The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

GOVERNMENTS are elected to “serve” the people who selected them. They are chosen through an electoral process to represent and act in the best interests of the electorate. The recent firing of four MPs shows an obvious flaw in the system of democracy we practice.

While I understand the concept of collective responsibility, one must ask what is a representative of the people to do when the wishes of the people they are elected to serve contradicts the position of the government? I am not talking about instances where the personal feelings or views of the MP are at odds with a governments position, but rather where the constituents he represents does not agree with what a government wants to do. Can we legitimately claim that it is democratic to go against the wishes of the people you are elected to serve for the sake of the appearance of party unity? This is particularly vexing when “rules” are applied inconsistently, at the whim and fancy of the governing authorities!

On one side we have the government saying it has to increase VAT. On the other hand we see that its own austerity measures are not stringent enough. Efforts to reform and curtail waste in the public sector is virtually nonexistent, causing citizens to question the legitimacy of a 60 percent VAT increase.

How can people be asked to tighten their belts while the government does not appear to be doing the same thing? The government has not even sought to inspire confidence by taking VAT out of the consolidated fund and using it solely for the purpose for which VAT was intended. It has become just another source of government revenue it seems. It is this that has stirred the ire of Bahamians everywhere.

But the question still remains, how can the government go against the wishes of the people it is elected to serve, punish the peoples representatives and call it democratic? I hope this vexing contradiction in our system of governance will be addressed soon, but I won’t hold my breath!

JB

Nassau,

June 21, 2018.