Dear Editor,
The Bahamas is 40 years old as an independent country, yet it has only had three prime ministers: Sir Lynden Pindling, Hubert Ingraham and Perry Christie. Pindling served for 25 consecutive years, between 1967 and 1992; Ingraham served for three nonconsecutive terms, 1992 to 2002 and from 2007 to 2012; Christie is currently serving in his second nonconsecutive term. Some three weeks before the general elections last year, Christie told a large group of PLPs at a rally in Clifford Park that Ingraham was the worst prime minister The Bahamas ever had.
By saying this, Christie was obviously implying that he and Pindling were better prime ministers than Ingraham. But is this so? Of the three prime ministers, is Hubert Alexander Ingraham the worst one the country has had? The whistleblower says no. Christie was only ranting in order to win an election. The whistleblower does not believe that even Christie honestly believed what he was saying that night on the rally stage. Hubert Ingraham has distinguished himself as the greatest prime minister The Bahamas has had. Pindling and Christie are not in Ingraham's league.
It was the first Ingraham government which had the arduous task of cleaning up the tarnished image of The Bahamas when it took office in August 1992. The PLP administration left the country in a mess. There were few jobs and the treasury was broke. Most Bahamian historians are agreed that the period of 1977 to 1992 was the darkest in this nation's modern history. Pindling presided as prime minister during this time frame. During that infamous period, American investigative television journalist Brian Ross produced his magnum opus report titled "The Bahamas: A nation for sale".
The report aired on NBC in the United States in 1982. This much publicized report did much to tarnish the reputation of The Bahamas in the eyes of the world. The report alleged, among other things, that the Colombian drug boss Carlos Lehder and members of his nefarious Medellin Cartel used Norman's Cay in Exuma as a transshipment point to traffic cocaine into the United States. To this very day, objective historians are adamant that the PLP government under Pindling turned a blind eye to the suspicious activities of the Colombians.
Many of the Family Islands experienced an economic boom due to the drug trade, which grew exponentially throughout the eighties. I know of many Bahamian drug dealers who were multimillionaires; some of whom were only in their twenties. Some Bahamian observers are convinced that had it not been for the flourishing drug trade, this country would have been on the precipice of starvation. The Bahamas had a pseudo-economy. With the tourism sector in shambles and an economy buckling under the weight of a silent embargo slapped on us by the Reagan administration for obvious reasons, the Pindling administration lacked the vision to guide the country towards true economic growth.
The eighties also saw a massive surge in cocaine addiction among thousands of Bahamians. We lost virtually an entire generation. I know of a dear family friend who was a successful hotelier in the seventies, but became addicted to cocaine in the early eighties. He pawned away many of the items in his home in order to sustain his habit. As a result of his excessive drug use, he died in the late eighties. The whistleblower is convinced that the Pindling administration could have done more to curtail the drug trade. But for some unknown reason, it chose instead to take a passive, nonchalant approach to dealing with the matter.
In order to save face, the Pindling administration held a commission of inquiry to investigate the drug trade in the country. As a result of the inquiry, five members of the Pindling Cabinet either resigned or were fired. The inquiry was unwilling to admit the obvious. The whistleblower believes that the entire House of Assembly should have been dissolved and an election called that year (1984). The whistleblower also believes that Pindling should have resigned from active politics. He led an administration which nearly destroyed this country. He did some good. But his negatives far outweigh his positives.
The whistleblower has a problem with PLP revisionists such as Prime Minister Perry Christie and other loyal Pingdomites. These die-hard PLPs are trying to rewrite the history of Pindling. They are trying to make Pindling palatable to the newer generation of Bahamians, who were not around when the Pindling government brought The Bahamas down to its knees. This new generation of Bahamians were not around when free speech wasn't tolerated and the press was muzzled by the Pindling administration. They were not around when PLP cronies were hired to work in the government even though many of them lacked the most basic qualifications.
Why do you think bankrupt government corporations were teeming with PLPs? The Pindling administration mismanaged the country. This newer generation of Bahamians were not around when FNMs were victimized and were rarely hired in the civil service. They were not around when Bahamians were fired for simply expressing an opposing view to Pindling government. When Hubert Ingraham became prime minister in 1992, he changed this banana republic approach to governance, which had become all too common under Pindling.
Therefore, how can Christie say that Hubert Ingraham is the worst prime minister The Bahamas has ever had when he himself felt the wrath of Pindling for speaking the truth? Now, to answer the question as to which of the three prime ministers is the worst the country has ever had, the whistleblower will be kinder to Christie than he was to Hubert Ingraham. Christie is not the worst prime minister; he is the second worst prime minister.
While Christie lacks leadership skills and is not a good prime minister and has also resided over a scandal-ridden administration, he has at least managed not to bring the level of disrepute that Pindling brought to the country in the eighties. The whistleblower believes that Pindling is the worst prime minister The Bahamas has ever had. The whistleblower is willing to admit that Pindling served so-so in his first six years as leader. That was from 1967 to 1973.
But after that, everything was downhill. Hubert Alexander Ingraham is the best prime minister The Bahamas has ever had. The new generation of Bahamians who are being brainwashed by PLP operatives need to know this.
- The whistleblower
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