Perry Christie is not much of a democrat. He has been bad for Bahamian democracy, both in terms of party politics and our system of government.
During his years in office he has become more undemocratic, his lust for power growing by leaps and bounds. He remains delusional about his accomplishments, and his standing with the Bahamian people which, in reality, is at an all-time low.
He loves the attention, being saluted by police and defense force officers, his photo adorning government offices, the crowds waiting to hear him perform and prattle.
He is the big man, boasting of his gladiatorial prowess and skills, who wanted a standard designed for his office.
Just as in his last term, he boasts of the number of jobs created on his watch, numbers which do not comport with unemployment statistics.
He boasts about billions in possible foreign investments even as the country is downgraded, unemployment is at a record high, there is scant GDP and economic growth, and the country is in economic freefall.
Christie's self-absorption and egomania are boundless. He once insisted: "I said to the minister of national security, I'm not prepared to have my own legacy, my own reputation, be tied to a total reliance on the Royal Bahamas Police Force and to the leadership of that force."
With crime and violence gripping the country, he is obsessed with how he is perceived.
At a Chamber of Commerce conference he referred to himself as "I, the country". He has referred to himself as a gladiator.
He asked people at an event in Bimini to look at him: "They are wondering about how old I am. Tell them how I look. They are concerned about whether I have energy. Tell them to challenge me."
The septuagenarian prime minister dances and prances in order to show people how full of vim and vigor he is.

Intoxicated
Christie is so intoxicated with power that he believes it traitorous for anyone in the PLP to run against him for leader.
He has assimilated and reinforced a hidebound culture in the PLP, which has resulted in the party only having two leaders since 1956, when Sir Lynden Pindling was elected as party leader. Over the course of 61 years the Progressive Liberal Party has had only two leaders!
The manner in which Christie sought to crush Alfred Sears in the party's leadership contest is reminiscent of dictatorships in other countries.
Christie and his court were never going to allow anyone to have a fair run for the leadership. Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis appears to have been intimidated into not running.
There are reports that Christie promised Davis some time ago that he would, at some point, step aside and make room for his deputy: "A promise is a comfort to ..."
Like politburos or political parties in one-party states, Christie stacked the election process in the PLP, which has become highly undemocratic and a mockery of our party political system.
The PLP is a classic oligarchy, with an elite high command, which long ago abandoned its progressive roots but employs its history to mesmerize many into thinking that it is still the party of the poor and of black Bahamians.
The PLP is mostly a business with a political arm, with Christie as chief executive officer. The highly class-conscious elite in the PLP is never going to allow certain PLPs from certain backgrounds to become party leader.
Christie brags and thumps his chest about how long he has been in frontline politics. If elected to another term in the House of Assembly at the next election, he would surpass the number of years Sir Lynden Pindling served in the lower chamber.
But despite the time he has served in Parliament, including in the Senate, he has assimilated little about the ideals and the conventions of parliamentary democracy.

Convention
After Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis misled the House, he should have been fired. But Christie was not prepared to follow the parliamentary convention and remove him.
After decades in Cabinet and two terms as prime minister he has assimilated little about Cabinet government and collective responsibility. His Cabinet ministers regularly flaunt the principle of collective responsibility with no reprove or discipline by the prime minister.
Many, including in the PLP, disapproved on principled grounds the selection of the current governor general. But to secure his position Christie advised the appointment of a highly controversial choice.
Christie has contempt for many of the principles, the spirit and the conventions of our constitution, parliamentary system and Cabinet government when they conflict with his self-absorbed political needs.
And he has contempt for internal democracy within the PLP.
Christie talks a good game, telling people what they want to hear. But he is a poser when it comes to deepening democracy. At an April 2002 rally when he was first seeking to become prime minister, Christie exhorted: "It doesn't matter to me whether you are young or old, man or woman, black or white, Baptist or Catholic, well-off or not so well-off, city-dweller or Family Islander, PLP or FNM, we are all bound together as brothers and sisters in the Great Bahamian Family and we must never again allow petty prejudices and hatreds to lead us into the temptation to divide or to victimize.
"I will never allow that kind of primitive ideology to cheapen and debase the ideals that I have set for the next government of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. This is not about settling old scores."

Pettiness
These are the words of the same man whose pettiness seemed to know few bounds as he railed to others about Brave Davis and Alfred Sears for even thinking of running against him, reportedly fuming that these men should not be running against their king, i.e., Christie as head of the PLP.
Christie exclaimed at that 2002 Clifford Park rally: "There will be no 'payback' time under my administration. I am going to treat all Bahamians like family. There will be no victimization of anyone. I am a democrat, not a tyrant. I will be too busy helping people to have any time for hurting people. And it's just not in my nature to do it anyway.
"And when I speak about this, I speak on behalf of the entire government I will lead. If I hear about any minister of mine trying to practice any victimization on anybody, the next time he hears from me, it will be to tell him to clean out his desk and head for the door.
"Victimization is an evil I put on par with corruption in high places. Neither will be tolerated under an administration headed by Perry Christie. Of that you can be assured.
"Believe me, then, when I say how resolutely determined I am to lead the way in creating a new PLP for our times. And we must lead by example.
"We must conduct ourselves in government according to an uncompromising code of complete integrity and transparency. If we set the right example at the top, it will filter all the way down to the bottom, both in the public sector and in the wider society."
Given the ideals Christie espoused and the opportunity he had to reform the PLP, he is more than a disappointing figure. He has not set "the right example at the top".
Perry Gladstone Christie is a tragic and undemocratic figure, who allowed his lust for power and his egomania and narcissism to outstrip his potential to make his party and his country more democratic.
And he has precious few accomplishments after 40 years in the House and after 10 years as prime minister. His years in office can be termed, to paraphrase another, "Chronicles of Wasted Time".

o frontporchguardian@gmail.com, www.bahamapundit.com.

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