Dear Editor,

Over the past months the media was riddled with accusations being hurled by the prime minister and the leader of the official opposition at each other. But after the election date was announced, they seem to have escalated to fever pitch.
It reminds one of Nero fiddling while Rome was burning. Bahamians are going through the worst economic downturn in living memory; political leaders are actively engaged in the blame game while crime is escalating out of control; hundreds of our middle class citizens are losing their status; thousands of our young people are being denied their dreams of a college education because of their parents and/or guardians inability to pay; thousands of citizens are losing their homes, businesses and transportation because of their inability to meet their mortgages; many more small businessmen have lost their businesses due to the disastrous road program.
Neither of these two leaders is addressing these concerns but instead they are trying to out do each other in making ridiculous promises that they know can't be kept.
What amazes me is that they, leaders, have a knack like some grassroots preachers in working up the crowds at their rallies to an unbelievable emotional frenzy that borders on fanaticism. It is absolutely amazing to see some of these persons frothing at the mouth while waving pompoms and flags and shouting their party slogans or their leader's nickname.
I am sure that these drooling party followers are not giving the slightest thought to their economic plight brought on by the action or non-action of those leaders. Thousands of them at these rallies whose lights were turned off by the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) for nonpayment, and later turned on by instructions from their leader, had given no thought to the fact that after election, if their bills are still unpaid, the service would again be disconnected. They would be saddled with two reconnection bills plus what they originally owed along with their current bill. The Biblical saying "oh, what mortal fools we be" is never more true than in the case of many a Bahamian voter.
Crime began to escalate in this country from 1968 and continued with every successive administration up to this present one. None of them could solve the problem simply because they were and are the problem. Yet from 1992, each administration has been accusing its predecessor of being the problem and not doing anything about it.
As odd as one will find the scenario, they were all accurate in their accusations. Now that we are in the closing weeks of this campaign we are getting promises galore, many of which have been in the political recycle bin since 1968; but nonetheless they are still being dished out to the drooling party and/or leaders idolaters.
In every election since 1968 political parties had a slogan. Over the years there have been many and varied from the ridiculous to the humorous. This year proves to be no exception.
The PLP's slogan is "We believe in Bahamians"; the FNM's is "We Deliver"; and the DNA's is "The Change". Let us now examine these slogans to see how they connect and/or relate to the current dilemma that the electorate is faced with in this nation today.

"We believe in Bahamians"
I find this one more than a bit confusing for the following reasons:
1) Who were they believing in before?
2) Were they believing in foreigners before now? And if they were, what made them change their minds for this election?
For the past four and a half decades, we in this country have not had a change of government, as it has always been the same or more of the same. Perry G. Christie led the country for five years - 2002 to 2007 - and he is now telling us that for those years of his administration that he did not believe in Bahamians? Absurd, to say the least.

"We Deliver"
1) find this one to be not only true, but accurate. Let us now examine the manifesto of their deliveries: 1) A crime and murder rate unprecedented in this nation.
2) An economic downturn that robbed thousands of middle class Bahamians of their status.
3) An unemployment rate second to none.
4) Denial of tertiary education to thousands of young Bahamians.
5) Closure of scores of enterprising small Bahamian businesses due the out-of-control catastrophic road works.
6) Run-a-way government borrowing.
7) The unfair treatment of the public service.
8) An untold amount of hardship and misery suffered by an untold number of Bahamians because of ill-judged policies.
9) The granting of thousands of citizenships in so short a period before elections and allowing the head of a foreign nation to advise Bahamian citizens how to vote.
10) A massive national debt that cannot be paid for in generations to come.
There are so many more deliveries that time and space do not allow me the luxury of naming all at this time.

"The Change"
This one is not really new, it is similar to the one used by the FNM in 1992 - "It's time for a Change".
It is said that "there is nothing new under the sun". The late Sir Lynden Pindling used to say, "What goes around comes around my brudder".
The similarity between the Pindling administration of 1992 and the present Ingraham administration is frightening. The name of the slogan may not have been deliberate, but it is very significant.
Things were so bad in this country that after the votes were counted on that fateful night in 1992 that it started to rain slowly and in about half an hour it appeared as if the skies had opened and it became a torrential downpour so powerful that most streets south of the arch were impassable and it lasted for four hours without let-up. It was said that the gods were cleansing the country of the old order. Is history about to repeat itself? You dear voter must be the judge.

- Errington W. I. Watkins

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