Oddly, last week the head of government bared his soul in front of the press. It is important to note that, in our system, the prime minister is not the nation's chief executive. In our parliamentary democracy, the constitution rests executive authority in the Cabinet. Ours is not a U.S.-style presidential system.
Having abandoned his solemn promise to honor the results of the gambling referendum Perry Christie offered a confession of faith: "Faith tells me that there is no minister of religion in the world that can give me a passport to heaven and that ultimately that is where I want to be..."
We all want to go to heaven. But before the appointed hour, there is likely somewhere else that Christie wants to be after the next election: returned to the lofty heights of the prime ministership which has become his cloud nine.
Christie and God must sort out their affairs, with the creator rendering final judgment upon him. Still, voters will render unto Caesar Christie their political judgment on his stewardship in office.
Verily, such earthbound judgment is nigh. In matters of faith and politics, contrition and penance precede forgiveness. Christie has never really asked for forgiveness or demonstrated genuine contrition for having betrayed the will of the people.
Having broken his word and in failing to show contrition for double-crossing the electorate, Christie may well pay political hell with voters, many of whom are angry at his administration's smugness, arrogance and betrayal of the democratic trust, to name a few political sins.
Voters sense in their guts and hearts some of the essence of those they choose for high office. Christie enjoyed a bond with voters, an easygoing manner and empathy, making him a likable personality.
That bond began fraying during Christie's first term as head of government, one of the reasons he became the first prime minister in an independent Bahamas to lose after a single term. Though re-elected in 2012, the party did not win the majority of the popular vote.

Widely unpopular
Christie's likability has nose-dived, as he is seen by many more Bahamians as out of touch and someone liable to break promises at the drop of a hat. He has lost considerable public trust and affection and is now widely unpopular. He has lost touch with the soul of the nation.
Even many, perhaps most, who voted yes in the gambling referendum, remain stunned by his betrayal of the final vote, including his lame excuses for going back on his word. Many scoff at his claim that he and the PLP had no horse in the gambling referendum.
During debate on the Gaming Bill in the House of Assembly Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner summed up the views of many: "They told us they had no horse in the race. What they had were several horses in the race, with jockeys on each one of those horses galloping toward the finish line, all tended by grooms and trainers, all flying their colors.
"Now, since their horses dropped dead in the race, they are fully determined to drag them across the finish line, by hook or by whatever means necessary."
In the spiritual life and in politics, of the seven deadly sins, pride is often seen as the deadliest, because it may obscure other sins. Hubris is a version of pride.
The hubris is stark, disturbing. This is the first government in an independent Bahamas to dismiss the results of a democratic vote, which the government said it would honor.
Christie self-reverentially described himself as a great democrat. He lauded a march downtown in support of the yes campaign as a wonderful display of democracy.
After all his talk about democracy, the self-proclaimed great democrat ignored the results of the referendum. Having decided to dishonor the vote he should have resigned and called a general election. Instead he has turned out to be spectacularly hypocritical, his democratic credentials shot to hell.
What might this portend? Having served as a consultant to an oil exploration company with a resulting conflict of interest, Christie postponed a promised referendum on oil exploration. Strangely, the postponement was announced by the environment minister, not the Cabinet Office or the Office of the Prime Minister.

Conflict of interest
Given Christie's conflict of interest and his dismissal of the gambling referendum, the prime minister might similarly ignore the results of such a vote, which is unlikely to be held in any case.
Not in keeping with our parliamentary system in which the governor general is head of state and in mimicry of a U.S.-style presidential system, Christie beamed that he wants a prime ministerial coat of arms.
At a chamber of commerce conference he proclaimed, "I, the country", which should perhaps be the motto on his coat of arms, especially in light of his contempt for the will of the people after the gaming referendum.
The loss of trust and respect for Christie has reached such lows that he's being pilloried and satirized in popular culture. K.B. recently released Captain Kangaroo, a single comparing Christie to the eponymous U.S. television children's entertainer.
Those who loved Captain Kangaroo may be annoyed at the comparison. Still, the point is made as to the loss of faith in the direction of the country and the prime minister.
Christie and the PLP have earned the country's mistrust and enmity. The equality referendum has now been promised for a vote a stunning five times.
Christie's gross act of political expediency and flip-flop during the 2002 referendum and his betrayal of the 2013 vote are largely responsible for the impending defeat of the postponed referendum, which might never be held this term.
If women fail to gain equality in the foreseeable future, the fault is Christie's and the PLP's. They have so poisoned the referendum process, first by betraying the 2002 agreement with the FNM on reform and then by betraying voters in 2013. Such betrayal of the common good is now commonplace by the PLP.
History and irony are mocking Christie. The self-adoring man who bragged that he had the public goodwill necessary pass an equality referendum has earned so much bad will and loathing that he is the greatest stumbling block to gender equality. History will not treat him kindly in this regard.
"Animal Farm" author George Orwell famously wrote about the misuse of political language, of its evasions, cant and miscasting of the facts in service of baser motives. The misuse of such language has come to be known as Orwellian.
In the eighth annual Dr. the Hon. Lloyd Barnett O.J. Lecture held at the Eugene Dupuch Law School in September 2013, entitled "Contemporary constitutionalism and the consent of the governed", Christie self-servingly whitewashed the role that he and the PLP played in poisoning the democratic and referendum process.

Orwellian
Note Christie's Orwellian language during the lecture: "I need to emphasize that in both the 2002 constitutional referendum and the 2013 gambling referendum, there was a complete absence of consensus among the main political parties. This fact alone, given the acute political polarization of Bahamian society, may well have pre-ordained the failure of both initiatives."
What fact? There was political consensus. The results were not pre-ordained. As opposition leader, Christie agreed with the legislation, with the PLP voting for the amendments in the House, before their spectacular flip-flop.
Christie proclaimed during the lecture: "[We] must find effective ways to elevate issues of constitutional reform and change above the political fray, tapping instead into what Lincoln called 'the better angels of our nature', where we can all meet on the common ground of patriotism and love of country, looking only to what is best for us as a people, rather than as soldiers in some transitory partisan cause."
Having chosen the worse angels of our nature in 2002 in pursuit of partisanship in the service of political expediency, Christie is one of the last people who should utter such a line.
Fast-forward to the 2013 referendum, the results of which Christie ignored in the service of the numbers bosses. In breaking his word, we were again reminded of Orwell's warning of the abuse of language, with Christie trying to make a virtue of his betrayal. What is essentially a sell-out, he sought to bathe in virtuousness. It will not wash.
If Christie and the PLP sought to implement a national lottery, with the proceeds mostly going to public purposes rather than many more millions for private greed, Bahamians may have understood the change of heart.
Instead, he betrayed the will of the people to serve the interests of a few. This is neither virtuous nor democratic. Whatever Christie's interior disposition, he has betrayed the soul of the nation by becoming a hindrance to gender equality and by selling out to vested interests in the big numbers game.
God help us all!

o frontporchguardian@gmail.com, www.bahamapundit.com.

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