This was a historic moment, but not for the reason Christie might wish Bahamians to believe.\u00a0\u00a0It was historic as a piece of grand\u00a0political theatre that will enter the history books as a masquerade and monumental failure by the government, a failure that will\u00a0help to define Christie\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
The government said that it paid nothing for what they got in the new BTC deal.\u00a0\u00a0That is most fitting as it got little to next to\u00a0nothing more than the original deal.<\/p>\n
Never mind the doublespeak, the technical gobbledygook, the evasions, the farcical spin, the bluster; Christie failed to achieve\u00a0what he emphatically promised in a statement at Gambier House on March 27, 2011:<\/p>\n
\u201cI renew the pledge here this afternoon that when we become the government again, the PLP will regain the majority\u00a0shareholding of BTC and return its control to the Bahamian people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, C&W remains the majority shareholder and in control of BTC.\u00a0\u00a0Those are the facts, no matter the government\u2019s attempts\u00a0at artful dodging, obfuscation and smoke-and-mirrors, a term referring to \u201cwhere\u00a0magicians make objects appear or disappear\u00a0by extending or retracting\u00a0mirrors\u00a0amid a distracting burst of\u00a0smoke.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recall the harsh language and insults Christie and others hurled at the deal with C&W, some calling the company unworthy, one\u00a0of the nicer words used.\u00a0\u00a0Now they claim they never wanted management control and that C&W are so wonderful.<\/p>\n
The notion that the PLP is making the best of the FNM\u2019s deal is a canard.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They have basically ratified what the Ingraham\u00a0administrated negotiated.<\/p>\n
After returning to office Christie indicated that they would not go ahead with the FNM\u2019s plan to sell nine percent of BTC shares\u00a0to Bahamians.\u00a0\u00a0Now the government has flip-flopped, saying that it will, yet another ratification.<\/p>\n
There was the spectacle of Christie and a coterie of wizardly advisers, including Franklyn Wilson, having to so spectacularly\u00a0backtrack with a new shuffle cum song-and-dance after some demonized C&W in the strongest possible terms.<\/p>\n
In terms of the new BTC Foundation is it the case that though the government may create the Foundation that\u00a0the shares remain\u00a0the property of and in the name of C&W, even though the proceeds from the almost two percent of the shares are used for\u00a0Bahamian community projects?<\/p>\n
When the Foundation is created the public should be allowed to see the terms and conditions or articles of incorporation,\u00a0whichever is pertinent.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t only FNMs who mocked what Christie had for some weeks prior bragged of as a \u201cbig\u201d announcement that turned out\u00a0to be a minor or small accomplishment after all.<\/p>\n
EMBARRASSING<\/strong><\/p>\n Embarrassing for the government was the scorn poured on the illusion of a \u201cbig\u201d deal by nonaligned voters, by union officials,\u00a0by PLPs, by the media, by commentators, by the business community, by those who believed the PLP\u2019s propaganda of getting\u00a0back BTC \u2013 basically by the nation at large.<\/p>\n There is a classic aphorism of what a dictator fears most:\u00a0\u00a0A drunk stumbling out of pub with a quip that shatters the pretensions\u00a0of the dictator.<\/p>\n Likewise, in a democracy: Politicians fear mockery, the type of humor that penetrates thick skins, armor and veils, revealing the\u00a0gaps and gulfs between what a politician claims and what people see or experience.<\/p>\n Such a shattering and historic moment for the Christie administration arrived last week, when, with giggles to\u00a0guffaws, and titters and snickers to howls, Bahamians generally laughed at the claims made by the government of\u00a0the BTC deal.<\/p>\n By: Simon<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This was a historic moment, but not for the reason Christie might wish Bahamians to believe.\u00a0\u00a0It was historic as a piece of grand\u00a0political theatre that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[36,93,40,142,60],"class_list":["post-47807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions","tag-btc","tag-corruption","tag-government","tag-incompetence","tag-plp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47807\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}