Resetting our national discourse and priorities

Mon, Dec 21st 2015, 12:31 AM

This year, The Bahamas celebrated 42 years of independence. There is much that we can celebrate, having evolved as a young nation over the past four decades in relative peace, security and political and social stability, devoid of any extraordinary crises.

The country has been well served by the philosophical and pragmatic framework that established our nation, but the national agenda remains unfulfilled. Therefore, as we end the year, we would like to Consider This... Is it time for us to reset our national discourse and priorities on our more penetrating sojourn into the 21st century?

Our approach to national development
Historically, we have engaged in what can best be described as an ad hoc approach to national development, truncated by the election campaign every five years when political parties proffer their plans and proposals for the ensuing five.
For too long, we have engaged in an approach and propensity for knee-jerk reactions to setting and implementing our national development policies. In recognition of this reality, there have been recurrent requests to formulate a national development plan for The Bahamas that is based on a systematic and methodical approach to development, a request that has consistently escaped us. We maintain that, without such a clearly defined, considered national development plan, our long-term national goals and objectives will continue to elude us.

University of The Bahamas
For centuries, in countries large and small, universities have served as an incubator for thought leadership, providing basic research as a tool for national development. Since its establishment in 1974, the country has heavily invested human and financial capital in the College of The Bahamas, which will soon attain university status.

The Bahamas should decisively and deliberately draw on the wealth of knowledge and talent that resides in that institution to assist in informing the national discourse. Basic research regarding social, economic and political issues that impact our society should be the focus of studies conducted and scholarly theses published by that institution in order to obtain both empirical data and realistic solutions regarding the issues that confront us.

Believing in Bahamians
One of our most important challenges in the years ahead will be a greater demonstration of confidence in ourselves. For too long, we have developed a crisis of confidence in our own abilities to address our national concerns.

Instead, we have demonstrated a passionate love affair for things foreign, often to the exclusion of an appreciation for Bahamian talent and expertise. This has been demonstrated most frequently by politicians on all sides of the political divide, often resulting in the engagement of, and priorities given to, foreign consultants and investors when the same talent and intellectual acumen resides locally.

A classic example of this is the engagement of foreign consultants to advise the government on the cost of the National Health Insurance program when there are adequate locally qualified professionals who can accomplish the same task. Another example was observed in the public debate on value-added tax, where Bahamians proffered the same recommendations as the tax consultants from New Zealand and elsewhere. It was only after the New Zealand consultants presented their recommendations that the government finally accepted many of the same recommendations as those offered by Bahamians months earlier.

Hopefully, as we progress, the political directorate and the Bahamian public will more fully appreciate that there are qualified Bahamians who are, in some instances, better educated than the same foreigners who often provide their findings based on interviews that they conduct with Bahamian professionals.

The importance of our diplomatic missions
With few exceptions, it is generally accepted that the current crop of diplomats posted to our foreign missions is the most unimpressive that we have seen in recent history. It is equally embarrassing and unfortunate that the Christie administration took too many years to post resident ambassadors to important countries like China, Brazil and India, to mention just a few. In a globalized 21st century, we are missing golden opportunities to use our diplomatic missions to drive more business opportunities to The Bahamas from those countries.

National service
Many developed countries require their young adults to participate in some form of national service after leaving high school. Such corps of young men and women have historically served to protect the homeland from all enemies, foreign and domestic as well as ensuring that persons who enter society have developed practical and workable skills that have eluded them from an outdated education system that is in urgent need of an overhaul and re-engineering for the 21st century.

Although we missed the opportunity in the past to develop a national service program, we should revisit such a program as a matter of national urgency. Our failure to do so will result in the exponential increase of young men and women leaving school without the requisite discipline and skills that are required to enable them to participate in opportunities to become productive citizens, the consequences of which we are all very familiar.

Parliamentary candidates
While there are a few current parliamentarians who stand out in leadership abilities and intellectual acumen, it is generally accepted that the current parliamentary class is not particularly impressive, on both sides of the aisle. For some, it is their first term in elected office.

What is lacking in our system is that too often, some representatives enter Parliament with little political experience, oblivious and ignorant of the philosophical principles and foundational footings on which our Commonwealth was founded. Additionally, as soon as they are elected to Parliament, some members demonstrate that they are the font of all knowledge that they did not previously possess.

We believe that an essential problem is that there is no apprenticeship period where members are tried and tested before entering Parliament and hence too often their inexperience is demonstrated in their lack of knowledge about how the Westminster system works. They are ill-equipped for public service.

Until and unless such persons more fully appreciate that they are temporary custodians of the public trust and that their actions and decisions could have a potentially long-term, transformative impact on our society, The Bahamas will continue to be poorly served by those who adopt a misplaced, arrogant attitude of entitlement and privilege which diminishes their responsibility to advance the common good.

Economic empowerment
Political empowerment is only one-half of the equation for total participation by our citizens in the Bahamian economy. The other half of the equation is economic empowerment, which has eluded too many for decades. While some persons have created personal wealth for themselves, there are many factors that militate against promoting a cadre of entrepreneurs who would wish to realize their dreams of business ownership.

Our banking system and access to working capital and political red tape and government bureaucracy have contributed to the frustration experienced by many would-be entrepreneurs. A concerted assessment must be made regarding the barriers to entry for Bahamian entrepreneurs, and methods should be found to remove those barriers. Because the ownership of land is essential to the creation of wealth, we must enable Bahamians to make better use of commonage land or generation property, the title to which is often not adequately documented. Additionally, Crown Land can be used more effectively to empower Bahamians to use those assets to raise capital in order to start businesses.

Successive governments have "gifted" Crown Land to foreign investors. We should be prepared to do the same for Bahamians who have viable business plans but lack the necessary capital to realize their dreams of business ownership, without which economic empowerment will remain a distant dream.

The impending brain drain
Increasingly, we hear about young Bahamians who are studying abroad who maintain that they will not return to The Bahamas to contribute to national development. The reasons that they give for remaining abroad are that there are better opportunities in foreign lands and there is a lack of local opportunities for them to use their education here at home. We have to find constructive ways to overcome this perspective and encourage them not only by our words but also by a deliberate, concerted effort to eradicate their reservations about returning home.

Conclusion
As we traverse the 21st century, it is critically important that we deliberately set about encouraging a national culture of civility, an inherent respect for our established institutions and our national treasures, both human and institutional and develop a deeper appreciation for the contributions that have been made by those who have contributed to our national development.

Above all, we should constantly and objectively review, redefine and reset our national discourse and priorities if we truly expect to become the greatest nation on earth - an objective that is well within our reach. As we close the chapter on what has been an extremely challenging 2015, I would like to wish all citizens and residents of The Bahamas a joyous, festive Yuletide season and a secure, prosperous and productive New Year.

o Philip C. Galanis is the managing partner of HLB Galanis and Co., Chartered Accountants, Forensic & Litigation Support Services. He served 15 years in Parliament. Please send your comments to pgalanis@gmail.com.

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