Dear Editor,

The seeming implosion of Baha Mar and the legal wrangling between the relevant parties, inclusive of the government of our wonderful nation, do not bode well for our economic and political viability. The moment that the prime minister announced a week or so ago that he’d have dead good news for Bahamians, I realized that the Baha Mar situation had evolved beyond the scope of his capacity and was doomed to failure.

The prime minister dispatched the learned attorney general, an unelected parliamentarian, along with a crew of technocrats and assistants, to the People’s Republic of China. Ostensibly she was spearheading vital discussions with the Chinese partners and bankers of Sarkis Izmirlian, et al. This was amateurish and designed for media distractions and consumption by the expectant public.

It is now clear with the filing of pleadings in our Supreme Court by the government to move for the involuntary liquidation of Baha Mar, thus eclipsing the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filed by that entity in the USA, that talks have completely failed to resolve the seeming impasse between the stakeholders. I suspect that they have all now gone beyond the pale.

The antics and utterances by the prime minister in recent times, especially when he addressed journalism students at COB a few weeks ago, show clearly that either he is in another dimension or that he is delusional, at best. His behavior has been suspect for some time now and the hands of an amateur are all over the place.

Having spent more than 40 years on frontline politics, it is time that Christie and his colleagues in the PLP bite the proverbial bullet and grapple with those economic and societal issues which are plaguing this wonderful nation and frustrating our people, big time. Only a pure unadulterated amateur could do a worse job at governance than Christie. As a prime minister he has proven to be an unmitigated disaster. I could care less about his orations, gyrations and bogus salutations.

An American author, Edward Klein, wrote a political masterpiece titled ‘The Amateur’ last year. The book is about the meteoric rise of the then largely unknown Barack Obama from Chicago, Illinois. It traces his origins, politically, from being a community organizer to the state senate and then into the United States Senate. He was backed and embraced by many of the business and professional elites of Chicago, especially the Jewish components.

In that book, Klein quotes someone who knew Obama way back then: ‘Ever since I have known him, Obama has had delusions of grandeur and a preoccupation with his place in history. He is inflicted with megalomania. You can explain it with any number of words: arrogance; conceit; egotism; vanity; hubris but whatever word you choose, it spells the same thing-disaster for the country’.

Klein, of course, was referring to the now president of the USA. I contend that the description offered by Klein perfectly fits our erstwhile prime minister.

Christie is a rank amateur and it is showing big time. The proverbial emperor is as naked, politically, as a natural jay bird. Most sensible Bahamians are aware of this but there are a handful of political and economic vultures who are surrounding Christie and protecting him from reality. He has long forgotten the frustration, pain and suffering of the unwashed masses. He has, alas, evolved into an amateur.

Only an amateur could have crowed that he’d have some “dead good” news for Bahamians when, had he been a professional, he would have simply shut his mouth and sat small while sensitive negotiations were being conducted. Each time he made a public utterance he ran right out while throwing gratuitous insults at assorted stakeholders. He went so far as to question the mental status of Izmirlian. He condemned media personnel, across the board, straight to hell.

The other day he was, by his own admission, walking on egg shells in his relationship with the commissioner of police and his high command. He was in the chair for CARICOM when the Dominican Republic started the grossly inhumane exercise of rounding up and expelling individuals suspected of being Haitian – even if they had been born in that country – to Haiti.

Under an amateur of the highest order, BAMSI lost a dormitory; Alfred Gray flaunted his ‘connections’; Rollins and Moss ‘cussed’ Christie right out to his face and he could do and in fact did nothing. He used to be a minister of tourism and has now presided over the full bloom of the disintegration of the integrity of our tourism product.

Again, clearly demonstrating that he’s been an amateur for decades, he was minister of agriculture when BATARD in Andros, ironically, went belly up. Scores of innocent and benign horses, cows, chicken and pigs died horrible deaths from starvation and malnutrition. I am persuaded that if animals have ghosts that some, if not all, of those same ghosts are haunting Christie.

I really do not mind if an individual acts and behaves as an amateur in his/her personal or private life. When an amateur, however, is ostensibly in charge of a country, that is when the rubber meets the road. My main objections to the continuation of this ‘comedy of errors’ sort of leadership style of Christie is that he appears and sounds like a great speaker but is a lousy communicator. He is totally incapable of getting whatever his message is across to the average Bahamian.

Yes, dearly beloved, Christie is an amateur of the highest order. He has been stark naked, politically, for quite some time but it took two simple letters penned by Hubert A. Ingraham, former prime minister, to expose him as an amateur and a bumbler of unprecedented proportions. Christie, to put it gently, is too distant and too unconnected to reality.

God will have to come down from Heaven to rescue his people if Christie remains as leader of the PLP at the conclusion of the upcoming convention. Unless and until he is dethroned by the Dauphin Prince, dog will continue to eat our lunch; the nation will continue to drift; the ranks of displaced workers and the unemployed will continue and, for sure, crime and the fear of crime will continue to stifle all progress.

Only an amateur such as Christie could have presided over the meltdown of Baha Mar while toting that things would be “dead good” soon! What an amateur. I’d laugh if it were not so tragic for my people. His boorish and amateurish behavior and utterances, of course, do not affect me at all because I have known for a long time that Christie is full of bluster, hot air and vacuousness.

The good governance of a country is not, I postulate, predicated on so-called charisma and personality, it is about results. Apart from regulating and taxing the web industry and the roll out of value-added tax (VAT), show me one single other thing that Christie would have achieved since returning to high office. Except for one or two, show me the stellar performance of his out of touch cabinet colleagues.

It is obvious that the web industry operators are being played by this administration. Whether or not the administration is hoping to win a three or four ball is academic. What is clear, however, at least to me, is that the operators will be held in the dance at least until after the upcoming convention. Where did all the talk about a National Lottery go? Were there pay-offs and if so to whom? Who is the alleged bribe taker then at BEC? Not a word from the globetrotting attorney general.

I have no time to play doll-house with a man who lives in the fifth dimension. Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis has only two options. Challenge Christie on the floor of the convention or remain in the shadows forever.

To God then, in all things, be the glory – but Lord, if it be thy will, please relieve us of the burden of having a rank amateur as our prime minister.

– Ortland H. Bodie Jr.