Perry Christie and his blah, blah, blah Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration

Perry Christie and the PLP’s blah, blah, blah government

By Simon
frontporchguardian@gmail.com

Imagine many years hence an anthropologist at the University of The Bahamas using digital recordings of the ZNS evening news broadcast to conduct research on Perry Christie’s years as prime minister. What might they discover?

As a gift to posterity and to help future researchers save time and effort, we are already able to pass on some insights which will only solidify over time.

Notably, Christie and the ZNS evening broadcast share a singular trait. They are incorrigibly late, again and again and again. It seems that ZNS, despite decades in operation, is daily caught by surprise that the evening news is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., not 7:02 or 7:05 or 7:07.

ZNS, like the Christie administration, seems incapable of being embarrassed by the poor quality of so much that it does and its sheer and entrenched incompetence.

As an aside, the day that the two leading print journals revealed details of a report on alleged abuse at the detention center, the state evening broadcast news failed to report the story. Were they commanded to do so as an act of censorship by their political minders and bosses?

How free is ZNS today to report stories critical of the PLP? For many, why is 2013 starting to feel like the 1970s and 80s at ZNS?

Meanwhile, forget the numbers’ houses. Perhaps the government might consider a national lottery that has as the winning combination the exact time that the ZNS evening news broadcast begins, with the additional prize of a ZNS news mug for anyone guessing 7 p.m. Supplies of the mug are unlikely to run out.

Perhaps there can be a “Straight Seven Jackpot” payout, the winner having wagered correctly the staggered times the news begins seven nights running, which will be a monumental accomplishment. There can also be payouts for three out of seven nights or five out of seven. The combinations are endless.

How foolish to imagine such a lottery. It was already defeated in a national referendum that proved to be a spectacular failure for Christie and his new and improved Gold Rush PLP that would be ready in the First 100 Days and from day one to build a bridge to the future as the government of hope and help committed to Urban Renewal 2.0 and putting Bahamians first.

Were there an international prize for sloganeering as a substitute for ideas and governance, the PLP would consistently win it, with its endless ability to produce more slogans than common sense and action once in office.

Then there would be the Bahamian television broadcast award for political showboating and theater, jointly awarded to ZNS and the Christie administration.

Story one on the evening news: Perry Christie said today, “Blah, blah, blah.” Second story: Perry Christie said today, “Blah, blah, blah.” And just for a change in the third story: Perry Christie said today, “Blah, blah, blah.”

This is the blah, blah, blah government in two senses. First, it is an uninspiring and visionless government. Secondly, as before, this is a government of plenty talk and little action.

During and after his rambling meanderings, one knows that the prime minister said something. The problem is that one is not exactly sure what he’s actually said.

As opposed to those times, sometimes he literally says nothing, despite promising a fuller accounting. The country is still waiting for Christie to provide more details on his and the PLP’s relationship with Peter Nygard.

Then, there is Christie’s pretzel-like comments. Having repeatedly postponed speaking before the Constitutional Reform Commission, the prime minister sought a clever out, perhaps convincing to him, but unconvincing to most Bahamians. His excuse: He didn’t want to prejudice the commission. Really?

Perhaps ZNS can provide a useful service, namely a canned laugh track as used in situation comedies. It can be played whenever the prime minister offers a comment for which laughter is the best medicine and response.

As reported in the press, the governor general, the leader of the opposition and many notable Bahamians found the time to prepare for and to appear before the commission.

Cue laughter: Christie contradicted himself by stating that his attorney general had already offered the government’s thoughts. Why didn’t he say that when he canceled appearing before the commission for the second time and counting?

Did the attorney general prejudice the commission by speaking on behalf of the Christie administration?

The saying goes, “If you don’t laugh, you’ll weep.” Listening to the prime minister’s tortured rationales for his inaction and bumbling incompetence is likely to produce tears of laughter, sometimes just weeping, and sometimes the wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Mind you, the same prime minister who did not find the time to appear before the commission did find time to deliver a lecture on constitutional reform. He had plenty to say on that occasion.

What he did not say and did not do, was to accept responsibility for making the referenda process in The Bahamas more politically difficult and charged, more of which in a subsequent column.

When he’s not too tired to answer questions, answers to which he solemnly promised long ago, Christie is busy making speeches and excuses as a substitute for governing.

He seems still to believe that talk is action. Like a genie, he must believe that when he speaks, things are supposed to materialize. See for easy reference: National stadium, National Health Insurance and doubling the investment in the national education budget.

The prime minister recently said that he knows that Bahamians are frustrated. The problem is that he may not appreciate that Bahamians are mostly frustrated with his poor leadership of a government that is performing even worse than the do-nothing years of 2007 to 2012.

Ranking PLPs and younger PLPs, including many professionals, are soured on and vex with a feckless administration careening from one crisis to the next, with a prime minister barely in control of his own government.

Christie’s response, “Blah, blah, blah...”, all of which can be seen on the ZNS evening news beginning at only God knows when. Stay tuned and be prepared to laugh and to weep.

September 26, 2013

thenassauguardian

Caribbean Blog International

...the New Providence Road Improvement Project could have been completed "six or seven years ago" if it weren't for the incompetence of the former Perry Christie led Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration

Christie government was slow to act


tribune242 editorial



SPEAKING at the opening of Golden Gates constituency office, Prime Minister Ingraham said that the New Providence Road Improvement Project could have been completed "six or seven years ago" if it weren't for the incompetence of the former PLP administration.

For one thing, he said, the road works could have been continued in 2002 and completed for $56 million, instead of the now estimated $206 million.

"At that time," he said, "the price of oil, cement and plastic was lower, the price of oil was about $20 a barrel. Today, it's over $100 a barrel."

What happened to the road improvement project was unfortunate. If there had not been a change of government in 2002, the road project -- although it met with a major disaster midstream-- could possibly have been completed on time.

In 1994, the Ingraham government engaged a Canadian firm to prepare a transportation development plan for New Providence. This plan formed the basis of the IDB-funded New Providence Infrastructure Improvement Project.

Four companies were prequalified and submitted bids on June 9, 2000. Two of the bids did not comply with the requirements of the bidding document. The other two provided enough "information to enable an assessment of the adequacy of their proposals".

Government agreed to do business with Associated Asphalt, the lower of the two remaining bidders. It awarded Associated Asphalt (AA), a UK company, a $52.2 million lump sum contract to undertake the project. The contract contained no price escalation clause. At the time, the price of oil averaged US$20 and US$21 a barrel -- today it is more than $100 per barrel and rising.

AA was required to provide two bonds - an advance payment bond of $7.6 million and a performance bond of $7.8 million. The project was estimated to cost $66 million and was to be funded by a loan from IDB for $46.2 million with Government providing counterpart funding of $19.8 million. Work started on April 2, 2001 with a completion date of February 10, 2003.

Fifteen months into the contract, AA's parent company went into receivership. All work stopped. By then, the Charles Saunders Highway, the Milo Butler Highway and the Gladstone Road Realignment, valued at $11.4 million, had been completed. Excluding the advance payment of $7.6 million, the contractor was paid $8.3 million and was entitled to be paid for $2 million in unpaid certified invoices.

What would normally have happened was that the next lowest acceptable bidder-- a Netherlands company whose bid was about $8 million higher than AA-- should have stepped in to complete the job. However, the bondholder believed that the lowest bidder, a Canadian company, should be engaged instead. The Ingraham Government and IDB did not agree.

In the meantime, the PLP became the government. In November 2002 they cancelled AA's contract and demanded that the bondholder pay the sums owed under the performance bond and advance payment bond. The bond holder refused. The matter went to court. The Attorney General had to advise the PLP government that it could not sue on the performance guarantee bond because the final date on which a valid demand could have been made -- February 9, 2004 - had passed. The PLP government's failure to act in a timely manner had cost the country $7.8 million.

On July 15, 2005, the PLP government was again in the Supreme court demanding that the advance payment bond be paid. Again, the bondholder refused. This time, the bondsman claimed that then Works Minister Bradley Roberts in a meeting on October 2, 2002, attended by several company representatives and Kendal "Funkey" Demeritte, described in court documents as a "political assistant", had claimed that the FNM's award of the contract to AA was tainted. Mr Roberts suggested "political interference and corruption". The defence filed by the bondholder was that as Mr Roberts had said corruption in the transaction was under investigation -- although he had refused to disclose the details of the investigation--it had no intention of paying on an illegal contract. Again a loss to Bahamian tax payers.

However, when the Ingraham government was returned in 2007, the bondholder, agreed to discontinue relying on Mr Robert's unfounded allegations. It paid $5.25 million in settlement of both bonds.

In the meantime, time had been lost. Had the Netherlands firm been allowed to complete AA's contract, said Prime Minister Ingraham, the project would have been completed by mid-2005 "with substantial cost savings and the benefits to the economy and the benefits of the project would have been realised much sooner".

The country is now in the predicament it is in -- with escalating costs for roadworks -- because, as usual, the Christie government was slow to act.

March 13, 2012

tribune242 editorial

caribbean Blog International

“Many voters have fallen out of love with Hubert Ingraham... but the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) should not be fooled into believing they have fallen back in love with Perry Christie.”

A reformed leader?

2007 issues still linger for Christie

By Candia Dames
Guardian News Editor
candia@nasguard.com

Nearly five years after the leadership of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) commissioned a post-election survey, the ability of the PLP to win the next general election may very well depend on whether it has addressed the perceptions and shortcomings highlighted in the report.

This notwithstanding the bitter taste many voters have developed for the current administration of Hubert Ingraham.

As one politico remarked recently, “Many voters have fallen out of love with Hubert Ingraham, but the PLP should not be fooled into believing they have fallen back in love with Perry Christie.”

The Greenberg Quinlan Rosner report set out what the reasons were for the PLP’s stunning loss in the 2007 general election.

It revealed that 57 percent of respondents cited former Prime Minister Perry Christie’s perceived ‘weak leadership’ as the reason they decided not to vote PLP.

The ‘weak leadership’ issue was widely discussed before and after the election campaign, with Ingraham stating repeatedly that the 2007 election was about leadership. 
The survey said the alleged scandals that plagued the PLP leading up to the vote took their toll.

The report highlighted the perception of scandal within the PLP ranks as well as the perception that the leader of the PLP, Perry Christie, is considered a weak leader.

Almost five years later, the question in the minds of some voters is whether the PLP has carried out any of the reforms the report recommended.

The report is still important because we are on the eve of another general election.

If the PLP is to be victorious at the polls, one would expect it to show that it has a strong, decisive leader and that its party and candidates are of impeccable character and credibility.

Valentine Grimes, a trustee of the PLP, suggested the party has the right mix to form the next government, and to successfully carry out its mandate.

Asked whether Christie has put in place any reforms in the years in opposition — the years since the Greenberg Quinlan Rosner report — Grimes said Christie was always a strong leader, and that it was the FNM’s successful public relations efforts that painted him as weak and indecisive.

Grimes said the ‘weak leader’ impression was also formed in the minds of many as a result of ineffective public relations by the PLP ahead of the last general election.

“The PR team of the FNM was able to completely retool the image of Ingraham,” Grimes told National Review.  “Whereas on the other side, they were able to effectively paint Christie in a particular light.  Unfortunately, those perceptions were difficult to overcome during that last election.”

Grimes said there is no doubt in his mind that Christie has the interest of The Bahamas foremost in all of his decisions.

“And the fact that he thinks and tries to get the views of others, I think is an important part of his character,” Grimes said.  “Whereas on the other hand there is no doubt in my mind that Prime Minister Ingraham does not seek the views of his ministers and if he does, he does not frequently take those views into consideration.

“It’s his government and his government alone.”

But while some political observers think Ingraham’s recent firing of Kenneth Russell from his Cabinet spelt trouble in the FNM, others think it demonstrated his strength and decision-making process.

Remaking Christie

Former PLP Chairman Raynard Rigby said no one should be fooled about what the main issue in the upcoming election will be, and that is the choice between Ingraham and Christie, which leader the voters like more or which leader the voters believe can move the country forward.

Rigby said he does not see where the party has adequately addressed the issues raised in the Greenberg report.

“Well, certainly not in the public domain,” he said.   “If they have done so, they may have done it within the internal ranks of the party.

“The report is now in the public domain.  One would expect the party to address the glaring issues raised in the report, particularly the perception of corruption, the perception about the leader’s weakness and also this question the party has in gaining support within certain age groups.”

Rigby pointed out that in politics, perceptions do matter.

Forty-seven percent of respondents to the Greenberg 2007 survey said they did not vote PLP because of corruption and scandals, and 19 percent pointed specifically to the issue involving former Immigration Minister Shane Gibson and the late American celebrity Anna Nicole Smith (respondents were allowed to select the two factors they thought were the most important for deciding not to vote PLP). The survey said the corruption issue contributed to the perception of Christie as a weak leader.

“Voters perceived that he was unwilling to take action against advisers or Cabinet officials accused of wrongdoing, an impression that was reinforced by the delay over Shane Gibson’s resignation,” Greenberg found.

The 2007 report said that given the focus on the leadership of the parties, the PLP’s success will depend to a large degree on rebuilding Christie’s public image with a strategy that shows voters he can be a forceful, decisive leader.

Ingraham on many occasions accused Christie of lacking discipline, foresight, competence and decisiveness.

Rigby told National Review that it is important that voters can see reform in PLP ranks.

“Politics is about a public display of where you are.  It’s not a private matter.  It’s really a public thing and certainly I have not seen it,” Rigby said.

“I think the election will also be a telling sign of whether the Bahamian people believe that the PLP has responded to what they deem their concerns were which led them to vote against the party in the 2007 general election.”

Many people say though that oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose elections, Rigby noted.

“But I’m sure that if the PLP wins the next election it means that they would be satisfied that they would have done sufficiently enough to gain the support and trust of the majority of the electorate to form the government,” he said.

 

Rebuilding the PLP’s image

The report highlighted steps that the party should take to rebrand its image, so as to gain the confidence of the Bahamian electorate.

It recommended expanding the party's base; cleansing the party’s reputation; conveying former Prime Minister Christie’s leadership qualities and advancing a progressive social agenda.

“It needs to take concrete actions that convey its seriousness about purging corruption from the party and state," said the report.

“There is a perception among voters — one deepened by the FNM (Free National Movement) — that the PLP has become more focused on doing things that benefit its own politicians than for people.”

It’s a claim now Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham made repeatedly on the campaign trail in the months and weeks leading up to the 2007 election.  Ingraham also accused Christie of presiding over “the most chaotic, last-minute, indecisive and incompetent government since independence”.

“The Christie administration is the poster boy for failed governance.  They have plunged our country into chaos," Ingraham said at a rally at R. M. Bailey Park on April 27, 2007.  “Mr. Christie’s PLP is besieged by scandal and incompetence.  They have lost the will and capacity to fix their own mistakes, or maybe they never had it.”

The researchers said they could not overstate the importance of cleansing the PLP’s reputation.

“It goes to the heart of people’s concerns about the PLP, and must be seriously addressed with concrete action,” the report said.

The report also said there are a number of things the party could do to show the public it takes corruption seriously: develop and publicize a party code of conduct that prohibits its leaders from exploiting public office for private gain and institute a party tribunal that is authorized to investigate allegations of corruption against party members and to recommend penalties.

In opposition, there is no evidence that those specific steps have been taken.

Former PLP MP Franklyn Wilson told National Review that “there is no doubt that there are large numbers of Bahamians who see Mr. Christie in negative terms”.

“I think if Mr. Christie is going to be true to himself, he needs to see that as what it is,” Wilson said.

“…But the fact of the matter is this campaign is going to allow people to see a lot of the image that Ingraham has is not supported in fact.”

Wilson said international credit rating agencies have pointed to the importance of consensus building in putting in place the types of reforms that are necessary to get the economy back on track.

“If that is true, what at another time was seen as a weakness on Christie’s part, can be re-presented as a strength,” he said.

Dec 19, 2011

thenassauguardian

Caribbean Blog International

To Mr. Fred Mitchell: [PLP Leader] Mr. Perry Christie's indecisiveness is not FNM propaganda

Fred Mitchell talks of FNM propaganda
tribune242 editorial



FRED MITCHELL has urged Bahamians to ignore the "biased opinion" of American diplomats who in their reports to Washington have characterised former prime minister Perry Christie as a procrastinating leader who "often fails to act altogether while awaiting elusive consensus in his Cabinet."

Mr Mitchell expressed surprise that US diplomats would "simply rehash the same unvarnished propaganda of the Free National Movement to describe the leader of the PLP and the policies of the PLP."

It would be interesting to know which face of Fred Mitchell has made this statement.

It is obviously the political Fred Mitchell, preparing for the hustings and anticipating a hard battle to return his party with its indecisive leader to the seat of power. However, in quiet conversation with his own conscience, the other side of Mr Mitchell must know that his statement is not true.

The indecisive leadership of Mr Christie is very much an election issue. It certainly wasn't an FNM faction within the PLP in 2009 that wanted Mr Christie removed as leader because it did not think it had a chance with him at its head. This group felt so strongly on the issue that someone within the party leaked the Greenberg, Quinlan and Rosner report on the reasons for the party's 2007 election defeat. This report, commissioned by the PLP after the 2007 election to analyse why the party lost an election it was so confident of winning, was made public by the dissident group to inform the public and to try to convince its own membership that Mr Christie was too indecisive to be at the helm.

The consultants' report, for which the party must have paid a "pretty penny", was blunt. In a nutshell, it said, the PLP lost the government after only a five-year test run, because at its helm was a nice, but weak leader heading what the public perceived to be a corrupt and scandal-ridden party. Maybe, the political side of Mr Mitchell would have us believe that the Rosner report was written by an FNM analyst. However - the other Mr Mitchell and his conscience knows otherwise.

Obviously, the report was ignored because recently three senior party members in a private letter -- again leaked to the press -- advised Mr Christie that he could prove to the public that he was indeed a decisive leader by blocking the nomination of certain politicians who were perceived to have led to the party's 2002 defeat. These were the same ones studied by the Rosner report and found wanting.

However, it appears that Mr Christie has chosen to ignore this letter. Instead he is "taking the high road" and looking "forward to a vigorous debate." And so, the Christie-led PLP is heading into an election with the same baggage that their highly paid consultants advised cost them the 2007 election.

Mr Christie's weakness for indecision was spotted early in his administration. One of the first acts of a government is to appoint its boards so that its administration can function smoothly from the beginning. The PLP won the government in May, 2002. By July no boards had been appointed. Mr Christie was being criticised for his procrastination. His reply to the criticism was given in a speech at Mission Baptist Church. Said he:

"The press and some people want to kill me because they say I ain't name them (government boards) yet. Well let 'em wait. Let me say this to you, I have been Prime Minister long enough to see that unless I do it the right way, I am wasting your time doing it the quick way."

And this was the story of his five-year administration. That is why when the FNM was returned in 2007 it found so much unfinished business, and agreements yet to be finalised.

And so, Mr Mitchell, Mr Christie's indecisiveness is not FNM propaganda. In five years Mr Christie did an excellent job in building his own reputation -- as the Rosner report concluded: He is a nice man, but a weak leader.

The serious times now facing this country demand a strong and decisive leader. We shall perish with indecision.

May 31, 2011

tribune242 editorial