Bahamianisation was not a PLP creation. lt was introduced by the UBP government, not to hinder businesses, but to try to make certain that qualified Bahamians were first in line for job opportunities.
However, Bahamianisation took on a new face with the advent of the PLP. They made it their platform pledge – the Bahamas for Bahamians, top jobs for Bahamians. Nothing wrong with that. After all this is our country and it should be for us, first. But under the PLP, Bahamianisation was used to bludgeon their opponents into submission. In other words, Bahamianisation looked good on the surface, but it had a sting of destruction in the tail.
It was a tool to clobber into submission those who did not adhere to the party line. It was their big club of victimisation, which they used then, and which they are trying to use now. The only difference between then and now is that Bahamians are better educated and understand their tricks. Bahamians are also more vocal, thanks to the Ingraham government opening the airwaves to the public through private broadcasting.
The Tribune can talk with authority on this subject, because, refusing to bow to the Pindling administration’s dictatorial ways, we were severely victimised for 25 years. Every effort was made to cripple our business – all through their so-called Bahamianisation policy.
However, if the truth were known, they were more interested in controlling Bahamians, than freeing them. PLP politicians just sounded sanctimonious when they pulled down the curtain of “Bahamianisation” to cover their dastardly deeds behind closed doors.
We know Bahamians-qualified Bahamians – whose foreign employers were squeezed into dismissing them from their posts because those particular Bahamians – good at their job – were not good at being PLP.
Today the so-called “new” PLP are using the “Chief’s” same old tricks to get at The Tribune’s foreign managing editor. Under the ruse of wanting to inspect The Tribune’s training programmes – sounds reasonable to the public ear – they are really trying to put a damper on the pen of our cutspoken English editor.
It’s an insult to question The “Tribune’s training programmes, and its assistance to students. We are known for our training.
Even under the Pindling administration our programmes were acknowledged. One day a young innocent in a job interview let the cat out of the bag. In response to a question, she admitted that the print media was not her goal. She said that she really wanted to be a broadcaster, but was told that she would not be hired by ZNS – not even for training – unless she were first trained by The Tribune. And this at a time when the Pindling government was making it almost impossible for The Tribune to carry on its programmes for young people.
The PLP did everything in its power to hinder our training programmes.
At one time The Tribune had a journalism school on its premises. Students were in training – even learning T-line shorthand – for three solid months before being allowed in our news room for one day a week for practical training. Their programmes continued for a year. At the end of that time the best ones were kept on our sfaff.
However, the PLP government refused to renew the permit of our English training officer. Naturally without a journalism instructor, the school closed.
When that failed we met with the then Immigration Minister to try to arrange an exchange programme. The Minister was very enthusiastic. He thought it a good idea to send Bahamians abroad. But there was a sticking point. Obviously he didn’t understand what an exchange programme entailed, because when we explained that a foreign journalist would fill the place of the Bahamian being exchanged, he interrupted us: “Oh,” he said, “we can’t have foreigners writing about us!”
That ended our foreign exchange programme. But the mentality is still with us today. “We, little insular Bahamians, can’t have foreigners writing about us!”
But, believe us, we are training, and we are training our reporters to speak out through their pens. It is not going to be so easy in the future for politicians to hold onto power by playing on the ignorance of the masses. The masses are becoming wise, and our educated young reporters will be leading the charge.
Those days are gone when the glibtongued politician, with the ker-lick of the cowbell, conquered the polls on election day. Our students are measuring up.
And to survive, so must the politician of the future.
Editorial from The Tribune
