It would be a national tragedy, an astounding lost opportunity, if the PLP legalized a private lottery further enriching a few, instead of a public lottery benefitting the mass of Bahamians, sadly reminiscent of The Bahamas Airways tragedy of the late 1960s.
How in good conscience can a Bahamian government legalize a lottery system in which millions are endlessly transferred from poorer and struggling middle-class Bahamians into the already overflowing coffers of the very wealthy?
Such a decision would be a moral disgrace and fiscally irresponsible, a triumph of vulgar and unbridled greed.
We have been here before. There are historic echoes of a pernicious pattern of betrayal by the PLP, betrayals which have retarded national development from the inception of majority rule, including the malicious destruction of Jumbey Village.
Minister of State for Legal Affairs Damian Gomez noted that web shop operators previously indicated that the annual gross bettings were $400 million with a profit of around $100 million.
Still, the real numbers are unknown to the public. Curiously, estimates by the Christie administration have been rather inconsistent, at times seemingly low-balled. Neither the numbers bosses nor the government have been forthcoming on the money involved in the trade. One may only guess why.
In the lead-up to last year's gambling referendum Christie promised that he would abide by the will of the people. Certain numbers barons promised they would close shop following a no vote. Christie's word was no better than those of the numbers men.
Flip-flop
Within that year he performed his greatest flip-flop ever in the numbers game, quite a feat considering his dazzling flip-flopping in the referendum debacle.
In yet another infamous performance art piece Christie said that he might be forced to regularize the numbers trade because the country was in dire need of funds that might be derived from the business.
Watch the sleight of argument similar to a three-card monte trick in which the trickster attempts to distract the mark in order for the confidence game to succeed.
Here's the game: Of the mega millions involved in the numbers trade, the numbers bosses seem set to legally grab the lion's share of the money with the government deriving considerably less in taxes.
Christie is attempting to make a fiscally responsible argument for a lottery, but seems set to act in a fiscally irresponsible manner.
Yet again, the PLP seems set to advance the narrow and greedy interests of a few, well ahead of the needs of the majority. It is a well-entrenched pattern.
In 1968 a newly minted PLP government led by Sir Lynden Pindling was offered a near unimaginable opportunity for the new majority rule government.
The inspiration was to turn Bahamas Airways, our fledgling national airline, into a significant international carrier flying routes throughout the U.S., including New York City and parts of Latin America.
Sir Arthur Foulkes was minister of communications, which included responsibility for civil aviation.
An agreement was negotiated in which Bahamas Airways was to be a part of a consortium partnering with the Swire Group, the Bank of Hong Kong and Cathay Pacific airline. Cathay Pacific is today "the world's third largest airline, measured in terms of market capitalization" and "the world's largest international cargo airline".
To understand the double-dealing to come, it is important to remember that it was Sir Lynden who invited the Swire Group to The Bahamas.
For a small archipelagic colony with enormous developmental challenges and nearing independence, such a consortium could prove lucrative and pivotal as The Bahamas needed considerably more airlift to boost the tourism sector as a platform for national development.
Cathay Pacific was to provide managerial and technical expertise. There were dazzling plans for in-flight service showcasing the culture and beauty of The Bahamas, from the uniforms of stewardesses to interior cabin design to meals.
New jets were acquired and on the ground at New Providence ready to fly to cities in the U.S.
Destroyed
Then the greed and the double-dealing of Sir Lynden dashed hopes and destroyed one of the brightest possibilities ever for Bahamas tourism and air services. It remains a national tragedy of the highest order, something Perry Christie seems set to repeat with eyes wide shut.
Warren Levarity subsequently became minister of communications. Without his knowledge or consent the Air Transport Licensing Authority, under the chairmanship of Bruce Brennen, issued certain routes to the Premier's chum Everette Bannister and his proposed Bahamas World Airways, routes already granted exclusively to The Bahamas Airways consortium.
Undoubtedly Brennen granted the routes to Bannister and what many scoffingly referred to as his "paper airline" on Sir Lynden's instructions.
In a spectacular breach of faith Sir Lynden deceived his own colleagues, international investors and the Bahamian people. Subsequently, many international investors became wary of The Bahamas and Sir Lynden's government.
The Swire Group asked Sir Lynden to honor the prior deal and revoke the routes given to Bannister or assume responsibility for Bahamas Airways. After his refusal, the group pulled out, the airplanes left, and Bahamian stewardesses were stranded in New York. Bahamas Airways was effectively destroyed overnight.
Playing the pseudo-nationalism card for which the PLP is infamous, Sir Lynden thumped that the consortium was "never a part of us".
The cant and the deceit: It was Sir Lynden who originally brought the group to The Bahamas. It was he who reneged on a deal that his government had agreed to. He was shifting attention from his double-cross and double-dealing.
Bannister's airline was a flop, a promotional trip to Frankfurt its first and last, with rumors that the company never paid for the fuel for the flight.
What are the opportunity costs of The Bahamas Airways tragedy? They are enormous, reverberating over the decades.
We would have had an airline outstripping the likes of Air Jamaica and likely now boasting one of the best airlines in the region, with Bahamians as shareholders in a leading international carrier.
Spinoffs
The economic spinoffs would have been breathtaking. A thriving airline and employment for perhaps thousands of Bahamians at every level, generally free of political interference and the gross incompetence and corruption that has often characterized Bahamasair.
From marketing to a range of auxiliary services, numerous small to medium-sized Bahamian businesses employing many would have developed.
We likely would have avoided the drain of approximately half a billion dollars from the treasury to keep Bahamasair operational. Imagine what could have been done in terms of national development with half a billion dollars and counting!
At a luncheon in Hong Kong in 2010, former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham met the head of Cathay Pacific who noted that a number of older senior officials at the airline remembered the Pindling government's betrayal of the arrangement. It seemed clear that they would never consider any proposal to return to The Bahamas.
Sir Lynden traded a better and more secure future for The Bahamas for greed and narrow interests. In today's numbers game Christie and the PLP are demonstrating the same pernicious pattern.
Forty years after independence and following the Great Recession our great challenges include those of violent crime, persistent youth unemployment, growing inequality and a faltering middle class alongside other structural social and economic challenges.
We need urgently to find a way to expand entrepreneurship and jobs, providing more poor Bahamians with a ladder into the middle class, while stabilizing a middle class besieged on numerous fronts.
A national lottery is not a panacea. Still, funds from such a public enterprise may play a significant role in helping to address our challenges.
If Perry Christie and today's PLP sell us out to the numbers men in the interest of greedy and narrow self-interest we will pay a heavy price. Worse, generations to come will pay an even heavier price.
How can a party which purports to care so much about the poor and Bahamians in general be so callous, indifferent and smug, especially in light of its prior betrayal with Bahamas Airways?
Sadly, it must be a part of their political DNA, just like the old guard and oligarchy they once loathed, a prime example of the overlords in George Orwell's "Animal Farm", the pigs who began to resemble the men they once struggled against so mightily.
o frontporchguardian@gmail.com, www.bahamapundit.com.

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