Why we can't wait

Wed, Aug 1st 2012, 08:44 AM

Dear Editor,

The general election has been concluded some two and a half months now. The political departure, for the final time, of the former prime minister has been set in motion. The question as to whether or not the current prime minister has accepted the fact that he is, again, now in fact the prime minister has yet to be answered affirmatively, if at all.
The electorate was sold a bill of goods and it may well be that when we present it to the proverbial bankers that it will be handed back to us marked "refer to drawer". It is understandable that a honeymoon period should be extended to a newly elected government. Honeymoons, however, seldom last for more than a week or two.
The people of this nation cannot and will not wait forever on the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration to find its collective feet. Hitting the ground running was a part of the seductive posture enunciated by that party during the campaign. One would have thought that the PLP and its allies would have learnt the simple lesson that proper public relations and marketing are key elements in good governance.
No doubt the PLP is doing something and no doubt that party believes the same, but what is on the ground that an ordinary man and woman in our beloved country is able to actually feel, touch and smell? The average person in The Bahamas cannot and will not wait much longer for the long promised hope and help. Talk is extremely cheap and real money still buys land.
Little comfort is being handed out to the displaced and badly treated former workers at the now defunct City Meat Market. The ball is in the court of the ministry of labor and other governmental agencies to ensure that those workers are treated fairly within the ambit of the law. Yet, I understand, that they have been told that the matter is still pending. How is it that the labor board and the minister have not stepped in to ensure that the owners of that defunct company do the right thing?
Because one may have supported and voted for any party does not give that party an automatic escape from criticism where warranted. I demand that the minister of labor, my erstwhile "friend", I believe, move quickly to bring justice and equity to those workers. We cannot sit by and wait any longer.
The deputy prime minister is the hardest working member of the Christie Cabinet, bar none. He too, however, has been placed in the balance and found wanting. Compensation was promised to those business persons and entities along the dug up roads by the PLP during the general election. Months later the roads are still in a total mess and there is no longer talk of compensation. The DPM now tells us that he expects the roads to be finished by October 2012, but he did not tell us at what financial cost.
Some within the PLP believe that I want something from that party. Let me disabuse them of that bogus notion. I want nothing that was not promised to me years ago. If they do not wish to do what they said that they would bring about, who cares? There is nothing or no one living or dead who is able to stop me. I am not prepared to pamper and cuddle up to anyone for a mess of red bean soup, with no salt beef.
We cannot wait while politicians live high on the hog and many of our people are still jobless, hopeless and often homeless. They make good speeches but don't really believe or live out what they are pontificating. The former prime minister was good at this form until he uttered the patently stupid statement, allegedly: "I am a one-man band."
Why should we wait when hotel workers are being let go just when schools are about to reopen? Why should we wait when the Chinese workers are working full time around the clock and our people are being displaced? Where is the minister of labor in all of this? In fact, where is the mantra of this administration: "Putting Bahamians first?" If ever there were a bogus political slogan this may well be it.
I do believe that Perry Christie means well but so many of his ministers and sycophants have changed overnight since they were returned to power. All former cellular numbers have been changed or go to voice mail. It is useless trying to access the now high and mighty. The PLP is behaving, collectively, just how the free National Movement (FNM) and its "hologramic" former leader used to behave.
You should see some of them strutting, like Boxer and Squealer from "Animal Farm" fame all over the place. You should see some of them creased up in their chauffeur driven blue-plated vehicles, air conditioned to the maximum. Now you understand why we cannot and will not wait to hold them to their 100-day challenge?
There was much talk about foreclosure relief during the campaign. Not a word since being elected to high office. There was talk about no victimization. More talk and the beat goes on. There was talk about swift justice but the attorney general says that she does not have a clue as to much of the statistics.
Cases are still piling up and alleged criminals are still walking the streets, but the commissioner of police crows that crime has gone down.
The good people of The Bahamas cannot and will not wait much longer to actually see, touch and feel the implementation of those programs highlighted by the PLP during the campaign. Its propaganda machinery seems to have gone south since the general election. Some say it is too soon to expect more from the Christie administration. Others believe that the former prime minister is still large and in charge and that he, so they say, still believes that he is better than all the rest.
I really felt bad for my good friend Dr. Hubert A. Minnis, so-called de facto leader of the humiliated FNM, during the one-man press conference convened by you know who. Dr. Minnis was a mere prop and stage figure while the one-man band dominated the press conference. In fact, Dr. Minnis did himself little justice, if any, during the same.
We cannot wait much longer on a government which is allowing a shell-shocked one-man band to dictate its agenda and time table relative to national events. Let the political dead rest in peace.
To God then, in all things, be the glory.

- Ortland H. Bodie Jr.

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