Carl was obviously suffering from a temporary amnesic attack, when he opened up the discussion and made those baseless charges.  What else could account for the fact that he had obviously forgotten the one arithmetical thing he should have remembered, and that is that his Free National Movement party, and not the PLP governed the country for 13 of those 20 years, he referred to.  But, notwithstanding his irrational rationale, let us take a close-up look at his accusations and see if they can withstand the acid test of his argument.

The FNM came to power in 1992 and met the Lucayan Beach strip bustling with activity.  The Lucayan Beach Hotel was being operated by the Malaysians, in conjunction with the Bahamas Hotel Corp; the Atlantik Beach Hotel was being operated by a European conglomerate and the Holiday Inn was in full swing, being managed by an American operator.  These represented three different operations and operators, together employing an estimated 2500- 3000 persons, most of whom were Bahamians.  What resulted, under Carl Bethel’s FNM Administration - between 1992-2002 - was plainly a disservice to the people of Freeport and Grand Bahama.  The FNM, in their haste to relieve the Hotel Corporation of the responsibility of funding, to a great extent, the Lucayan Beach Hotel operations, acquiesced to the sale of the three operations on the strip, to one single undesirable buyer, in my view (Hutchison Whampoa a Chinese Government company), putting almost all of those 3000 Bahamians on the unemployment lines.  The Hotels were closed down, ultimately, and the Atlantik Beach imploded.  This was the time when Ingraham came to Freeport to meet with those disgruntled 1500 employees of the Holiday Inn and made his now infamous statement to them; “…while I am standing, you are hired; when I take my seat you are fired” unquote; he took his seat, and they were all fired; the damn Dictator.

The FNM had much to say about the Royal Oasis Hotel, as well, and would wish not to accept blame for that fiasco, but the truth of the matter is that, it was Hubert Ingraham who approved the Buddemier group’s take over of the property, in spite of the PLP and others giving him good advice as to that group’s inability to operate at the standard we have come to expect in the country.  We reminded Ingraham, as well, about the group’s shady business dealings in the past which, by the way, had become kitchen table talk in most households in Grand Bahama, at the time.  The FNM government was also advised that the group did not have the financial, wherewithal to make a sustained, meaningful success of the management of the property.  All that sound advice did not matter to Hubert and he did what he always does, ignored all and gave the group his government’s approval.  The rest, of course, is history. The first hurricanes that came that did a little damage to the buildings and what did the suckers do?  They grabbed the insurance money, left town, overnight, and haven’t been heard from or seen since.  All the employees were left stuck and stranded, unpaid and unemployed, thanks to Carl Bethel’s/ Hubert Ingraham’s, Free National Movement government.  The PLP came to office, thank God, and found the money, eventually, to pay part of what was owing to most of the employees; the FNM followed suit, and paid them the remainder, when they came to power in 2007.  But, just as a reminder, it was the FNM’s dirt that the PLP tried to clean up.  The fact of the matter is that it is the FNM government, contrary to what Carl Bethel attempted to imply, which created problems for us in Grand Bahama.  They did not help us, in agreeing to all those lousy Hotel buy-outs and other deals.

The public should know that, subsequent to Hutchison Whampoa being allowed to purchase the entire Lucayan hotel strip, they were allowed, as well, to extend their holdings to include the purchase of the Freeport harbour, now re-named, “Lucayan Harbour.”  Carl Bethel’s FNM government again made a stinking, rotten deal, when they negotiated for twenty-five cents excise tax, only, per container arriving and departing the Freeport Container Port.  In other jurisdictions, such as the Republic of Panama, the Chinese are being levied about eight times that much, in addition to other licensing fees.  The Chinese government (Hutchison Whampoa) certainly employed its 5000 year-old experience in business to hoodwink and convince Ingraham to contribute $3, of the departure tax collected from each passenger, by Bahamas Customs, leaving the Lucayan Harbour.  This, we are told, is earmarked for the purpose of subsidizing ongoing improvements to the Freeport Harbour area which should have nothing to do with us taxpayers.  These tax dollars are going straight into the coffers of the Chinese Central Government’s pockets, in Beijing China, and the concession ought not to have been agreed to.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; Chinese investments are made by Chinese for their own interest.  They do nothing to benefit anybody else but themselves.  Whenever they make charitable contributions, they do so as down payments on future favours which they anticipate they will need, the what, where and how, to be determined by them.

Another lousy deal we can blame the FNM government for making, was with the Grand Bahama Port Authority Ltd when they agreed to extend, to the life of the Agreement or to the year 2054, those tax exemptions, under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, which fell away in August 1990.  In 1990, Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling and his PLP government being cognizant that the real property tax exemptions, given the Port Authority under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement for a thirty-five period, would expire on 4th August 1990 submitted a proposal to the Port Authority for their consideration.  The proposal, included among other things, the extension of the tax exemptions for only a further 20-year period.  The Port was given a time period of two years within which to agree or submit, for the government’s consideration, a counter proposal.  The PLP’s twenty-year proposal for extension of those tax breaks required the Port Authority’s agreement to construct and fully equip, two new High Schools in the Freeport area; a sporting complex in Eight Mile Rock; build and equip a children’s library (not repair and convert a section of the Sir Jack Hayward’s library); extend all infrastructure for essential services, utilities etc. to East and West Grand Bahama, and a number of other things.  Unfortunately, for us In Grand Bahama, the PLP lost the general elections in 1992, just before the two-year deadline expired and for the first time in its history, the FNM won the elections and took over the reins of government.

The new Ingraham Administration, eventually, proposed a watered down version of the PLP’s proposal. Ingraham requested the Port Authority to give his government $12 million in cash toward the cost of building and equipping two new High Schools.  The reason for this request, I submit, was so that he could decide which FNM contractor would be awarded the contracts for building the facilities.  During those years, you should know that, the lone contractor used by the Grand Bahama Port Authority for carrying out all their building works was “Reef Construction Ltd” and if they controlled the awarding of those contracts, Reef Construction Co. would have gotten them both and ‘FES construction Ltd” would not have stood a ghost of a chance of getting any of the work.  In addition to the $12 million toward the high schools’ construction, they required the Port to extend the utilities to East and West Grand Bahama; they asked for another $500,000 per year, for two years, toward the financing of local government on Grand Bahama, but they did require the Port Authority to build and equip the children’s library or the sporting complex in Eight Mile Rock which the PLP’s proposal required.  The records will show that the $12 million was a grossly inadequate amount to construct and fully equip the two high schools and so the faculty and staff were obliged to transport the old dilapidated furniture, from the existing school, at hawksbill, at the time, to the new campuses, instead of being taken to the city dump where, God knows, it should have been taken.  How do I know about the old dilapidated furniture having to be brought for use at the new school campuses?  Well I’ll tell you how I know, it was my truck and my delivery men who I sent to pick up and transport the junk, free of charge because they had no money to pay their FNM cronies to do the transporting.  I did it without cost to the ministry, on behalf of the teachers and staff,   at the request of my wife, who was and still is a teacher at one of the high schools.

To adjourn this subject this week, and to answer the FNM’s newly installed Chairman, I would like to state, empathically for the record, that the one and only project brought into Grand Bahama within the last 20 years by any government in power, was the Ginn Sur Mer project in west Grand Bahama, and we all know that that is Perry Christie’s baby and he and the PLP are to be credited for that.  Any projects coming into Freeport during that period, and there have been few, the Grand Bahama Port Authority Ltd is to be credited for them, not the FNM; not any government.  The government of the Bahamas’ only role in these matters, as they relate to the Freeport area, is to rubber stamp a final signature on  all license agreements approved and then submitted to them by the Port Authority’s Licensing department; nothing more.

So Carl Bethel, we in Grand Bahama have nothing to thank you, Ingraham or your FNM government for, except the misery you have caused us, over these many years, with your bad policies.  And, Carl, the very next time you get wind up your behind and feel like matching wits with your PLP counterpart, Dr. Bradley Roberts?  Think again, my boy, you are no match for the doctor.  There is an old wise saying, which goes like this, “engage your brain before engaging your mouth”. This is good advice and if I were you, Carl Bethel, I would take it.
Forrester J Carroll J P
Freeport, Grand Bahama
6th December 2009