Dear Editor,
There are many issues that have arisen in our country which are not only distressing but threaten to further destabilize our economy and ruin whatever remains of our credit among people of conscience and good sense at home and abroad.
I am deeply concerned about the Bank of The Bahamas matter. As a Bahamian-born citizen, I join other people of goodwill in asking what new folly, e.g. the BOB bailout, is being committed at the expense of the people of The Bahamas without any consultation or forewarning? Science and common sense have shown us that there are unbreakable correspondences in nature and human affairs. Simply put, if you take an action, it is going to set in motion one or more reactions. In the case of the Bank of The Bahamas, where is the $100 million bailout money coming from to fund Bahamas Resolve? Was this information contained in the recent reports and I just missed it?
We have been told that the bailout cash is not being drawn from the Public Treasury or from the National Insurance Fund. Despite all the smart talk in the world, even the non-bankers among us know that the international banking sector won't extend this degree of credit to a country already deeply in debt. Even if they did, they would expect handsome returns in interest and eventual repayment of capital.
The government has few sources of income beyond what we pay in taxes. So, without counting on my fingers and toes, I know that the servicing of the $100 million loan is a new Atlas-weight burden to be placed on the already heavily sagging shoulders of people like me. And we're sinking faster than ever before. At our present rate of fiscal mismanagement, there will soon not be a middle class in The Bahamas.
My second issue: Are Bank of The Bahamas directors and senior managers going to be made to account for this newest financial debacle? A commercial bank does not reach such a dangerous state of health without its directors' knowing that the patient is reaching terminal velocity and is in danger of crashing. Why was BOB opening, with great fanfare, an "international" branch in Florida a short while ago, when this shakiness of unsecured loans had to have been rearing its ugly head from that time? Shouldn't someone answer for letting this matter come to such a dreadful pass? Couldn't the directors read the handwriting on the wall from The Central Bank's reports? If they couldn't, doesn't that mean that their talents might be better suited to some other employment? Are they being to remain on the job? Oh how desperately this country needs a Freedom of Information Act and respect for serious investigative journalists.
Furthermore, and most important, have our politicians not learned that Bahamian governments get an F-minus when they engage in enterprise or nationalization of private enterprises? Why is the government the major shareholder in a commercial bank?
Don't tell me that memories are so short that we have forgotten the mind-boggling failure, at public expense, of the once thriving Hatchet Bay Farms? Worse still, have we forgotten government's sorry attempt at becoming a hotelier through the agency of Bahamas Hotel Corporation? What of Lighthouse Beach in Andros and the Cable Beach hotels that were bought?
We all realize the importance of Bahamasair. Its staff does yeoman's service in keeping the national airline flying, but even a devoted supporter of Bahamasair can see that the carrier's fortunes are flagging under the weight of decades of overweight management baggage. All these ill-conceived moves have taxed Bahamians without providing durable solutions.
While we're on the subject of taxation, where is truth and equity in the matter of BEC surcharges and value-added tax (VAT)? As regards VAT, I believe firmly that this country desperately needs a more modern and reliable form of taxation. VAT could be the answer, if regulated to suit this country's unique economic profile.
I have learned, however, that wholesalers can claim back what they pay in VAT and so can the shopkeepers. My question is: From whom will the consumer claim back? It is clear that many retailers have already used the coming of VAT as an opportunity to hedge their bets and gouge more profit from an already suffering populace, stressed by persistent unemployment and rising crime.
Yet, the only shield we, the powerless, have against the rising tide of misery and chaos is long, empty promises from a government who came to power on claims of believing in Bahamians, an official opposition rocked by poorly camouflaged internal division and a third party that needs more solid fighting weight in terms of addressing the burning issues, but just might win the next election by default.
The Bahamas today is about ill-directed expenditure, red herrings, such as the so-claimed chastisement of young rogue politicians and immigration raids, to direct attention away from fundamental problems. It is about promises, blandishments, half-truths and outright lies that appeal to prejudice and take advantage of the dearth of analytical thinking among us.
Politics and governance have mostly come to mean profiting from the Bahamian penchant for easy handouts and politically motivated favor. This is demagoguery and not democracy. I suggest that our leaders and our people take up dictionaries and look up the meanings of these two words. The manifestations of the former are fast undermining our country.
The next election may well be won by the party that can produce the greatest disbursement of bread and circuses. No doubt funding sources with heavy pockets are waiting eagerly in the wings to oblige.

- Patricia Glinton-Meicholas

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