2020 — Annus mirabilis

Dear Editor,

The year 2020 will long be remembered, mostly from a negative point, so long as The Bahamas continues to exist. It was a year that may be termed annus mirabilis (a miracle year). I readily concede that one would hardly wish to refer to 2020 as a miracle year because for many, it was not.

In 2019, we experienced the wrath of Hurricane Dorian. Either the Minnis administration was totally unprepared for it or the recovery and rebuilding efforts have fallen far short of what would have been expected. Then, we were buffeted by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic and we are not yet out of the woods as it relates to this deadly disease.

We have the ongoing debate about citizenship and nationality for children born in The Bahamas to foreign or undocumented parents. There are also apparently discriminatory elements in the Fisheries Bill as they relate to taxation of gaming houses. It would appear also that as a nation, we do not have a cohesive and recognizable economic or fiscal plan for our people. Yes, my fellow Bahamians, on the surface it does not look too good.

One of the biggest problems we have here at home is that whenever one praises a political party or gives credit to a politician, one is labeled as a PLP or an FNM. It seems to be impossible to just be accepted as a genuine and sincere critic or supporter. As we go into 2021, this bogus stance has got to change if we are to make 2021 the best year since the formation of corned beef and grits.

The prime minister’s appointments of some individuals to the disaster and recovery efforts were not, in my opinion, good ones. More engineers and hands-on individuals should have been appointed, especially for Abaco and Grand Bahama. There should have been better and more accurate financial oversight of the donations and government funds that were/have been allocated.

It is remarkable that to this very day, a year and more after Dorian, we still do not have audited financial statements from the relevant bodies tasked with the recovery and rebuilding efforts. No one is suggesting that anybody carried any monies or supplies but we all know just how some of our people operate.

Dr. Hubert Minnis and his party were surprised by their electoral win in 2017. The vast sweep of seats was also surprising to them and most political observers, me included. In short, they were unprepared for high office initially. As events are playing/have been played out over the past three years and counting, there have been some serious missteps that could have been avoided.

Apart from the ill-suited persons tasked with the recovery and rebuilding efforts following Dorian, the swift increase in value-added tax did not go down too well with the bulk of the lowest income/wage earners, where they still exist. This may have been needed but it was never really explained in ordinary language. Strike number one. Dorian was/is number two.

Number three is the rushed purchase of the Grand Lucayan over in Freeport. Most of us agree that something had to be done with that once-fabled resort before it fell into a grave state of disrepair. I advised the administration not to make a purchase, but if it did, to get rid of the same in short order. Too much time was being taken before the unexpected arrival of the pandemic.

Number four is clearly the emergence of what may appear to be discriminatory practices. In opposition and as president of The Bahamas Bar Association, Elsworth Johnson was very vocal in defending the human rights aspects of Bahamian-born children/young adults and others detained at the Detention Centre. He was wont to regularly blast the then-PLP government and he was right, in my view, to do so.

Not a damned piece of legislation has been brought, so far, to regularize what is now a human rights issue and one of morality. Persons in this category will continue to remain in limbo as this is not a priority for Johnson or his Cabinet and parliamentary colleagues. 

Fifthly, we see what appears to be an unconstitutional piece of legislation in the form of the Fisheries Bill, which has been passed by both the House of Assembly and the rubber stamp Senate.

The FNM under Hubert Alexander Ingraham was a caring and progressive administration.

It was while he held sway that we saw a referendum, even though it failed, that sought to give our Bahamian sisters and brothers equal rights under the law of the land. Minnis is a good man, I am sure, and he has to mean well, but there appears to be a disconnect with what he and his administration say today but do differently tomorrow.

The year 2020 on balance has been a tough one for the bulk of our people. Many died during Dorian’s passage and scores more died at the height of the pandemic. Had it not been for The Lord Jesus Christ, the rest of us would not have survived 2020.

I pray that the PM and his team will get it right in 2021 for the coming year will, indeed, be the times that try men’s souls. The new deal PLP under the laser focused and stellar leadership of Philip Brave Davis (PLP-Cat Island) stands in the gap to assume office if Minnis and crew continue to falter. 

— Ortland H. Bodie Jr.

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