Prime Minister Perry Christie either has an irrepressible sense of humor or he dwells mostly in the realm of make-believe and delusion.
With a disastrous do-little term from 2002 to 2007, in significant ways an even worse two and a half years in his current term, having at minimum doubled-down on the mistakes of his last term, Christie declared that he has learned from his previous tsunami of mistakes.
By this benchmark, when might he learn from the mistakes that he's now racking up on seemingly a weekly basis? Perhaps, conservatively, by 2022?
This is not the first time, nor is it likely to be the last, of Christie addressing the same entrenched pattern of outsized mistakes that bedevil his administrations. He pleaded similarly at a PLP convention during his last term, then continued to repeat the same mistakes.
In opposition from 2007 to 2012, Christie again offered a mea culpa, promising to do better if re-elected. And yet here we are again in terms of the same mistakes, yet another admission of mistakes, and a promise to do better.
For himself Christie is no longer the prime minister of second chances, he is the man of third, fourth, fifth chances and counting. No one is perfect and leaders will make mistakes. Yet, Christie keeps repeating the same grievous mistakes, perhaps some unwittingly and some quite wittingly.
The clarifying problem is that Christie appears not to appreciate the differences between mistakes on the one hand, and habits and patterns of error on the other. It is Christie's entrenched poor habits and patterns of governance that have caused him to lose credibility among the vast majority of Bahamians, most of whom did not vote PLP at the last election because of a loss of trust in Christie.
Christie is so accomplished at make-believe and artifice that he often seems to believe his own fantastical propaganda. He brands himself a "great democrat" while leading an administration allergic to transparency and accountability in areas ranging from the awarding of contracts to conducting a National Intelligence Agency with no legal foundation.
Wizard
Christie today is like a wizard whose verbal incantations, bag of magic tricks, spells and talismans have begun to fail him, no longer mesmerizing audiences, most of whom long ago saw through the make-believe.
So Christie grows more dramatic and more desperate in his increasingly failing bid to cast a spell over the public imagination. Now we are told to expect "dramatic economic developments" in the next 18 months.
Recall that Christie said much of the same in his last term. Remember those billions and billions of dollars in investments that never materialized. At some point we were up to approximately $20 billion in possible foreign direct investment.
Let's not forget all those anchor projects all over the country which never materialized, remaining mostly in the overactive imagination of the prime minister.
It would be a useful exercise to review the number and nature of "new" developments which are a continuation of projects already underway by past FNM administrations.
Recall too that Christie solemnly promised a mortgage relief program that disappeared in a puff of smoke and mirrors excuses soon after the PLP returned to office. He promised to double the national investment in education. Instead he cut public investment in education. Another promise bites the dust.
At an event earlier this week, the 'Talker-in-Chief' seemed stunned as to why scores of Bahamians no longer buy his overcharged and preposterous rhetoric: "I don't know why people don't listen to me and understand when I speak of optimism as to the economy, and when I go to a budget communication and I speak specifically about what is happening in The Bahamas".
Christie has broken so many pledges that when he actually fulfills a pledge many Bahamians are stunned. He has offered so much fluff that it is difficult to know what to believe of what he says.
Even as the government failed to institute a mortgage relief program and more homeowners lost their dreams and homes, Christie looked into his crystal ball and said that he saw a wonderful new world on the horizon.
Not to be outdone, Deputy Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis says that the Ministry of Works alone has already helped to produce those 10,000 new jobs he promised. If Christie deserves an "LOL", Davis' claim evokes an "LMBO", a Bahamianized version of a popular online abbreviation.
Disaster
But back to the "wizard-in-chief". Consider the ongoing disaster that is the Leslie Miller saga. With the trauma that Miller caused Christie and the PLP during their last term, one would have thought that the prime minister may have learned his lesson about the current BEC chairman.
First, Miller caused extraordinary fallout with his claim to have viciously battered a former girlfriend. Christie's non-response on the highly sensitive issue of domestic violence made matters worse.
Now Miller has acted quite improperly while serving as chairman. He owed huge sums to the corporation. He is reported to favor certain PLP cronies, allowing them to run up huge bills at BEC.
He paid a part of his outstanding bill in cash in contravention to corporation policy, while claiming that he didn't know that what he was doing was wrong. The payment now appears to be under investigation.
Yet for endless weeks the prime minister remained silent, only seemingly breaking his silence because the Miller matter and Christie's studied silence are doing great damage to Christie and the PLP's standing.
Christie says he will order a probe into the matter. Considering past probes Christie ordered, we shouldn't hold our breath for results or follow-up. For easy reference see Mohammed Harajchi and Peter Nygard.
Still, considering what is unfolding with Miller this term, what exactly is the mistake from his last administration which Christie has learned? Meanwhile, Christie is working furiously to convince himself of something which few believe: "There is a fundamental difference between this time and 2007. The difference is I knew the mistakes I made in 2007 and I'm going to ensure, whether I'm there or not, that this grouping have learnt from those mistakes."
The main reason that "this grouping" will likely not learn from their mistakes is because this prime minister lacks control of most of his Cabinet, is loathed to discipline them, is largely incapable of leading by example, and is often ignored by his colleagues.
The quote was reported in The Tribune even as the headline in The Nassau Guardian the same day was a stinging rebuke to Christie's claim and to his leadership. The matter concerns the open disrespect for Christie by much of his Cabinet, a replay of his previous term in office.
Wayward
Once again, Christie has not learned the lesson of a wayward Cabinet, which helped to defeat his government the last time. Here we go again.
This time it was the deputy prime minister, which is not a constitutionally mandated post, noting that he still needs to review the improper signing of a letter of intent by Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Works Renward Wells, despite Christie reportedly having already requested the former's resignation.
To state the obvious, it is the prime minister who causes the appointment of ministers and parliamentary secretaries. Yet here was Davis talking about conducting his own investigation, which the works minister seemingly wants to press quite hard. One can only wonder why.
There appears to be more to the Wells story, seemingly entangled in the vortex of conflicting interests and the Christie-Davis struggle for power. Meanwhile, Christie's lose grip on his Cabinet continues, resulting in a government of wide scale dysfunction and questionable actions.
By example, the matter of the nolle prosequi granted by Acting Attorney General Jerome Fitzgerald to a former client of Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson, while she was out of the country, remains deeply disturbing.
Still, Christie's ministers know that they have little to fear of him by way of discipline, so they generally run their affairs and their fiefdoms as they wish, with little accountability to the prime minister.
Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe presses the gambling and gaming issue as he will, with Christie often left to play catch-up. So it goes from ministry to ministry with all manner of collective irresponsibility and little oversight.
This is precisely what helped to defeat Christie the last time. But instead of mostly blaming his ministers, as he did previously, he has no one to blame but himself, both now and back when.
Christie says that he's learned from his mistakes. If so - and that is a highly questionable proposition - his learning curve is as steep as Mount Everest.
To complete the metaphor: Christie seems still at the foot of the mountain, still procrastinating, researching and appointing committees to suggest to him how he might climb Everest even as his time is running out, with the patience of most Bahamians long ago exhausted by a failing performance in which only Christie and a few diehards may still believe.
o frontporchguardian@gmail.com, www.bahamapundit.com.

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