If doctors and politicians want to attract medical tourism to The Bahamas, they need first to inspire confidence in Bahamian medical services among Bahamians themselves... ...Putting the legislation that already exists to work on behalf of the public interest by providing quality assurance and oversight of healthcare delivery is the obvious place to start

A question of medical trust

Tough Call - tribune242



IN a recent Tribune article, heart specialist Dr Conville Brown complained about Bahamians spending millions of dollars in the US for medical care that could easily be obtained at home.
He was arguing in favour of local healthcare providers building a large-scale medical tourism industry.

"The same things that all tourists do," he said, "the medical tourist has to do. (And) if the ownership is Bahamian, then the economy really wins because those funds will stay here."
But at the same time, he felt constrained to point out that Bahamians were offsetting the income from foreigners by flying off to get treatment in the US.

"We boost their economy big time. We are reverse medical tourists. Several hospitals in South Florida say their biggest international clientele is from the Bahamas."

Medical tourism is a multi-billion-dollar growth industry that hospitals, doctors and tourism marketers around the world are eager to tap into. By some accounts, more than half a million Americans travel to other countries for medical treatment - partly for cost reasons and partly to take advantage of procedures not yet approved in the US.

There can be no disagreement with Dr Brown's position in terms of the Bahamian economy. And for patients, the benefits are equally obvious and compelling. If Bahamians obtained their medical treatment at home, they would significantly reduce the logistics, expense and stress of being treated abroad.

Why then, do so many of us spend so much money overseas for treatments that are available right here at home? We can answer that question fairly confidently - given a choice, patients will seek medical care from the doctors, hospitals and clinics they trust the most.

This is a personal decision, and it is usually an informed decision. Patients must feel assured that the doctors and facilities they choose are both accountable and able to provide the best quality care they can afford.

So what processes do we have in place to convey such assurances to Bahamians?
Well, there are three statutory bodies that are capable of providing quality assurance and oversight to the Bahamian healthcare sector.

The Public Health Authority has managed government hospitals and clinics since 1999, under the direction of the Minister of Health. As an independent public body, the Authority is responsible for planning, policy, monitoring, evaluation, and management, as well as programme development and oversight.

However, the PHA's legislation has no provision for the investigation of complaints about the healthcare facilities managed by the Authority. Instead, PHA patients are advised to contact the "patient representative" to discuss any concerns they may have.

The Hospital and Health Care Facilities Board was created by Parliament in 1998 to license private hospitals and clinics. This legislation does include a specific mandate to investigate complaints into the "diagnosis, management and treatment" of any patient.

Physicians are the primary providers of healthcare, whether in the public or private sector, and since 1974 they have been licensed and regulated by the Medical Council. According to its website, the council was established "to regulate the medical profession, to upgrade doctors through continuing education requirements, and to safeguard the public through receiving and disposing of complaints".
However, despite the fact that it represents one of the richest professions, the council is made up of a handful of volunteers with virtually no administrative staff. Their website, for example, includes dead and departed physicians on its registry.

So do the records of these three bodies help to inspire confidence and trust in the delivery of healthcare services in the Bahamas?

Well, it would be useful to know how many complaints have been processed by the PHA's "patient representative" and how they were resolved, but unfortunately that information is not publicly available. As for the Hospital Board and the Medical Council, a summary of the case history of one complaint to these bodies over the past decade is instructive.

In 2004, a complaint was made to the Hospital Board concerning the treatment of a 42-year-old man who unexpectedly died in 2002 in a licensed Bahamian healthcare facility.

The board initially refused to deal with the complaint. But after several board members were replaced in 2005 by then Health Minister Dr Marcus Bethel, he ordered that the complaint be investigated. This order by Dr Bethel more than six years ago is the high-point of the case.

The 2005 board met with the complainant's legal and medical representatives in 2006. Afterwards, the Board chairman advised that "since the patient was dead, the file should be closed."

The board did, however, reconsider, and an investigatory panel was to be formed. However, the government changed before this happened.

The new government reinstated the 2004 board chairman, and other members. This chairman reported to a Rotary Club meeting in 2008 that the board didn't want to investigate any complaints, or "be involved in that detailed level of work".

The board said it would seek to have its enabling legislation amended, to remove the investigative requirements, and also to remove the requirement for licensed facilities to report deaths occurring on their premises - a legal mandate never complied with, and never enforced, over the board's entire lifetime.

(It should also be noted that over the past 14 years the board has issued only two "annual" reports to Parliament, something which it is required to do by law every year. And even obtaining copies of those two reports presents enormous challenges).

At a public meeting in 2008, Health Minister Dr Hubert Minnis also promised to investigate the 2004 complaint. But it is now 2012 and the board has taken no action whatsoever. Neither has it ever responded to the complainant.

As for the Medical Council, it received a complaint about the same patient's treatment and care in 2008. The disciplinary committee of the Medical Council met twice on the matter, and three years ago, then council chairman Dr Duane Sands assured Tough Call that: "There is no stonewalling. We take this very, very seriously because we want to ensure that the public will be well-served at the end of the day by this groundbreaking precedent."

He also told me that the medical act (which has been stalled for almost a decade now) was being strengthened to deal with "a finite group of people who are discrediting the profession without any real repercussions - from charging extortionary fees to providing less than appropriate care".
However, in December of last year, the Medical Council's disciplinary committee suspended the 2004 complaint investigation indefinitely.

The council decided it could not proceed because of an ex-parte injunction granted by a Supreme Court judge against the disciplinary committee in 2009, on the application of a doctor concerned in the matter. Since then, the Medical Council has taken no steps either to have the injunction removed or to proceed with the investigation.

The injunction itself is a curious feature in this story. It is perhaps "the one and only" injunction to be granted by one Supreme Court judge against another Supreme Court judge (who sits in his judicial capacity as a member of the statutory disciplinary committee).

Kerzner's branding of the Ocean Club as the "One and Only" has given a high profile to the Bahamas as an attractive destination, but the "one and only" injunction against a Supreme Court judge could have a converse affect on the Bahamas as a destination for medical tourism - quite apart from the collateral damage inflicted on the public oversight function of the Medical Council.

If doctors and politicians want to attract medical tourism to the Bahamas, they need first to inspire confidence in Bahamian medical services among Bahamians themselves. Putting the legislation that already exists to work on behalf of the public interest by providing quality assurance and oversight of healthcare delivery is the obvious place to start.

* What do you think? Send comments to larry@tribunemedia.net or visit bahamapundit.com.

January 25, 2012

tribune242

Caribbean Blog International

The Bahamas is among a group of Caribbean countries that suffers from a nursing deficiency... ...Health Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis expects the nurse shortage to worsen

Health minister expects nurse shortage to worsen


By Krystel Rolle
Guardian Staff Reporter
krystel@nasgaurd.com

Nearly two years after a World Bank report named The Bahamas among a group of Caribbean countries that suffers from a nursing deficiency, Health Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis acknowledged that the problem still persists and will likely do so for years to come.

In fact, the problem has existed for so long that hospitals and clinics in The Bahamas have become accustomed to working with a shortage of nurses.

“We are going to be plagued with that problem for a long time. That’s not going to be solved by this government and that’s not going to be solved by the next,” Dr. Minnis told The Nassau Guardian yesterday.

“There’s a shortage not only in The Bahamas. It’s a shortage throughout the world. By the year 2015 the United States will be short by 250,000 nurses.”

He said this will place added stress on Caribbean countries as well as many other countries across the globe.

According to the study, 'The Nurse Labor and Education Markets in the English-speaking CARICOM -  Issues and Options for Reform', the region is facing a rapidly growing shortage of nurses as demand for quality health care increases due to an aging population, and high numbers of nurses emigrate, drawn by higher paying jobs in Canada, the UK and the USA.

Dr. Minnis said the problem is expected to get even worse in the coming years as Bahamian nurses will likely migrate to the United States where nursing jobs are readily available.

Pointing to the severity of The Bahamas' shortage, Dr. Minnis said The Bahamas has 26 nurses to every 10,000 people, while countries like the United States have 100 nurses per 10,000 people.

“We are short; that’s why we continue to address the issue by having students train through The College of The Bahamas. In addition to paying for their education, the government gives them a monthly salary. So we are doing all we can,” Dr. Minnis added.

The World Bank said in the coming years, demand for nurses in the English-speaking Caribbean will increase due to the health needs of the aging population.

To meet the demand for nurses in the English-speaking Caribbean, the report suggests Caribbean countries increase training capacity; manage migration; strengthen data quality and availability and adopt a regional approach.

But Dr. Minnis said there is not much more the government can do.

“Like physicians, with nursing there are a lot of new specialities and therefore as they arise you will continue to have shortages because they will move into the various specialties, which means that you may have deficiencies with the generalists and the specialty nurses.”

Jan 25, 2012
thenassauguardian

Caribbean Blog International

The shareholding society Hubert Ingraham has sought to encourage is a direct link to the progressive aspirations of those who struggled for majority rule... ...This is an inconvenient truth for the doom and gloom crowd, Ingraham’s opponents ...and those who believe that they have a copyright on majority rule

Hubert Ingraham’s Quiet Revolution

Front Porch

“The Bahamas Achieves a Quiet Revolution as Its First Black Government Takes Hold” was the headline of a New York Times story announcing the achievement of majority rule in the Colony of the Bahama Islands in 1967.

The story began: “A quiet revolution has been achieved in these resort islands as a Negro government has taken office this week to end three centuries of white rule.  The impact has been nil on the tourists who have packed Nassau's hotels, but the changeover seems to have touched the heart of every Negro citizen.”

By quiet, it did not mean that the movement for majority rule was quiescent or a laid back struggle.  The word quiet speaks to the nonviolent nature of the fight for the second emancipation in Bahamian history.

In newspaper editorials and columns, from pulpits and on talk radio, we continue to read or hear the trite and factually wrong gibberish masquerading as commentary that The Bahamas has dramatically regressed in relation to the aspirations of majority rule.

This decline meme has variations, but in all versions the sky is falling or getting ready to fall.  This is accompanied by the requisite wailing and gnashing of the teeth by those who have little sense of irony or historical perspective beyond their nose and the morning newspapers.

 

Doom and gloom

That these prophets of doom and gloom are even able to spin and spew their poorly reasoned viewpoints from the vantage point of a pulpit, a free broadcast media or writing in a newspaper is testament to the legacy of majority rule.

Moreover, those black Bahamians including black women, able to offer such opinions and who enjoy the privilege of an advanced degree and notable professional status might wish to recall that without majority rule little or none of their success would be possible.

Like all great movements, the legacy of majority rule is mixed.  There are noticeable and continuing successes.  In other areas there is much work to be done.  Majority rule was about political, social and economic empowerment.

As noted last week, many of the progressives in the struggle for majority rule appreciated that attaining political power would be relatively easier than wrestling economic power from entrenched interests.

Moreover, surprisingly, the early ambitions of some of these progressives to dismantle the economic monopolies of the Bay Street Boys were thwarted by their more reactionary colleagues in the fight for a majority government.

Yet on the eve of the 45th anniversary of majority rule, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham announced that his government was nearing the final stages of the dismantling of the near monopolistic control of the port business by a few families.  These families included some of those Bay Street Boys from whom political power had to be wrestled.

Ingraham has added his own chapter to the Quiet Revolution.  He has dismantled many decades of entrenched economic domination in port ownership in New Providence.  He is also transferring some of that wealth and the opportunity for wealth-creation to the Bahamian people.

For some time, Ingraham has been building a shareholding society as a means of broadening and deepening ownership in the economy by Bahamians and especially so by a broader cross section of Bahamians.

During his first term in office the government made 49 percent of the shares of the Bank of The Bahamas available to the Bahamian public.  When the funding for the second Paradise Island Bridge was done it was through the issuance of Treasury Bonds which were made available to the general public.

 

Good investment

The introduction of cable television provided another opportunity for Bahamians to buy shares that have proven to be a good investment.  Today, Cable Bahamas is fully Bahamian-owned.

When the Bahamians who owned the majority stake in Commonwealth Brewery sought the approval of the Ingraham administration to sell their controlling interests to a foreign company, the approval was conditional.  It was conditional on Heineken, the new owners, making 25 percent of the shares in the company available to the Bahamians.

With the new port on Arawak Cay, Bahamians will have the opportunity to purchase shares in a potentially lucrative venture.  Some of the same white merchant elite who held political power prior to majority rule also controlled many of the country’s lucrative enterprise including the port.  These included families with surnames like Kelly, Symonette and Bethel.

The surnames of those who can now own shares in the Arawak Port Development (APD) will run the gamut from A to Z in the telephone directory.  Members of the Mailboat Association will also own shares in the port development.

Civil servants will be afforded the opportunity to buy shares in APD through salary deductions.  Those who mindlessly claim that little progress continues to be made in the advancement of the aspirations of majority rule may wish to suspend their commentary long enough to purchase some shares.

Perhaps they can also suspend their insipid rhetoric long enough to talk to the thousands of ordinary Bahamians who now own shares in various Bahamian enterprises including cable and banking, and soon at BTC.

The shareholding society Hubert Ingraham has sought to encourage is a direct link to the progressive aspirations of those who struggled for majority rule.  This is an inconvenient truth for the doom and gloom crowd, Ingraham’s opponents, and those who believe that they have a copyright on majority rule.

frontporchguardian@gmail.com

www.bahamapundit.com

Jan 24, 2012

thenassauguardian

Caribbean Blog International

...at the end of the day, workers will be laid off if the Atlantis resort performs poorly... just like in 2008 with the onset of the global financial crisis

Politics and the Atlantis deal


By PACO NUNEZ
Tribune News Editor


As is to be expected at this advanced stage in the election cycle, every issue with potential political mileage is going to be spun for all it's worth.

Just so with the collapse of the Atlantis ownership transfer deal. Mr Christie says Mr Ingraham should have been more forthcoming about the details, Mr Ingraham says Mr Christie's poor decisions in office created the conditions that led to the deal in the first place, and Branville McCartney says both men knew the proposal was bad for Bahamians, but kept this information from the public.

And, in another clear indicator of the times, even while politicking their hearts out Messrs Christie and McCartney have both sought to give the impression they are the only straight talker; the one not using the failed deal as a political stick to beat the others with.

The PLP leader has provided us with perhaps the most amusing quote, a classic example of political doublespeak.

Berating the Prime Minister for "playing politics" as the deal collapsed, Mr Christie said: "Atlantis is the nation's single largest private employer and thousands of Bahamian jobs are at stake."

Then: "We're told he found out on Friday that the Brookfield deal was going under. Did he tell the people of the Bahamas? Did he call union leaders or meet with workers? Did he start reviewing options for moving forward? No."

Let's see if we can follow his logic. The issue is too sensitive and too important for the Prime Minister to continue with politics-as-usual. To prove this, Mr Christie tries to scare the hell out of everyone ("thousands of Bahamian jobs are at stake"), then uses his alarmist interpretation to criticise the behaviour of his political opponent.

A political jab, disguised as a warning about making political jabs. Did Mr Christie think no one would see through his crafty trick?

His version is alarmist and inflammatory, because anyone with the merest hint of business sense - and I'm sure that includes Mr Christie - knows two facts to be true.

The first is that there is nothing the government can do at this stage about the underlying factors: Kerzner's inability to pay its creditors and the decision of those creditors to call in their loans.

The DNA may well be right, the deal would not have been ideal for the Bahamas; nevertheless, it was the only one on the table. What should the government have done, allow the largest private sector employer in the country to go bankrupt? Stage a $2.3 billion bail-out?

Fact

The second, more important fact, is that contrary to Mr Christie's assertions, the failure of the Brookfield deal has in no way rewritten the future for Atlantis workers.

That's not to say everything will necessarily be fine in the long-run, only that the probability it will has not been improved or worsened by the collapse of the deal.

This is especially the case, as while the transaction was scuppered by two junior creditors, the major players were all onboard, meaning a revised proposal with relatively minor changes could see the deal resurrected soon.

So, at the end of the day, workers will be laid off if the resort performs poorly - just like in 2008 with the onset of the global financial crisis.

If Atlantis does well, people will keep their jobs. Simple as that.

Now, no one is naive enough to believe the going will be easy; the creditors will expect hefty profit margins. After all, they're in it to get their money back.

But an essential ingredient in this formula is the product, which attracts the guests in the first place, and the new owners will know an understaffed resort is the fastest route to falling standards.

So, is it merely a case of much ado about nothing? Not quite.

What all the political gauze of the last week or so has managed to do, is obscure the real lesson of this "crisis" - the extent to which the notion has become imbedded in our collective psyche that as goes Atlantis, so goes the Bahamas.

The anxiety unleashed by this turn of events exposed how inextricably intertwined our sense of national well-being has become with the fate of a single entity.

Even those violently opposed to the pink monstrosity across the bridge have been lulled over the years into the assumption of its permanence, its inevitability.

Leaving aside arguments about whether the nature of our economy would have allowed for any realistic alternative, can it be healthy for a society to pin all its hopes on a single business, the ultimate fate of which is decided beyond our shores?

Of course, this leads us into a consideration of what the Bahamas would be today if Sol Kerzner had never come here in the first place.

When 800 workers were laid off from Atlantis in 2008, there was widespread concern that it would spark a crime wave. What would the other 8,000 employees be doing right now if history had taken a different course?

What other cracks in our society have been papered over by the existence of a mega-resort which just as easily, might never have been?

* What do you think?

Email: pnunez@tribunemedia.net

January 23, 2012

tribune242

Caribbean Blog International

As we all sit and evaluate the political parties and independent candidates who will offer for public office in the run-up to the 2012 general election... we should make every effort to determine if there is someone on the ballot good enough to vote for...

Does it matter if you vote?

thenassauguardian editorial

Interesting debates always emerge when the question is posed as to whether or not citizens living in democracies should feel obligated to vote.

Most democracies were fought for.  People who campaigned for freedom, self-governance and civil rights were jailed; some were murdered; some were beaten and many others were victimized.  Some of these fights were actual wars.

In this context, we all should take the vote seriously.  It is not a right, but a gift fought for by those who came before us.

As we all sit and evaluate the political parties and independent candidates who will offer for public office in the run-up to the next general election, we should make every effort to determine if there is someone on the ballot good enough to vote for.

Those who do not think there is anyone good enough to vote for should consider entering the race or the political process.

But if the ballot is filled with poor candidates, what should a voter do?  Should voters feel compelled to vote?

No, they should not.  Voting is an important part of the democratic process.  However, voting should not be confused with democracy.  Democracy is about self-governance.  As citizens, we have a responsibility to do this everyday – not just every five years.

By working at a charity, providing assistance to the homeless, democracy is at work;  by volunteering as a mentor at a school, democracy is at work; by raising an educated, hardworking law-abiding citizen, democracy is at work.

So for those who think there is no reasonable offering to vote for at the next general election, you should rest assured that there are many other ways to participate in the advancement and governance of The Bahamas.

A group of residents in a community can easily come together, approach their public school, and start an after-school literacy program for the children falling behind, for example.

Simple initiatives such as these, if done by many individuals or by many groups, can do much to change the lives of the disadvantaged and the soon-to-be lost.

Elections are important; voting is important.  But if you think the mainstream political parties are pathetic and the independents are incompetent, do not distress.  You can exercise your democratic power everyday by doing something to help build the community.

Jan 21, 2012

thenassauguardian editorial

Caribbean Blog International

Kerzner's Atlantis might have problems... but the sky is not falling

DON'T LISTEN TO THE MESSENGERS OF DOOM

tribune242 editorial

THE SOUND bites being fired off by opposition politicians over the collapse of the Kerzner agreement with its Brookfield creditor gives the impression that they are intent -- in order to deal a mortal political blow to Prime Minister Ingraham-- on striking fear in Kerzner's staff just at a time when the resort is experiencing a favourable turn-around in business.

Although the Kerzner attempt at an ownership transfer failed last week, the current dispute is between creditors, aggrieved that a junior in their midst appears to have outsmarted the remaining six, all senior in the creditor lineup. They feared that Brookfield, in its proposed $175 million debt-for-equity swap, would be the sole beneficiary to any future success of the resort, leaving them empty handed. They appealed to a court in Delaware, which stopped the ownership transfer pending a court hearing. Brookfield, instead of wasting precious time in court, cancelled the Kerzner agreement, in the meantime continuing to try to broker a deal with its fellow lenders.

The Atlantis resort and the One & Only Ocean Club remain in Kerzner hands and under Kerzner management. Kerzner International president, George Markantonis, has repeatedly assured his staff and the public that the Kerzner-Brookfield transaction would in no way affect their jobs. Prime Minister Ingraham has also been given assurances that as far as the present transaction is concerned, Bahamians -- almost 8,000 of them -- have no reason to fear.

What they do not realise is that the debt crisis in Greece -- now tottering on the brink of default -- could create such an economic tsunami that international commerce, including tourism, could grind to a sudden halt. And as everything has a logical conclusion, the results would be -- no tourists, no jobs, no hotels. In these circumstances, employment at Atlantis would suffer a faster after-shock, forcing downsizing more than the present squabbles among Kerzner lenders.

And so, as the Kerzner president has said, not only would the lenders' foreclosing or putting the company into bankruptcy be "very far fetched", but so would the loss of local jobs. At present, said Mr Markantonis, "it's really looking like a nice January... and a strong winter." He hinted that additional staff might even be taken on.

In fact, Atlantis is too big to fail. It would cost more to go into bankruptcy than to keep the hotel open and continue to fight for business with a dedicated -- not a politically spooked staff -- as important members of the team.

Based on a $3 billion valuation of the property stamp tax alone would be $360 million. (See Tribune Business Editor Neil Hartnell's article in today's Business section).

Opposition Leader Perry Christie has berated Prime Minister Ingraham for not telling the Bahamian people on Friday that the Brookfield deal had failed. How could anyone speak on this matter with any authority when no one -- not even the Kerzner team - knew what was going on at that time. Mr Ingraham could have opened his mouth and babbled a lot of nonsensical platitudes that might have sounded good, but would have meant nothing because he -- like everyone else -- knew nothing. A wise man does not open his mouth unless he is sure of what he is going to say. This was a fight among lenders as they saw a lucrative deal about to slip through their fingers.

Mr Christie accused Mr Ingraham of not fighting for Bahamian jobs. How could Mr Ingraham enter the debate until he received an application from Brookfield for the government's approval of the transaction? It was at that point that he could have had his say and presented Bahamian demands, but before Mr Ingraham could properly read the application, Brookfield withdrew it. What did Mr Christie want Mr Ingraham to do -- fly to wherever the creditors were meeting, kick the door in and demand an audience? The idea, although ridiculous, is good political fodder for the ignorant. Mr Christie knows he is just making political noise. If he sincerely wanted to save Bahamian jobs he would stop ringing alarm bells.

And if Atlantis employees really want to save their jobs they will close their ears to "the sky is falling" myths and avoid the disaster into which Chicken Little led his friends by his false alarm.

According to the nursery rhyme, a very foolish Chicken Little was in the woods one day when an acorn fell on his tail. The silly little chick decided that the sky was falling, and so he ran to alert all his farmyard friends. When he told Henny Penny, she wanted to know how he knew that the sky was falling in. "I saw it with my eyes," said Chicken Little. "I heard it with my ears. Some of it fell on my tail." "We will run," said Henny Penny, "and tell the king." They lined up three more friends, frightening them into action with the same end-of-the-world story. Eventually, they came to the den of Foxy Loxy, who listened to the sky is falling in tale, and told them: "We will run," he said. "We will run into my den, and I will tell the king."

They ran into Foxy Loxy's den, But they did not come out again!

And that is just what will happen to Atlantis staff if they pay serious attention to all of these Chicken Littles, Henny Pennys, Turkey Lurkeys, Ducky Luckys and Goosey Looseys running around in today's political arena ringing false alarm bells.

Atlantis might have problems, but so far the sky has not fallen in.

January 20, 2012

tribune242 editorial

Is there political ideology or philosophy in Bahamian politics? ...Is Hubert Ingraham a conservative? ...Is Perry Christie a liberal? ...Is Branville McCartney a centrist? ...Who knows? ...Fellow Bahamians - It is important to know the political philosophy of parties and their leaders

Is there political ideology or philosophy in Bahamian politics?

thenassauguardian editorial

We now know almost all the election candidates of the three parties with representation in the House of Assembly.  The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) and Free National Movement (FNM) have selected all the men and women who will run under their respective banners.  The Democratic National Alliance (DNA) has a few more to chose.

What is interesting is that each of the parties have a few candidates who have run for, or been supporters of, other parties.  There are some interesting examples.

For the PLP, Dr. Andre Rollins was a candidate in 2010 at the Elizabeth by-election for the National Development Party, and Dr. Bernard Nottage (the current Bain and Grants Town MP) led the Coalition for Democratic Reform against the PLP in the 2002 general election.

For the FNM, Cassius Stuart was the leader of the Bahamas Democratic Movement.  His colleagues on the FNM ticket Kenyatta Gibson, Edison Key and Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham are all former PLP MPs.

Dr. Madlene Sawyer, the DNA candidate for Southern Shores, was a former head of the PLP women’s branch.  Her DNA colleague Wallace Rolle ran for the PLP in the 2007 general election.  The DNA candidate for Bains Town and Grants Town, Rodney Moncur, was the leader of the obscure Worker’s Party before joining the DNA.  And Branville McCartney, the party’s leader, was a former FNM MP and Cabinet minister.

These are just a few prominent examples of the flow of people in Bahamian politics.  There are other candidates in the major parties who have been strong supporters of organizations opposed to the groups they are currently with.

What does it all mean?  Well, some would say nothing, as politicians in countries around the world change party affiliation all the time.  But, it could also be argued that the flow of people from party to party, running under any banner, exists here because there is little to no philosophical difference between the organizations.

In fact, it would be hard to use any traditional economic or political philosophy to describe any of the Bahamian political parties.  Could you describe the PLP, DNA or FNM as left or right wing, conservative or liberal?  No, you could not.

For example, in the 2012 Republican presidential race in the United States candidate Ron Paul is a libertarian.  Paul has very different view of the world from 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, who is a social democrat.  Libertarians are suspicious of the state and argue for small government and low rates of taxation.  Social democrats think the state and taxation should be used to advance social justice.

It is important to know the political philosophy of parties and their leaders.  When parties and leaders have strong beliefs, they bring forward policies that change the lives of people in distinct ways.  A libertarian would essentially eliminate welfare.  They do not think the wealth of individuals should be taken away by the state to be given to others with less wealth.

Social democrats always want more taxation to advance some Utopian social program to ‘help’ people.  The business climate changes significantly when one of these politicians is elected, as opposed to the other.

Is Hubert Ingraham a conservative?  Is Perry Christie a liberal?  Is Branville McCartney a centrist?  Who knows?  Lately, our elections have been run on management style.  Essentially, this is the essence of the debate: “I am a better man than you.  Vote for me.”

A cynic could argue that it is difficult to pin down the political philosophy of our parties and politicians because they have none.  Instead, they simply seek power to dispense the authority and wealth of the state.  The voters then choose the person they think most able, and that’s that.  The better manager manages things in a better ad hoc manner not under any recognizable system of ideals.

If this type of politics is good enough for the people, it will continue.  For something else to evolve the people would have to demand more of the process and the people involved.

Jan 20, 2012

thenassauguardian editorial

Caribbean Blog International