The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I noted the comments by Ricardo Smith, a perennial political gadfly, if ever there was one.....he’s jumped from party to party depending on which way the wind is blowing. He is, in fact, a fake old PLP imposter of the highest order, in my view.

No, I am not suggesting that Smith ‘The Chameleon’, is wrong to appear to be defending former Prime Minister Christie and his performance or lack thereof when he held sway, but let us be objective and not subjective. The remarks by Smith were in a recent Tribune article by Ms Ava Turnquest, a noted journalist and reporter.

The single greatest cause for the defeat by the old PLP in 2017 was Mr Christie, no more no less. There is absolutely no need for an expensive poll to tell Bahamians and the new PLP this. It is what it is. We “owe” Christie absolutely nothing as the people have been generous in financially supporting him and his family a;; of the years he’s been in front line politics.

Now that he’s been forced into an unexpected retirement, he will collect almost B$100,000 per year until he crosses the Jordan. His wife, God bless her soul, will go on to receive 2/3rds of his pension until her own death, if she survives him. A ‘free’ vehicle; driver; police escort and medical insurance for life. What more do we ‘owe’ him and why is he above criticism?

The old PLP, led by Mr Christie and his political cabal, which did not include the Hon Philip ‘Brave’ Davis, MP, QC (PLP-Cat Island), jacked this wonderful nation right up in all spheres of national life. I would not even talk about the apparent deliberate destruction of the economy and the job market by that wrecking crew. We were downgraded almost daily. The infrastructure here in New Providence is a national and international disgrace of no mean order.

Take a look at The Post Office Building right in the heart of downtown. Take a look at the Clarence A Bain and the Rodney Bain Buildings. Pot holes are all over the place. PMH remains a work in progress. Take a look at The Festival Place on the wharf. Take a look at the Ministry of Tourism Building on George Street. It seems that it was taking close to 10 long expensive years to bring rationality to what now appears to be ‘completion’ of the renovations thereto... thanks, obviously to the FNM and the Hon Dionisio D’Aguilar (FNM-Free Town), our gifted and erstwhile Minister of Tourism... he’s good at what he’s mandated to do.

And so, colleagues, Ricardo Smith, a former ‘consultant’ at Urban Renewal and BAIC, under Mr Christie’s doomed watch, he has a “right” to seek to defend the indefensible but brother Christie has no legacy of note, despite almost 45 years in front line politics. His ‘political epitaph’, whenever anyone takes the time to write it, will be, I suggest : ‘He came in with fanfare and left with sack cloth and ashes’. To God then, in all things, be the glory.

ORTLAND H BODIE, Jr

Nassau,

January 18, 2018.