In a rambling charge at the opening of the 106th session of Synod at Christ Church Monday evening, the Archbishop admitted that the wealthy and their “minions” are elected and appointed merely because of their wealth. He may have been alluding to the appointment of his allegedly corrupt attorney son, Damien Gomez, as a senator in Perry Christie’s PLP government.
Damien Gomez recently resigned from the Senate and announced he was expecting to be named as a judge to the Bahamas Supreme Court in January. The young attorney’s apparently unethical handling of a German investor’s real estate transaction prompted the investor to create numerous websites lambasting the corrupt practices of the Bahamas legal community. The disgruntled investor’s websites have cost the Bahamas tens of millions of dollars in lost investments and tourism revenues.
As the father and business partner of an ethically-challenged attorney, Archbishop Gomez and his family are among the “minions” who have been elected and appointed merely because of their wealth or family’s social status.
In a statement that sounded good but lacked sincerity the Archbishop said, “Our political system ought not to be so manipulated as to render it impossible for the poor to be electable because of their lack of financial means.”
The nation’s largest website and leading moral compass, BahamasB2B.com, has for years tried to end corruption in Bahamian politics by suggesting that political parties make accurate and timely financial disclosures.
On Monday, Archbishop Gomez was one of the first prominent Bahamians to publicly agree with BahamasB2B’s position.
“The major politcial parties and individual candiates ought to be required to provide a tabulation of individual direct donations and the sources of the same. We ought to know prior to Election Day, who is paying the campaign bills of each party so that the proper enquiries can be made into the size and purpose of the donations.”
A major source of funding for both political parties in The Bahamas comes from foreign donors who are seeking to do business in the Bahamas.
Columbian drug kingpin Carlos Lehder was a big contributor to the Lynden Pindling campaign. Other shady figures who have propped up corrupt Bahamian political parties are are Robert Vesco, the Amercian financial fugitive; Mohamed Harrachi, the banker who eventually lost his banking license; Victor Kozegny, the international financial criminal; Samuel ‘Ninety’ Knowles, the drug kingpin recently extradited to the United States and various other international criminals.
“They ought not to be permitted to purchase favours at the expense of others who cannot pay the same. Indeed no one should be permitted to purchase favours, for in the purchase of a favour it is implied that it is not readily available to members of the public and that the grant of the same favour is tainted with a preference, which has nothing to do with acheiving the public good…,” said the Archbishop in one of his more hypocritical comments to the press.
The Archbishop conveniently forgets that it is exactly the type of favourtism that he rails against which allowed his incompetent and allegedly corrupt son to be appointed to the senate. And it would be the same corrupt crony connections that would be used to get his kid appointed to the Supreme Court, to the detriment of the entire Bahamian legal system.
Most political analysts see through the Archbishop’s insincere call for public accountability in campaign finance reform.
“It always looks good to support the ethics displayed by BahamasB2B.com, but rarely do these hypocrites ever do anything more than talk,” says a BahamasB2B news editor who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal from the Bahamian underworld.
Allegedly corrupt attorney Paul Adderley, who was Attorney General during the drug dealing reign of Prime Minister Lynden Pindling, is among those who echo the call for honesty in politics. But Mr. Adderley’s actions do not support his rhetoric.
Paul Adderley was appointed to head of the Constitutional Review Commission, one of the many useless committees and commissions created by Perry Christie to funnel money and influence to his cronies. Mr. Adderley recently had the gall to say that The Bahamas has been severely influenced by money in politics for over 100 years, yet he fails to admit the part he has played in that corrupting process.
During the run up to the 2002 elections, the PLP promised campaign finance reform if elected. Their campaign document, “Our Plan”, promised there would be appropriate penalties for violation of any law that would govern campaign contributions. The trick was… they never made any legislative movements towards fullfilling that campaign promise.
“It was just another one of Perry Christie’s campaign lies. It is clear that Mr. Christie said and did whatever he had to, to get elected, with no intention of fullfilling any of his campaign promises. The man has no integrity whatsoever,” says a prominent political analyst.
