The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I am by no means a proponent of our web shops and more so, how they came to legitimacy following a plebiscite which clearly said the Bahamian people were against them being legitimised.

The Tribune front page photo today, February 16, however, of our Prime Minister with His Excellency Sebas Bastian led me to wonder if their legitimacy may not have been divinely anointed. Today, the story is of a housing development at Love Beach, but right next to it is a story on BPL’s continuing debt of $184m, and below that is an opposition cry to maintain confidence in our health systems, and no doubt on Monday it will be our collapsing national flag carrier, or our back to the wall Bank of Bahamas, National Insurance Board, Public Hospitals Authority and on and on it goes, not only with our government itself being continually broke, but our state-owned enterprises continue to drag our national finances into deficit.

The thought that had crossed my mind is that we don’t see bankrupt web shops anywhere, and that would suggest that these operators don’t lose money and know how to run a business. Their staff, I am sure, don’t t’ief and likely work a full day without crying about this or that that is not right in their little corner of the world, and lunch breaks are lunch breaks and everything that is business normal is practised.

So, government and opposition, why don’t we agree that our state-owned enterprises (SOEs) should be run entirely by our web shops. We have made them, both individually and collectively, far wealthier than our own national government.

I am not suggesting that they use web shop funds to support our SOEs, but simply have autonomous authority to manage them for the Bahamian people. Profitably.

MONKEEDOO

Nassau,

February 16, 2024.