by Rick Lowe

On Second Thought was a weekly column this blogger wrote for The Bahama Journal from July 7, 1998 through September 7, 1999. Some of them might be dated by now, but I republish them here for what they are worth.

On Second Thought! May 25, 1999.

On Town Meetings

On Thursday, May 6th we were treated to a discussion on the Privatisation of BaTelCo at Worker’s House on John F. Kennedy Drive. I think Jones Communications and Love ’97 should be congratulated for their foresight in arranging the numerous “Town Meetings” to discuss the issues in our country.

These forum provide an opportunity for the audience to gain information from the panellists, to ask questions as well as express their views. It is regrettable when they continually deteriorate to the level of a political rally, and the information provided by the presenters is missed when emotions overcome reason.

On Privatisation

Following is my interpretation of the limited information that resulted and a discussion of a few fundamental issues that were not noticed or said.

Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Frank Watson, the first to speak, said there is a curious reversal of roles between governments and the private sector all over the world. He indicated governments should be the regulator, monitor and facilitator concerning itself with Public Safety, Health and Education among other things. It is obvious to many that privatisation of BaTelCo in inevitable and the introduction of competition into the communications business is the only option if we are to maintain our two main industries…tourism and financial services. Mr. Watson also suggested, and I think he is correct, that as Bahamians we should not expect to own a part of the economy if we do not save the money to invest. In other words, our piece of the economic pie can’t be a hand out as some of us expect.

The only new information was that of the bidding process and the fact that the BaTelCo employees who stay may receive a “package” as well.

In discussing the economic illiteracy that exists in the community, Mr. Julian Francis, Governor of the Central Bank suggested that most people agree that “privatisation has to happen.” He compared this process to our “inevitable transition to statehood” indicating that as a people we will learn volumes from the process and it can only help us. My interpretation is that it will help us recognise that growth and advancement is not a government driven process. Rather, it is one of the many individuals making choices in the marketplace. Our Government’s foresight on privatisation and willingness to voluntarily step aside from the public corporations should not be overlooked.

We must consider that the inevitable loss of jobs, although most unfortunate, is a consequence of a bloated overstaffed public corporation. The jobs in other areas of the economy that are not occurring because BaTelCo is unable to provide the level of service required are not being considered. This is job loss of equal importance. The individuals who create these jobs are unseen, silent and totally obliterated by the strident voices demanding protection from the government.

Mr. Watson stated Government’s interest in the continued expansion of our economy. This will help. The unions suggestion that there is no safety net for these people is disingenuous in my view. Had the unions and the nation at large disallowed the politicians to overload their performing workers with “political appointee’s” in the first place, we would have had fewer concerns. Mr. Michael Symonette, General Manager of BaTelCo certainly put this very eloquently. There is enough blame here for everyone, but this effort should make the destructiveness of our Government’s (“guiding hand”) intervention into the private sector plain enough for all to see.

Mr. Shane Gibson, president of the BCPOU asked why our Caribbean neighbours are not compared to BaTelCo because evidence shows that we are far ahead of them. I think Governor Francis answered this best when he suggested that few of us would want to make our homes in these countries as we live in a relative paradise. If we want to advance we should be benchmarking ourselves with nations or companies that help their people to advance, not those who keep themselves in relative bondage.

Unfortunately Mr. Phil Galanis was a disappointment. Perhaps he had political potential before his personal problems, however his contribution to the discussion was to lower the level to political confrontation rather than meaningful discussion of the issue. He did have a measure of success in turning the meeting into a political rally.

Mr. Ralph Massey, Editor for The Institute for Economic Freedom (now The Nassau Institute) suggested that the separation packages were extremely liberal, brought on by the coercive power of unions who threaten to destroy the nation for all of us if they can’t get what they think is rightfully theirs. As a people we rightfully get upset when Government tries to forcefully expropriate our property etc, but we do not see the connection between this and sabotaging the phone system that affects the rest of us. If that’s not power I don’t what is. He pointed to the inevitable result of this power in the cases of the steel and auto industries in America. Many of the steel mills closed and the Japanese auto manufacturers have continued to increase their market share to the detriment of US manufacturers.

Our unions in the Tourist and Public sectors have the same potential. Unfortunately the hotel operators can relocate and the public service will shrink as a natural consequence of the inability of the government to pay salaries from reduced tax income these industries provide. The same applies to our offshore banking industry when the actions of sabotage shorten the time these “transient” businesses take to leave our shores and relocate elsewhere.

Both Mr. T. Baswell Donaldson, Chairman of the Privatisation Committee and Mr. Peter Bethel, Chairman Designate of the Utilities Commission noted the importance of an agency to “control without owning” the corporations, the role they will play in regulating prices and introducing more competition.

Mr. Kenwood Kerr of Colina Financial Group, suggested that it is crucial that value is created in BaTelCo and hoped that we were taking our people from “Labourers to Capitalists.” He also offered some very interesting comparisons between BaTelCo and phone companies in other countries. Our telephone entity came out at the wrong end of each comparison, further emphasising the need for privatisation.

On Political Maturity

When my family moved back from Canada in 1982 and I got involved in our political process, or emotional roller coaster as I refer to it these days, the same approach being used today by Messrs. Christie and Co in the PLP was being used then. The FNM managed to finally transform itself and offered legitimate reasons for people to support them. After twenty five years of PLP rule and constant character assassination by politicians on both sides I thought we had started the move to political maturity, but based on the questions asked and some of the presentations I think we might have taken a step back.

Closing comments by two of the presenters were quite illuminating for me. Governor Francis stated that we “have to identify in principle with the idea of Bahamian ownership but with foreign investment and this is a good thing all around the world.” Mr. Donaldson summarised the whole evening when he said that we can obviously “share a lot of heat, without shedding a lot of light.”

Let’s hope that future town meetings will be a little more meaningful than a PLP or FNM rally.