Dear Editor,
 
In any western nation the so-called middle class has always been and remains the bulwark of such a nation.  It is from the ranks of the same that most job creators emerge and the same act as the catalyst that drives the local economy.  It is a given that small to medium sized businesses generate approximately 60 percent of all jobs and gross national revenue and productivity.

The late great Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling and the first Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration are rightly regarded as the herald and originator of what we now term the middle class in our country.  During the 1950s and 1960s there were, of course, the exceptional traditionally 'black' and 'conchy joe' individuals who were able by sheer determination and hard work to raise above the norm and enter the ranks of the then middle class.  This, however, was not a common occurrence.

Massive additions to and the availability of an educational plant and its spinoffs during the era when the late great Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield was minister of education, resulted in a well-educated and motivated precursor of the embryonic middle class.  This, of course, was aided by the timely development of the suburbs in the inner city such as Ridgeland Park; Culmersville; Englerston; Highbury Park; Sunshine and Sunset Parks, et al.  Persons who once before were tenants were then able to purchase affordable building lots and construct decent residences for themselves and their families.

Today here in the capital island of New Providence, we have witnessed, within one generation, the rapid development and expansion of areas like Carmichael Road; Prince Charles; Winton and Sea Breeze.  The traditional inner city is now a vibrant hub for entrepreneurial endeavors, artistic ventures and culture.

In this leap forward, however, the once buoyant middle class is under assault and faces potential decimation due to any number of economic and political forces and ideologies.  The current Free National Movement (FNM) administration, while it may mean well, has embarked on a dedicated regime of tax, borrow and spend.  Our national debt now exceeds $4.5 billion and there is no apparent end in sight to repeated and massive borrowings.

Taxes have been and are being heaped upon the collective backs of the average Bahamian citizen, to the extent where we don't recognize our feet from our elbows.  To set up and fund even a small business is now out of the reach of many.  Red tape and regulations are literally 'killing' many would-be entrepreneurs.  Our infrastructure in New Providence is being mauled and badly managed, but the political 'masters' call it modernization and necessary progress.

I am apolitical and most of my other personal habits are benign.  What I am, however, is passionate about being a Bahamian who wants only what I consider to be best for all.  There are far too many involuntary foreclosures and repossessions of homes and residences.

The cost of living is escalating on a daily basis and there appears to be no corresponding increase in salaries and wages.  Private educational costs and fees are soaring.  The availability and affordability of the smallest or residential lots here in New Providence is beyond the reach of all and sundry.  The costs of utilities have long been a sore bone of contention, and many citizens and business owners are swamped with the high levels of the same.

Our society is now rapidly evolving into two extremes - the wealthy and the poor.  The middle class is being squeezed out of existence by political and economic pressures.  I have long held, and still hold that our prime ministers need no longer be lawyers.  I look forward to the day in the not too distant future when we will have a technocrat and a trained economist type as prime minister.

Once Perry Christie and Hubert Ingraham would have demitted frontline roles, I see the emergence of an Orville 'Tommy' Turnquest (FNM, Mount Moriah) or a Hubert A. Minnis (FNM, Killarney), whether individually or as a team, to take us to the next level as a nation.  No, I am not an FNM, nor am I a PLP.  But we have got to move forward.  Party labels and affiliations don't really matter to me.

Of course, within the ranks of the latter party people like Philip Brave Davis (PLP, Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador) and Shane Gibson (PLP, Golden Gates) must prepare to come to the center of the stage in our national political arena.  The arrest of the decline and decimation of the middle class is of paramount importance, as we prepare to cross over into the proverbial promised land of 'milk and honey'.  No Bahamian can or should be left behind.  'New' and 'fresh' political blood and leadership is required now more than ever before.

And so, as we enter the Christmas holidays and prepare for 2012, I extend best wishes to all of my fellow Bahamians, especially those within the diminishing ranks of the challenged middle class.  In all of these things, however, to God be the glory for there are yet great things that he will do for The Bahamas.
 
- Ortland H. Bodie Jr.

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