As Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources V. Alfred Gray continued to do a great job at damaging his credibility and that of the entire government of Prime Minister Perry Christie recently, he made a comment that was wholly disturbing, one which reflects a mindset that is dangerous in the formulation of economic and development policy.

As some of Gray's colleagues quietly expressed embarrassment over his handling of the controversy that erupted with The Nassau Guardian's revelation that he had given the go ahead for our ambassador to China, Paul Andy Gomez, to pursue an agri-fisheries proposal with the Chinese for Andros, Gray suggested that the outrage from Bahamians over the matter would offend and chase the Chinese away.He said: "I'm sad to say the Chinese could easily take the view, 'Alright, you all don't want us here; we will go somewhere else'. And then what?

"They close down the port in Freeport, they close down all the investments in The Bahamas. Then what?

"How stupid will the Bahamian people look as leaders who allowed or caused that to happen? Because when you have money, you can take it anywhere.

"They don't have to be here. They choose to be here, and the least we can do is treat them well, so instead of contracting, they expand their investments and provide opportunity for us as a people.

"But if they get angry because of what the leader of the opposition says and they say, 'Fine we have five to 10 matters going on in Freeport', the Grand [Lucayan] Hotel in Freeport, the airport in Freeport is owned by them, The Pointe down at West Bay Street is owned by them, just about every major investment in our country in the last 10 to 15 years under both governments. The Chinese were people who say they love The Bahamas, they want to do business and I'm saying we have got to be careful, and I'm not only talking to Dr. Minnis (the opposition leader), I'm talking about us as a people."

In that one ill-thought out statement, Gray vocalized a thought process that rightly evoked concern, if not fear, among Bahamians who were paying attention.

As Bahamians, we need to question whether that is Gray's colleagues' and his leader's thinking in their approach to investment opportunities.

It is a neo-colonialist beggar mentality, which does not allow our leaders, those who negotiate on our behalf, to place themselves, and thereby the people they negotiate on behalf of, on equal footing with prospective investors.

This kind of thinking could only do one thing, and that is place us in the backseat during these negotiations.

Gray portrays Bahamians as having their hands out, looking for the scraps. We must "treat them well", he says, or they would take their money elsewhere and we would be stupid if that happens.

That he expects to be taken seriously with such a foolish comment is worrying. That we have people in the Cabinet of The Bahamas who think this way is downright terrifying.

This kind of beggar mentality makes our leaders prone to making mistakes, prone to structuring poor deals, prone to giving away more than they need to give away for the sake of attracting investments.

In that one statement, Gray revealed a kind of desperation in the approach to investment policy in The Bahamas that should be long behind us.

It is disappointing that a senior Cabinet minister in charge of important national assets would articulate such an offensive view.

As a steward of our economic growth and policy development, Gray ought to be more responsible in his utterances. Sadly, coming from him, this is not at all surprising.

We have no doubt that the Chinese and others can smell a beggar from a mile away.

No one comes to The Bahamas looking for opportunity if they feel they are going to lose money. The investor ought not have the upper hand.

As we pointed out previously, Gray has missed entirely the point of the outrage that came with our revelation in our November 1 edition about the proposal he asked the ambassador to develop further with the Chinese.

We do not want the Chinese, or any foreigner for that matter, owning any fishing operation in The Bahamas.

And we are not naive enough to believe that because the companies involved would be incorporated in The Bahamas, they would really be Bahamian companies. The proposal calls for the Chinese to be 50 percent owners in each company. That means the Chinese would have fishing licenses in The Bahamas if that initiative were to be approved.

Do not insult us with silly technicalities, minister, and do not insult us with your backward thinking.

In the case of the $2.1 billion agri-fisheries proposal, there's no amount of money the Chinese could give us that would be worth sacrificing our country's marine resources.

In his response to the furor, Gray seems to be attempting to silence Bahamians so as not to offend the Chinese, who have a terrible reputation in the management of their own fisheries resources, and resources elsewhere.

We should run as far away as we can from any proposal that involves any fishing partnership with the Chinese.

Many Bahamians find it incredibly insulting that, in the face of very serious concerns over the handling of our birthright, Prime Minister Perry Christie has remained largely silent. When he did speak a couple of weeks ago, he did so in characteristic confusing style, assuring that Andros is in his hands, suggesting that those are good hands.

But many people were not convinced.

What they want to hear from their prime minister is an unequivocal statement that Ambassador Gomez has been advised to abandon the proposal, which would entail Chinese being involved in our fishing industry and which could see the leasing of up to 20,000 acres of Crown land in Andros for the initiative.

While Bahamians do want foreigners as investment partners, if those foreigners have a problem with policies and decisions that benefit Bahamians, then they should be pointed elsewhere.

Government economic policies and investment decisions should never be made out of fear of foreign investors or based on some inferiority complex a particular minister may be afflicted with. We are not beggars, and we are not wards of some overseas colonial power.

The matter of the proposed agri-fisheries initiative with the Chinese has been seriously harmful to the reputation of a government that was already low on the credibility scale.

It has driven us to be even more concerned about the kinds of discussions our government officials are having behind closed doors that could lead to the giving away of our birthrights to foreigners.

Candia Dames, Guardian Managing Editor

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