The Editor
Bahamas Press 26th February,2021.
Dear BP.
As the Minnis administration tries desperately to cling to power they have resorted to employing its media trolls, misfits, mercenary foreign political consultants, and apologists especially those in a totally biased and discredited print and electronic media to convince Bahamians that they should once more vote against their own interests and return the FNM to power. The media is so unashamedly anti-PLP that it is frightening. A day does not pass when they do not publish some article which deflects from the incompetence and arrogance of this government and try to rope the PLP into the issue.
Add to this what appears to be a politically biased Auditor General’s Office and you see that not only is our democracy in peril, but our constitutional rights are being slowly eroded. The lies of the media and the publicly funded propaganda department in the OPM has tried unsuccessfully I might add, to bury the real truth of this administration under a layer of lies so often repeated that even they believe them. How else then to explain that every time the FNM is in trouble especially when it comes to allegations of corruption and incompetence, the Auditor General’s Office has a report which conveniently diverts the public’s attention from it.
So rather than debating issues the FNM propaganda machine is resorting to vile, demonic, and scandalous personal attacks on the PLP its leadership and their loved ones from their anonymous rat holes and dung piles. From these rat holes trolls spew all manner of lies, concocted stories and propaganda designed to perpetuate the bold lies the FNM told us in 2017 but, Bahamians have peeped their hole card.
The FNM has always chosen as its favourite attack weapon accusations of corruption in the PLP and claims that the party is still run by a corrupt “old guard”. But if you look at the partial list of FNM candidates you see all of the usual suspects and incompetents being offered up again with no comment from the media. The vile, untrue, and totally fabricated stories about alleged PLP corruption is clearly another lie being used to deflect the actual rampant corruption in the FNM.
One only has to look at the barely remarked accusations of corruption and cronyism contained in the current US government report on procurement practices in the Bahamas under the FNM. The US report was met with howls of anguish and denials but yet no one has challenged or discredited these very serious allegations. And if Bahamians remain unconvinced of the allegations of a corrupt FNM then reread the most recent Transparency International Corruption Perception report. Now the spin doctors in the FNM point out that the Bahamas still outranks all other Caribbean nations save for Barbados.
That is so but, we have been on a downward trajectory in these rankings for the past three years.
If you recall this perception of FNM corruption has as its genesis a number of questionable transactions and incidents which have yet to be properly explained by them. They brush them off like annoying flies and tell fresh lies to distract the Bahamian people from the truth. It should come as no surprise then that FNM politicians are allegedly having clandestine meetings with the PLP in a desperate attempt to ensure that their extravagant lifestyles courtesy of the Bahamian taxpayers will continue. The PLP should not be fooled by these traitorous, disloyal, self-serving overtures. Any such talks or discussions are magnets for internal turmoil. After all, while Bahamians continue to experience the pain of food insecurity, unemployment, rising prices, threats of even higher taxes and water rates, evictions, hopelessness, suicides and losing family businesses these clowns are bathing in champagne; now, it is time for them to face the music.
When you read and objectively examine the putrid missives from the FNM trolls and see their unbelievable and unseemly parliamentary behaviour it is plain that there is desperation and an almost palpable fear in the air. They can laugh, giggle like silly children, be disruptive and as nasty as they choose. The truth is that time is fleeting; the time for accounting is drawing near; the cold breath of political reality is blowing and no amount of lies, spin, deflection and blaming the destruction of the Bahamian economy on Dorian and COVID-19 rather than FNM incompetence and hubris will erase the disastrous consequences of their time in office.
Bahamians must remember that one of the guiding principles of the FNM is that grassroots Bahamians, the salt of the earth are stupid and lack sophistication and common sense. That is why they believe that we will fall once more for the damnable lies which spew from their mouths.
Nothing is further from the truth; while we may not have an alphabet soup of letters after our names, we know a scam when we see it and rarely fall for it twice. The FNM has been the government for 15 of the last 20 years. If they had our interest at heart and wished to grow the thriving middle professional class created by the social policies of the PLP and create good paying stable jobs for grass roots Bahamians, they would have done so by now. That, however, would have put them in conflict with their monied financiers and enablers who wish to keep us in a subservient role and out of the economic life of the Bahamas which they see as theirs exclusively, especially, when it comes to business deals and “consultancy fees”.
Unlike PLP policies which provided inclusion for all Bahamians especially by providing an environment in which talented Bahamians could obtain higher qualifications, prosper, excel, start businesses and thrive, the FNM has done all in its power to frustrate the aims, goals, social mobility, and livelihoods of Bahamians save for their friends and lovers. No amount of lies and historical revisionism can alter this fact. This is especially true for those who they (FNM) feel do not support them; do not be deceived. The oligarchs who fund the FNM do not view their incompetent handling of the pandemic and the near destruction of our economy as a problem.
Rather they see it as an opportunity to seize even more control of the economy through foreclosures, evictions, and the undervalued purchases of Bahamian owned businesses. It is obvious that the interest of all Bahamians, and protection of our economy and our jobs is not on the FNM to do list. What we have experienced for almost four years is a government with no plans and accomplishments of its own trying to convince us that PLP projects many which they tried to kill are actually theirs. But give them some credit; they are past masters of spending our money and not accounting for it. Finally, Bahamians should not be fooled by the recent legislation proposed by the minister of the environment which he says will give Bahamians more control over our biodiversity, natural and intellectual resources and accrue more benefits to us.
This is yet another cynical ploy by the FNM to allay our fears, distract us, sell another big lie, and mute the increasing levels of popular protests against the pillaging of our natural resources while its financiers and in some instances alleged business partners continue with their methodical seizure and exploitation of the treasures bequeathed to us by our ancestors. In fact, since 1999 under the FNM the Bahamas developed a draft National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) as a guide to CBD implementation and put these responsibilities under the BEST Commission and did nothing to progress it. This should not surprise us as its implementation would have made independent, scientifically evaluated Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) studies mandatory for their benefactors and financiers before they exploited our resources. And despite what the environment minister is trying to falsely assert the Bahamas is still a non-party to the Nagoya Protocols.
This is precisely why presently there are 56 species of plants and animals listed in the IUCN Red List 2009 of Threatened Species for The Bahamas, ranging from extinct to least concern.
Ironically, in 2015 Minnis said that “ Christie will go down as the worst prime minister in history”. This was a lie then and circumstances has certainly proved that it is a lie now. That ignominious honour is all yours Minnis; many Bahamians and influential Abaconians say so.
Sincerely,
The Observer
