Consequently in Long Island (certainly) and places like Shirlea, Montague, St. Anne’s and Abaco, the FNM has always dominated the PLP (by playing the race card) and has been able to maintain their neck-chocking hold on those seats. That is why they feel they could piss all over you Long Islanders and you others, in the constituencies named, without any fear of losing their support in those areas. In other words they take you for granted, and have done so for decades, because they feel very sure that you aren’t going anywhere soon, no matter how shabbily they treat you.

While those embryonic years of party politics had its support struggles for the PLP, today is a different day and a different era; Bahamians are, now, more intelligent and are better able to determine, for themselves, the important issues which confront us. Certainly we must be able to determine that there is a bigger picture here, which requires our attention, than the very stupid and frivolous “population ethnicity” reason for voting for the one and never the other.

In this up coming general election, the FNM deserves a good cut behind for the many hardships dumped upon the people during the past four plus years they were at the helm. They deserve no less than to be kicked out of office on their heads; for when we look back over the years and assess the damage they caused, to be brought upon this nation and its people, we should be DAMN angry; angry enough to totally reject them at the polls. To enumerate all of what they did, or cause to be done, would be too much for just this one article but I must take you through a scenario of some of their most serious MESS-UPS in order to qualify my reason(s) for why I say they don’t deserve any more time at governing.

First of all the man (Ingraham) has no manners. He has no respect; he doesn’t know how to talk to people; he truly is an uncivilized mongrel. He came to office, assuming power from the PLP, in an economic boom never before experienced in this little nation. All the indicators pointed to growth so explosive that the former Prime Minister (Hon. Perry Christie) was able to confidently predict that, by 2008, the country would have experienced, for the first time in its history, full employment. Billion dollar projects, for the very first time in our history, were at various stages on the ground or of approval, were all over the place. Ginn Sur Mer was in West Grand Bahama with their $5 billion investment project; Baker’s Bay, with more than $1 billion in Abaco; the I-GROUP, in Mayaguana, spending $1.2 billion; Albany $1.5 billion; Baha Mar $2.6 billion, Lynden Pindling Airport in the millions; the Stadium $30 million, the Straw Market, Kerzer’s phase three and a number of others were in Nassau; several were under way in Eleuthera, Exuma, Rum Cay and the Berry Islands. Development projects were all over the place; $15 billion worth plus, as well, a number of government contracts already awarded. But on May 2007 along came the economy wrecker; (Hubert Alexander Ingraham)-the hound dog; the China bull; the big piss-head, and from then on our fortunes began going down the drain. The projects which he didn’t stop to review, he cancelled; resulting in the loss of investor confidence. I say of this reckless FOOL, exactly what King Solomon said of all FOOLS in his wise sayings in the book of Ecclesiastes 2:14; “the wise man SEES, while the FOOL is BLIND.”  Investors decided that they couldn’t take chances to invest their money in a country where a government could, willy-nilly, dishonor commitments made, and contracts signed and sealed, by former administrations. No Sir; they were not prepared to invest in a country governed by a FOOL. These “Policy Elites” are so out of touch with reality that I am afraid for the survival of our nation. They have employed methods which are just not cutting it in terms of redeeming our economy; they are so off course it’s not funny. Decisions they’ve been making have had little benefit for average Bahamians. As a matter of fact small business enterprises, especially, have suffered greatly under this reckless FNM regime. 

From the day Ingraham embarked on his package of austere measures the rest is history. The economic climate shifted gears and the economy went into reverse. Investors began to shy away; discussions on current projects, on the table at the time, suspended and those already commenced, slowed to a snail’s pace. Foreign currency inflows, as a consequence, began to dry up and a national moratorium on employment, both in the civil service and in the private sector, was instituted. Job losses and loan defaults became the order of the day. Government found itself in the pre-carious position of having to borrow money to pay its bills (including salaries) and of having to impose the largest tax hikes (on real estate, on government services and on imported goods) ever in our history. All this happened as a result of non-prudent decisions taken by a reckless minister of finance and Prime Minister (Hubert Ingraham). Things began to get so bad that the “economy wrecker” (Ingraham) had to employ, immediately, a make-shift unemployment benefit scheme. He delved into national insurance funds which were earmarked for other specific purposes in order to give, a rapidly growing list of unemployed persons, some assistance before they starved to death. Not only did he make that asinine decision but when it occurred to him that the national insurance board would not be able to sustain the funding of this effort for any period of time, he imposed a further one per cent increase in the contributions being made by the few persons still employed and the few companies left opened for business.

The FNM deserves only your venom; they deserve to be kicked to the curb, as I said earlier, if only because of the fact that much of what we’ve been made to endure and the losses Bahamian families have taken, to date, could have been avoided had they been prudent in their decision making. The sad part of this whole bloody situation (for those who have lost everything) is that their losses are such that they cannot be redeemed ever again. Their assets, which were their children’s inheritance, are all gone now forever.  Customs and Immigration officers have told of their long term commitments, with mortgage companies, for their houses and cars, which were jeopardized when their ability to make extra money in overtime was deprived them. They tell me, as well, of the nightmare of having to tell their kids, who were away in colleges and Universities that they had to return home because Laing and Ingraham took their parents’ ability to pay for their education, away from them when their overtime was stopped. The irony in all this, they tell me, is the fact that increased overtime fees are still being levied against the many carriers, but now it’s the public treasury which benefits from all of it. The original excuse for instituting the shift system, in the first place according to Ingraham and Laing, was to make it less expensive for carriers (aircrafts and boats) calling at our ports. That was the lousy excuse these officers were given; but obviously they were taken for a rough ride by the two deceivers; Hubert Ingraham and Zhivargo Laing. Have you noticed how Zhivargo has learned well Ingraham’s dirty, nasty ways?

There is another point that I wish to make and it concerns the forced increased budget for Social Services; haven’t you heard them actually bragging about that? Consider this; they (the FNM) were the ones who actually created the bad and terrible conditions which have caused thousands of Bahamians to be put out of work and on the poverty lines, seeking hand-outs, and they brag about how much more they had to put in Social Services? These people have no damn shame.

So when we consider where we were, as a people and a country, when the FNM took office in 2007 and where we are today, there is only one sensible, logical decision that voters should make and that is to vote the suckers out of office. Middle-class folk who were living well, meeting their mortgage payments; paying their kids’ education and saving a little money for rainy day are now out of their houses, due to loan payment defaults. Kids out of private schools and in many cases they are bunking with relatives and struggling to make ends meet. Food-any kind they can get their hands on-is rationing. So why would you support this tyrant (Hubert Ingraham) who should be held personally and totally responsible for these prevailing dastardly conditions? My question is; what kind of a case can the Tyrant make to you when they come for your vote this time? Why would you support tyrants like Hubert Ingraham and his spineless group, anyway, who dismantled a perfectly good crime-controlling program (Christie’s Urban Renewal) which proved itself, in a very short period of time, that if left alone could have reduced all criminal activity in the country (including murder) drastically? What kind of case could they make to you, in soliciting your support in this election, for dismantling the program and letting loose, on our streets, these thugs?

I suggest to you that the Free National (mess) movement deserves only your disdain and rejection in the coming general elections; they deserve only a good kick in the behind and should they brave the challenges and do come to your house looking for votes, be prepared for them. Now I am not suggesting that you throw stale PISS in their faces but that’s not a bad idea  if you have some in your PISS-PALE lying around in your bedroom somewhere, when they do come knocking at your doors. By the way Mr. Branville McCartney, you were with this wrecking crew for the fourteen years they have governed, to date, so don’t come to us now trying to give us that innocent look; you were a part of the FNM, all the way, when they were wrecking our economy and you are to be blamed right alongside of them. You too will be rejected for the part you played in bringing this misery on our people. Don’t think for one minute that because you fell out of favor with Ingraham that we will forgive you for what you helped to do, do you?

Forrester J Carroll J.P
Freeport, Grand Bahama
July 2011.