Looking backwards cannot help the unemployed Bahamians and struggling businesses today, Mr. Minnis! You’ve been looking backwards for almost five years now!
Nassau, Bahamas – Some five months after the defeat of the PLP, the new government of the Bahamas is now in the Parliament just completing a resolution to thank the Governor General for her contribution during the Opening of Parliament.
Five months of bungling delays result in the conclusion in Cabinet that: “We don’t know what to do now that we are here!”… This is incredible. And after Prime Minister Hubert Minnis got up to tell the country what he intends do with all illegals living in the Bahamas [a plagiarized statement from the Turks and Caicos], his writer – locked in the period of the Drug Era of the Bahamas – took a bewildered Minnis down the path of lost history, which has absolutely no relevance to today’s national and global challenges.
To be fair, yes, The Bahamas had a deadly drug problem in the late 1970s – 1980s, which killed off many youths and compromised our standards. But the problems of drugs and guns are still here today! And, just in case Minnis and the FNM’s memory is too short, they should also remember that the Bahamas had a dangerous bootlegging [Liquor Smuggling] problem in the 1920s when thousands of gallons of alcohol that was banned in the US was shipped through the Bahamas into North America. Have we examined what that era did to the social fabric and culture of the Bahamas during that time? Did we conclude that such smuggling exercises deteriorated the standards of our people then? This is clearly lost history in the head of Minnis.
We at BP can go even further and remind the country how Woods Rodgers, in the early 1700s, began his tenure as the appointed Royal Governor, charged with the expulsion of all pirates who practiced every kind of illicit behavior mixed with lawlessness in the country at that time. What were the social conditions during that period that possibly affected our way of life in these islands? They have absolutely nothing to do with the present state of joblessness and crime young Bahamians face today. But, ya know, people like those elected to government believe so. Ah, well!
Mind you, what is important to remember is that, during the drug era, drugs passing through the Bahamas were not cultivated here. But, like every other Caribbean country, we all became points of transshipment for the illegal trade of substance that was destined to be heavily consumed by our neighbours to the north. How come the FNM Leadership never discusses how its “Friends” in America could not stop it? The United States of America still have not stopped it, right to this day, and the consumption of drugs continues to represent the dark side of America – all of which remains unspoken.
And here’s another point on the ‘Drug Era’ PM Hubert Minnis was not told: every one of the men and women who are today giving the Bahamas problems through crime [the 18 – 25 year-olds] were born after 1992. And guess who led the country? The FNM! Which means they had no kind of conditioning from the Pindling Government, but rather grew up under the Ingraham era! And what happened during that period that really made so many of them so upset and vulnerable to commit crimes?
Could it be the exercise of social promotion launched under Ingraham in the Education policy, which shortchanged youth, denying them the opportunity to have a fair shot in the world? Or perhaps it was the decision to relax the laws pertaining to immigration that allowed some persons to walk into the place without status and demand rights to our services?
And let us at BP add this point. Those of us who remember the players during the ‘Drug Era’, all remember a “Goddie”, “Tiny” and “Sore Throat” dem, who climbed the steps of the FNM ladder while making big money from drug personalities like Carlos Joe Ledher in the sale of Norman’s Cay. We ain’t forget, Dr. Minnis – you just didn’t remember that!
And, yes, there were others who assisted in the movements of their clients and their money, all represented deep inside the FNM. We ga discuss that at another point and time when “Da Graduate” memory returns. Perhaps this article would help!
Minnis’ speech today proves that there is nothing in his plans to grow the economy, create employment, expand commerce and deliver hope for the future. His government is short on ideas, bankrupt of vision and long on distractions. Rather then share some hope for the people, the FNM Leader is in Parliament talking every kind of nonsense that has no relevance to today’s Bahamians who see the Bahamian dream slipping away from them.
We wonder what the five thousand babies Minnis claims he delivered into world think of his rudderless stewardship! They are the real victims here of “The People’s Time Government!”
All we say is this: If PM Minnis and the FNM can’t fix it, someone else will!
We report yinner decide!
