Many of us remember when the PLP and Sir Lynden had gang members on the platform at a now infamous convention. That convention was a low point for our politics and spoke volumes about the Opposition’s toleration for certain mind sets and behaviour.
Just as British Prime Minister David Cameron pointed out that a gang culture develops over time, what we tolerated as a country yesterday is coming back to haunt us today.
This all puts the recent address by the Leader of the Opposition into context. Most Bahamians wish they could take former Prime Minister Perry Christie seriously on the issue of crime. There are many reasons we cannot, including the certain knowledge of his failed leadership on this front.
It is my opinion that we cannot trust Mr Christie because of his fundamentally weak and indecisive leadership in dealing with tough issues like crime. The man who can’t discipline his own cabinet will never make the tough and decisive choices on crime. We cannot trust Mr Christie because he presided over a cabinet of scandal in a PLP culture riddled with the same. How can one expect such a culture and the same group of scandal-ridden people to deal seriously with crime at every level?
Today’s culture of criminality and drugs has its roots in the late 70s and the 80s when the PLP gave free reign to all manner of corruption. Hubert Ingraham turned his face against such corruption. Perry Christie, with great enthusiasm, swam back to that PLP culture.
That culture helped set in motion all manner of official corruption helping pave the way for much of the criminal mentality we are experiencing today.
So, is there a suggestion that this is the same Perry Christie we are now supposed to take seriously on confronting the issue of crime and criminal behaiour! Bahamians know that when it comes to issues of public integrity and no toleration of corruption, that Hubert Ingraham can be trusted. This is the kind of tough and no-nonsense leadership needed to confront crime.
We cannot take Mr Christie seriously on crime as the promises he made to deal with crime and national security as Leader of the Opposition prior to 2002 and then after as Prime Minister beginning in 2002 never came about.
Let’s not forget that in 2006 the WikiLeaks claimed that his government was crawling out of its skin in fear that the US would issue a travel alert for their citizens visiting The Bahamas. Yet, he still was paralyzed from doing many of the reforms he promised beginning with the courts and including policing, issues that the FNM continues to put in place.
In all probability the country would have been further ahead in the crime fight had Mr Christie and his government acted earlier on everything from dealing with the question of bail to CCTV to other measures he’s now proposing but on which he failed to act.
By the way, how come Mr Christie did not really make any serious national addresses as Prime Minister but is now in a rush to do so as a general election approaches. He is, as usual, late-again. But he did find time to go on television to hold Shane Gibson’s hand when his scandal-ridden minister was forced to resign after Mr Christie tolerated his behaviour for a long time.
What Mr. Christie should do is declare war on corruption and scandal in his ranks and then actually take some action.
Concerned Citizen
Nassau, The Bahamas
August, 2011
