Dear Editor,
A golden opportunity you say? That's right, no pun intended.
It was suggested to me on Tuesday that the May 7 poll won by Perry Christie and the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) with a landslide presents them a great opportunity to prove their doubters wrong.
They will inherit a modernized infrastructure - water, roads, airport and harbor and more - so they can concentrate on improving education and the myriad of other problems with services provided by the government, and of course reduce government spending and borrowing. Not to mention the fact that they can blame their predecessors for increasing the debt and having to borrow even more to finish off their projects.
I'm hopeful Christie will want to leave a clean and admirable legacy so he will not appoint some of his former Cabinet colleagues that caused him so much embarrassment during his last stint as PM (2002-2007). He certainly has some good talent there in his new MPs, like Dr. Andre Rollins, Khaalis Rolle and Dr. Danny Johnson, to name a few.
In the final, the public policies the PLP chooses will be what helps make The Bahamas a better place for future generations or help push us further along the Greek and Italian roads to economic ruin.
One thing we need to get under control in our politics is what Dr. Robert Higgs of the Independent Institute calls "The Systematic Organization of Hatreds".
Dr. Higgs writes: "In politics and government, however, the institutional makeup fosters hatred at every turn. Parties recruit followers by exploiting hatreds. Bureaucracies bulk up their power and budgets by artfully weaving hatreds into their mission statements and day-to-day procedures. Regulators take advantage of artificially heightened hatreds. Group identity is emphasized at every turn, and such tribal distinctions are tailor-made for the maintenance and increase of hatred among individual persons who might otherwise disregard the kinds of groupings that the politicians and their supporters emphasize ceaselessly."
Hopefully it will be different going forward.
With all good thoughts for Bahamaland.
- Rick Lowe
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