The Tribune

“THE short memories of the American voter is what keeps our politicians in office,” quipped American humorist and actor, Will Rogers.

The same can be said of Bahamian voters and their politicians. In years past a bottle of rum and a four shilling note would blank a memory and win a vote. Today voters demand more for their votes, but the results are the same. They forget that these inducements will not carry them over five years under a government that has failed them in many ways, including creating employment.

Two days before police officers were to cast their ballots in last week’s advanced poll, the Cabinet office announced that government had promoted 851 of them to various ranks. Promotions, long overdue, would now take immediate effect from the first of the year.

And at a PLP rally just a week before that, Prime Minister Christie in the euphoria of the moment, announced that after four years of argument that went as far as the Appeals Court, his government had buckled. It had decided to obey the Supreme Court’s ruling, upheld by the Court of Appeal, and police officers and men owed overtime for the years 2013 and 2014 would be paid. Their first payment would be issued on May 29 – 19 days after Wednesday’s general election. Was the timing of the announcement just a coincidence, or was it a deliberate inducement before they were to vote?

Coming so close to the general election, Bahamians saw it as an inducement. We hope police officers accepted it for what it was and voted their conscience.

Keith Bell, State Minister for National Security, who not too long ago wore the uniform of a Royal Bahamas Police Force officer, saw nothing wrong with the timing of the promotions. In his view, there is neither a right nor a wrong time for promotions. “The officers are well deserving. It is what it is,” he said. We agree that the officers are deserving and, as such, they should have had their promotions last year. But, as Mr Bell said, “it is what it is.” For many Bahamians it has all the earmarks of an inducement before an election.

On the other hand, Marvin Dames, who, also, until fairly recently was a deputy commissioner of police in the Force, but is now the FNM’s candidate for Mount Moriah, saw the promotions — although well deserved — as “a sham”.

“Why do you have to promote around election time?” he asked. “Mind you it is good and the officers could do with a few more dollars in their pockets, but even they can see this is a sham.”

In May, 2012, Mr Christie, then in opposition, would have agreed with Mr Dames. In fact, Mr Christie had such strong views on the matter that he pledged that if his party won the 2012 election, he would introduce legislation to outlaw “that sort of thing” when an election period starts. “It is just open bribery,” he said at the time.

“We just have to start moving our country forward and have our democracy respected,” he declared.

At the time – 2012– Mr Christie, then in opposition, was accusing the Ingraham government of attempting to bribe voters with jobs and contracts.

“I have been very dissatisfied with the extent to which the governing party has been able to use the Public Treasury,” he said. “The fact that we were hearing that hundreds of people were being employed, there is no way of explaining that. That is an inducement of the grossest kind and an abuse of the people concerned to be giving out contracts in the middle of a campaign.”

He said he proposed “to announce before we go to the general vote that the PLP will move legislation to outlaw that when an election period starts you just cannot do that sort of thing; it is just open bribery,” he declared. In his words there was no doubt about it. It was bribery, plain and simple.

Mr Christie and his PLP won the 2012 election and here we are five years later with rewards being given just a few days before the elections. Obviously, Mr Christie had forgotten his pledge to the people five years ago that it would never happen again.

However in 2007, the FNM, led by Mr Hubert Ingraham, criticised the Christie government (2002-2007) for offering contracts too close to the 2007 election. Mr Ingraham vowed that should the FNM win that election his government would stop and review all of those last minute contracts. True to its word, the contracts were reviewed. Some were amended, others were cancelled. The Baha Mar heads of agreement was one of the contracts renegotiated and amended.

This is one of the many differences between these two governments now offering to serve the Bahamian people for another five years.

On Wednesday, Bahamians must decide whether they want a government that keeps its word, or one that often suffers memory loss when it comes to promises.