What are they hiding

Wed, Apr 19th 2017, 08:52 AM

In two days, if all goes according to plan, Prime Minister Perry Christie would be successful in getting Baha Mar opened ahead of the general election -- even if it is only a partial opening.
Christie and his ministers continue to boast about this achievement being a phenomenal development in what has been a significant crisis with grave implications for the economic climate of The Bahamas.
The prime minister has been hailed as a skilled negotiator.
We can expect more praise during Friday's opening.
The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) regards this as a boost heading into the high-stakes election that is shaping up to be a rough-and-tumble battle between the hugely unpopular governing party and the Free National Movement (FNM), which is led by ousted Official Opposition Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis.
What we ought not lose sight of amidst the fanfare that will surely accompany Friday's soft opening is that the public remains in the dark over what the government agreed to, to get Baha Mar back on track.
With Parliament dissolved and the parties in full election mode, releasing the Baha Mar deal does not appear to be a priority of the government.
Over the last few months, the prime minister and Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson led us to believe that this deal -- announced by Christie last August -- will be available for public scrutiny before the April 21 opening.
That is two days away.
Christie told Parliament that the Supreme Court sealed the deal at the request of the Chinese.
But in January, he told the media that he has directed Maynard-Gibson to make the records public at "the earliest opportunity".
Although she did not commit to a specific date, Maynard-Gibson said in January, the documents will be released by mid-April.
"It's important to note that there is proprietary information that has to be protected as well as the common interest in having all of the information there and we believe that we will be able, in short order, to have both objectives accomplished," she said.
Baha Mar filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware in June 2015, but all related cases have since been dismissed.
In August, Christie announced that the government and Export-Import Bank of China (CEXIM), which financed the project, had reached an agreement to resume work on Baha Mar.
Months later, he announced the sale of Baha Mar to CTF BM Holdings Limited, a subsidiary of Hong Kong conglomerate Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Limited (CTFE).
But the government has failed to account for what it did on the people's behalf.
Christie said in January, "We have no difficulty whatsoever of being able to account for what we have negotiated.
"I can tell you this, in the history of this country, that will go down as one of the most brilliant set of negotiations ever done in advancing the cause of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas."
Maynard-Gibson then told reporters, "You have heard the prime minister speak.
"You have heard [Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald] and myself speak and that is that there is nothing that is unusual in the documents at all in terms of the contents of the heads of agreement, and there is nothing unusual about the idea of incentivizing investments in our country.
"We are certainly very happy to see the promise of Baha Mar come into its full fruition."
The Nassau Guardian previously revealed that the government has made value-added tax (VAT) concessions in order to get the resort opened.
Following this revelation, Fitzgerald, one of the government officials involved in the Baha Mar talks, said the VAT waiver was a trade-off to get the former workers and the unsecured creditors paid, a process which cost $100 million.
Prior to that, the government characterized the payouts as a gift from the Chinese -- supposedly out of the goodness of their hearts.
It took a leak for the public to know about the VAT waiver.
Many were left wondering what else is in the agreement.
It is simply unacceptable that the Christie administration has refused to honor its commitment to make it public by mid-April.
Has it even moved the court to unseal the deal?
The public has a right to know what concessions the government agreed to on its behalf.
Could it be that the government is afraid to reveal what is there because it would be a clear indication that it has been overly generous in respect of granting concessions?
It is a grave insult that the information is being kept secret ahead of the election. No matter what the government tells us, the failure to release the Baha Mar documents feeds widespread suspicion that there is information in that agreement that could damage the PLP's chances of re-election.
If the deal was so brilliantly negotiated, and if in fact it would demonstrate strong leadership on the prime minister's part, then the Christie administration should be anxious to make it public.
The fact that it is not raises red flags.
It is abominable that the PLP -- which pledges in its new plan to establish an information and communications ministry in a new term -- is showing such shameless disregard for the public's right to know.
Why really are we as a people being deprived of information that is supposedly so critical to our economic well being?
That kind of attitude in government exists in dictatorships. We are not in a dictatorship. We are operating under the principles of a democracy. We deserve a government that is transparent.
This government's lack of transparency means there is no reason to trust it.
Again, if the deal is above board, there is no reason to keep it hidden in the shadows, out of public view.
It suggests that the government does not respect the people, but the PLP is asking us to trust Christie and crew.
This is warped political thinking, that voters ought to reject in the strongest terms.
It is not enough to tell us that some jobs have been created at Baha Mar-- although clearly the PLP thinks the last-minute creation of hundreds of jobs qualifies it for re-election.
This was demonstrated in the now infamous words of MICAL MP V. Alfred Gray a few months back.
As he expressed the view that the PLP will be well-positioned to win the next election, Gray told reporters in December, "Once we could hire 5,000 to 6,000 people and people have money in their pockets, they don't care who the government is."
It translated into: Once we can throw them some crumbs from the economic pie, nothing else really matters.
But there are other things that matter if the PLP is to convince voters in sufficient numbers to support the party at the polls.
We are entitled to know what our leaders do on our behalf.
If our government does not trust and respect us, then how are we to trust our government?

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