Bill’ which would have been sneaked through without public consultation had there not been an outcry about encroachment on civil liberties.

Newspapers by their nature are inundated with information from a variety of sources. We are hearing complaints from many decent and well-meaning Bahamians who have seen the deterioration of this country since the period of rebuilding in the 1990s under former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham following the excesses of the Pindling years. They now observe the rise of populism in other countries and want a return to honesty, transparency and propriety in public life together with sound management of the nation’s affairs, not least its finances.

They believe that PLP politicians have been serving their own interests, rather than those of the people, for too long, and that, if the current discredited leaders are allowed to hang on to power, the country will be in real jeopardy.

If The Bahamas is to recover and prosper again rather than continue to regress, it needs to put in place new leadership. Above all, the people desperately want real change. But is the political class listening?