Dear Editor,

The Free National Movement (FNM) party has steam-rolled into office and they seem focused on having financial audits conducted in various ministries. I think this is a step in the right direction, given the fact that the auditor general uncovered a vast amount of weak fiscal controls under the former Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government.
If the audits reveal anything unsavory or illegal, I support the government in allowing the criminal justice system to execute its role. There should be no interference at all from government ministers, pastors, the elite or civil society.
But there is another pertinent issue that I think the government must act upon forthwith.
The public service, for decades, has drained the financial resources of our country and I am a firm believer that in many instances we have not been receiving excellent service for the money being spent. In fact, I believe that collectively the public service has been wanting.
The new FNM government needs to conduct a review of all the services offered by the public service. Once this is completed, they should move forward with a view to providing the public with more efficient services through the use of technology and revise the compliment of workers accordingly.
Persons who are not performing up to standard need to be put on probation and eventually weeded out of the system if they do not meet the standard. Persons who are reporting to work but have nothing to do need to be made redundant. Persons who are doing a yeoman's job need to be recognized and compensated as such.
Additionally, a program of succession planning needs to be either introduced or vigorously enforced so that the government can vastly reduce the cost of rehiring retirees who basically act as high priced consultants.
From my vantage point, I think we are in big financial trouble and our troubles started decades ago. The government of the day recently stated that we have to borrow over 300 million dollars just to satisfy commitments made by the former administration. This cannot be a good sign for The Bahamas.
I encourage the government to continue its fiscal audits and then strengthen and implement controls where needed. I also hope that they will revamp the public service and make the tough decision to downsize where applicable, because our current financial position dictates that we must.

- Dehavilland Moss

Dear Editor,

Adrian Gibson's humongous ego has dragged him off the Hubert Minnis reserve and into political no-man's land, and all at breakneck speed. Less than one week into the new FNM government, one of its most junior members violated the unwritten code of political jockeying: "Sit small till your name call'."
Lady Luck has been kind to Gibson. A millennial, he was given a newspaper column, allowing him a pulpit to rant and vent on any topic he wanted. He set his eyes on his native Long Island, and although he was a long shot for a nomination, he was in the right place at the right time when the FNM standard bearer in the seat self-ejected from the party. That put him on pole position for a winnable FNM seat, even in a non 'salami' election year.
As a member of the freshmen class entering politics Gibson should have set himself on a course of understanding the needs and desires of the people of Long Island and then promulgating a strategy to lobby in Parliament and with the executive to deliver for his people.
But noooo! He had ideas well beyond his station. In his convoluted mind, he should have been invited by the prime minister to join the Cabinet. There is nothing wrong with ego or ambition, of course. Without both we would have no politicians. But political longevity depends on an ability to read the tea leaves and to keep both ego and ambition in check.
It seems Adrian Gibson never followed the career of Dr. Andre Rollins, who imploded, bringing a rapid end to what could have been a promising career in politics. Neither did he learn anything from the lady who could not wait her turn.
In our system of government the prime minister derives most of his unwritten power from the twin gifts of patronage and prerogative. The two greatest prerogatives of the PM are the dissolution and convocation of Parliament and the appointment and firing of Cabinet ministers.

Also high on that list is the responsibility to recommend to the sovereign a nominee for governor general; to nominate someone for appointment as chief justice; to name ambassadors, and to counsel and recommend to Her Majesty for honors such as knighthoods.
Adrian was not alone in waiting to get a call from the prime minister to discuss a Cabinet appointment. One half of the caucus didn't get a call but they had the good grace not to make a public display of their naked ambition and disappointment. Some people didn't have to wonder if they would get a call. They were either senior enough in the party or had distinguished themselves in past public service to correctly surmise that a phone call would come.
Gibson no doubt sat by his phone all weekend while composing his maiden speech to Cabinet. What swell up his head? In his own words, he had slayed a dragon in his constituency and that was qualification enough to sit at the table. Did he consider that maybe the FNM had something to do with his success?
By Gibson's logic, Reece Chipman should be in the Cabinet. He defeated a sitting prime minister. Travis Robinson beat BJ Nottage, Shonel Ferguson mash' up Fred Mitchell, and Pakesia Parker Edgecombe destroyed Obie Wilchombe.

But they quite wisely kept their heads down and are waiting for the prime minister to dispense some more of his patronage and prerogative. There are public boards, some of them paying gigs, and plum assignments, not to mention the myriad of goodies they will want to lobby for on behalf of their constituents.
The prime minister had an embarrassment of political riches when he got 34 other members elected to the House. He had to balance that against a pledge to form a "smart" government that would reflect the greater cross-section of the electorate.
He has largely done that, getting a grade of A-minus for his Cabinet picks. The minus is because his Cabinet has only one female. We need to set about attracting more qualified women to enter frontline politics, so that hopefully one day we can achieve gender parity in Cabinet.
At this stage Adrian Gibson should be concerned with only one thing - being a good MP and holding the seat for his party in 2022. If he can demonstrate that he can easily win the seat again and the branch is happy with him, that will increase his value and usefulness to the prime minister and put him in a better position. Others will then gladly 'carry his water for him' in very high places.
Adrian needs to grow up and realize that politics is a team sport. Hubert Minnis didn't win the government, the Free National Movement did. So Adrian needs to take his disappointment, roll-up his shirtsleeves and help the people of Long Island get the infrastructure improvements, government services and the private sector helping hand they will need to transform their community.
Starting off your nascent political career by publicly poking the prime minister in the eye is not a smart strategy, and the people who voted for him deserve better.
Gibson hung a bull's-eye around his own neck. It's now easier for the prime minister to keep an eye on him because we now know that any plum chairmanship he might be given is only a consolation prize to the man who had already measured the drapes in the minister's office.
This young man's view (pun intended) is being blinded by immaturity and conceit.

- Disappointed

Dear Editor,

I refer to your editorial "Ensuring public service modernization continues", and wish to say that I agree, almost completely, with the recommendations in the editorial. I would, however, go further than you do on the process of voter registration.
You ask the question,"If a Bahamian proved to the Parliamentary Registration Department when he was 18 years old that he was a Bahamian citizen by producing his passport, why should he have to prove it every five years?" The obvious answer is that he should not have to do it. He should be assigned a permanent voter registration number on a smart card, which contains all his pertinent personal information and a photograph. This information would be kept on a permanent voter registration database, as your editorial suggested. The permanent register of voters should be online, so that persons could check their registration status, should they wish to do so.
Could someone explain to me what purpose is served by creating a new voters register every five years? Current laws already provide for the Registrar of Births and Deaths to supply to the Parliamentary Registration Department the names of persons who have died on a regular basis, and similarly, for the Prison Department to supply the names of people who are imprisoned. Using this information, the register could be updated at regular intervals. If this were done, The Bahamas would always have a correct register of voters and would not have to endure the anxieties experienced during the immediate past voter registration exercises.

- A. Leonard Archer

Dear Editor,

There are calls within the PLP for a complete rebranding of the party after the devastating May 10 general election loss which saw virtually the entire Christie Cabinet wiped out, with the exception of Philip "Brave" Davis and Glenys Hanna-Martin. The entire PLP parliamentary caucus can now go to the House in one car, because it is so small, comprising only four members. After the shocking loss of former PM Perry Christie to the FNM's Reece Chipman in Centreville, the former has officially retired as PLP leader on May 15, ending a 20-year run that spanned all the way back to 1997 -- the year the late Sir Lynden Pindling retired as PLP leader. Pindling, with the help of PLP co-founder, the late Sir Henry Taylor, became the party's first parliamentary leader in 1956. Taylor was PLP national chairman at the time of Pindling's rapid ascent in the PLP. Unfortunately for Taylor and fellow PLP co-founders Cyril Stevenson and William Cartwright, they were unceremoniously elbowed out of the way by Pindling and a group of young, black, ambitious, political aspirants who took full control of the PLP. Pindling became the face of the PLP. Perhaps being partially influenced by the African American Civil Rights Movement, along with the Black Panther movement during the 1960s, the PLP crafted a quasi-black separatist message that appealed to many black Bahamians who were fed up with the Bay Street Boys.
The Pindling brand no longer resonates with today's average Bahamian, however. Yet his legacy continues to loom large within the PLP 17 years after his demise in August, 2000, despite calls for a complete rebranding. Pindling's immediate successor and protege, Perry Christie, recently retired, leaving Davis behind as the heir apparent. Davis never served in any of the Pindling Cabinets. But his name was bandied about in the media as a successful solicitor during the Pindling years. Back then he was a known PLP supporter. Davis was also the law partner of former FNM Leader Hubert Ingraham and Christie -- both of whom served in the Pindling administration as Cabinet ministers.
Davis' fellow PLP parliamentarian, Glenys Hanna-Martin, is the daughter of A.D. Hanna, former deputy PM to Sir Lynden. She can rightly be called a second generation PLP and political offspring of Pindling. Hanna-Martin reminds the Whistleblower of Allyson Maynard-Gibson, daughter of the late Sir Clement T. Maynard, also a former deputy PM in the Pindling government. She is also a second generation PLP. Former West End and Bimini MP Obie Wilchcombe has announced his intention to run for the chairmanship post of the PLP, after it was announced that current chair, Bradley Roberts, will not be seeking to run for the post at convention. Wilchcombe can definitely be called a Pindling protege. He worked at ZNS during the 1980s but embarked on a career in politics due to the influence of Pindling. There you have it; the Pindling troika of Davis, Hanna-Martin and Wilchcombe will presumably lead the PLP over the next five years. If the PLP is to become relevant to the 21st century Bahamian, it will have to, once and for all, sever ties with the Pindling brand. The PLP 2012 Gold Rush campaign often featured the widow of Pindling, Dame Marguerite. The PLP utilized Pindling nostalgia in order win over voters. It worked. Small wonder the Christie government was inundated with allegations of corruption, like the Pindling administrations. Victimization was also a tool often used by the PLP under Pindling and Christie to subdue political foes. The political apple hasn't fallen far from the tree. Even though many new faces to politics emerged within the PLP in 2012, many of them were quickly relegated to the backbench once power was obtained. PLPs from the Old Guard, such as Valentine Grimes and Beltron Bethel, surfaced to take full advantage of the spoils of victory. New generation PLPs such as Dr Andre Rollins and Greg Moss were dumped in the political scrap yard.
With Davis, Hanna-Martin and Wilchcombe at the PLP helm, Pindling's fingerprint is all over this so-called new PLP. I hope Bahamians are not fooled by the few cosmetic changes to the party. The PLP troika must be considered a stop-gap measure until suitable replacements are brought in. The PLP is in dire need of reform. Any future rebuilding process cannot include Davis, Hanna-Martin, Wilchcombe, Fred Mitchell, Christie, Bradley Roberts, Jerome Fitzgerald, Allyson Maynard-Gibson, Dr Bernard Nottage, Khaalis Rolle, Melanie Griffin, Hope Strachan, Michael Halkitis, Leslie Miller, Dr Michael Darville, Dion Smith, Alfred Sears, Vincent Peet, or Dr Perry Gomez. Fresh faces must be brought in. And I am not talking about third generation PLPs or children and grand-children of any of the aforementioned senior PLPs.

- The Whistleblower