The United States is our ally and major trading partner. We are a small country at the end of its southeastern border. While our trade relationship is quite small in relative terms, being a border state makes us significant.
This is especially true because The Bahamas has historically been a smugglers' route. Be it alcohol in the days of Prohibition, or drugs and people in these times, a roguish Bahamas can be a big problem for the U.S. In the 1980s, when our government and security forces were compromised, Columbian drug dealers used Norman's Cay, Exuma, for example, as their major takeoff point to send narcotics to America. We are important countries to each other.
The latest U.S. Department of State report on the investment climate in The Bahamas was critical of the current Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration. It said the PLP has failed to fulfill many of its "ambitious campaign promises of economic and fiscal reform".
The report, titled "2014 Investment Climate Statement - The Bahamas", was released on June 26.
"Proposed initiatives included the creation of 10,000 new jobs, the implementation of a national mortgage bailout plan and returning the majority shares in the national telecoms company to state control," the report read.
"Two years later, many of these campaign promises remain unfulfilled."
The American condemnation of the efforts of the PLP caught the attention of Prime Minister Perry Christie. He held a news conference yesterday with a Brookfield representative regarding the restructuring of the debt for the company's Paradise Island hotels. After he dealt with that matter, he defended his government against the view of the U.S., saying it is "simply inappropriate" for U.S. officials to draw negative conclusions on the success of his government's plan based on a "snapshot" of the current situation.
"Unfortunately, some have been led to draw on specific points in the statement to present a negative tone in respect of the plan of action that my government laid out in our Charter for Governance prior to the election and which we are aggressively pursuing during the course of our present mandate," he said.
"...We were abundantly clear in the charter that while our plan does offer numerous measures for short and medium-term relief, a responsible government cannot think only five years at a time. As such, we committed ourselves to a true national development plan that reflects a vision for The Bahamas of the future.
"We have been true to our word and we are pursuing just such a plan for the future."
The Americans went further. The U.S. government took a critical view of the government's bidding and procurement process, noting that several complaints have been received from U.S. companies over the last year regarding an alleged lack of transparency and "undue government interference" in this process in The Bahamas. Christie did not address this issue directly.
This report has come in to the public sphere at a time when the government is seeking to regularize web shop gaming. Web shops offer gambling to Bahamians. Gambling is illegal for Bahamians and legal residents. The PLP administration is seeking to convince The Bahamas and the world that, if it legalizes web shop gaming, banks should accept the cash web shops have made. In The Bahamas, web shop money can be considered the proceeds of crime. The Americans likely have a negative view of the actions of this administration regarding this issue too.
We wonder if the U.S. again perceives The Bahamas as a roguish jurisdiction based on these issues and some of the remarks made in reports such as the one on investments.
We also wonder if the new American ambassador to The Bahamas, Cassandra Butts, will have a more aggressive mandate when she comes here. There has been no U.S. ambassador to The Bahamas in nearly two-and-a-half years. Butts was nominated for the post by U.S. President Barack Obama and is in the approval process before the Senate.
The Americans, of course, are no saints. They have been running a spy program capturing all the mobile phone recordings of Bahamians. Thus far, they have not even had the courtesy to send us an official response on this intrusion.
Their violation of our privacy, however, does not take away from the fact that this is the most powerful country in the world. It can make life difficult for a government and its people if it thinks the jurisdiction is lawless and poorly governed.
Christie and his party like to say the media is always attacking them. They have especially had a fascination of late with The Nassau Guardian. This time, though, it was not us "throwing the blows".
The Americans seem to have a problem with the governing party. The PM should invite the charge d'affaires over and ask him why.

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