The Tribune

IT has been some time since we had a national address by the nation’s Prime Minister.

Under the former administration, as the country battled the first waves of COVID, such speeches were regular events – sometimes met with trepidation by listeners as they awaited new measures to limit the spread of the virus.

But under the new administration, Philip “Brave” Davis has been less visible. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, sometimes we can do with less talking, more doing.

So what prompted his national address yesterday? Well, in many ways, the speech came across as a state of the nation address.

It ranged over a host of different topics – from economy to COVID, climate change to unemployment.

Early on, he highlighted what he said his administration inherited – “an economic crisis, a fiscal crisis, an education crisis, and a health crisis”.

While he left it off the list at that point, he also came to talk about crime later on, saying: “Crime and violence haunt our neighbourhoods. Too many of our young men are in crisis.”

That’s the picture painted, now what about the solutions?

On the finance side, Mr Davis detailed a few – confirmation of the $260 minimum wage The Tribune reported in August, extra items being added to price control. And he signalled this would be a stepping stone on the way towards a liveable wage. The minimum wage boost will affect many – but the government must be cursing the price surges that will mean that extra money will be gobbled up by bills.

Improved growth forecast is positive – though long-term more stimulus is needed.

And Mr Davis returned to climate change as a topic too, calling it “the great fight of our time”, and pointing out the prospect of carbon credits bringing revenue to The Bahamas to balance against the costs incurred from hurricanes and climate impacts.

There were areas glossed over too – the sale of the Grand Lucayan was simply noted as “progressing” without any significant update. The long-delayed marijuana legislation was not mentioned at all.

Also unmentioned was the issue of marital rape – on a day when The Tribune reports that a new University of The Bahamas study has revealed that one in 12 Bahamian women have been raped by their husbands.

There is little surprise that the discussion over a republic was not mentioned, after the administration pawed at the topic like it was a hot coal and then dropped the discussion promptly.

Issues of transparency also went unmentioned, with Freedom of Information still a distant carrot and numerous government contracts remaining unreported.

That said, there was a refreshing candour about the difficulties that many Bahamians are facing, the number of people struggling with unemployment, and to put food on their tables.

As he moved towards his conclusion, there were three things he said that perhaps showed where his emphasis lay in his speech.

He said: “I see you sitting in your home, your bills in front of you, wondering which one you can’t postpone paying any longer.

“I see you worrying about how the years out of school have affected your children.

“I see you wondering whether you’ll ever feel safe again on the streets at night.”

Money. Education. Crime.

Get the money flowing, get the children back in the classrooms, take people off the street and ease the desperation.

Large parts of the PM’s approach seem to come back to revenue, be it by restarting the economy or through such avenues as carbon credits. As political advisor James Carville advised Bill Clinton in his campaign for President in the US back in 1992, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Prime Minister Davis has been in office for a little over a year. It would be foolish to think he could have solved every ill in that time. We must wait to see how he fares in the future.

But his speech yesterday at least set out where we are, and where we must go. It is good for the nation to hear from its leader, to understand the path we are on. And for that, last night’s speech was very welcome.