Rick Lowe

This recent post… resulted in this letter to the press.

Should politicians limit their scope for better results?

With elections constitutionally required by May 2012, it had to start at some point, and as usual the political propaganda is predictable.

The first group out is the Democratic National Alliance – The DNA, and they left a flyer outlining their goals at the door.

Really they're simply cute phrases, nothing more than symbolism over substance.

"Limiting the scope of government and the promises made will undoubtedly lead to better results for the Bahamian electorate."

Here's a few of them:

    Re-Establish Social Protection
    First-World Global Education and Training
    Legitimize, Transform and Authenticate Bahamian Culture
    Strengthen The Family
    Rebuild Christian Values
    Diversify Industry Structure
    Ensure Food Security and Sustainability
    Climate Change and Disaster Preparedness

And an obligatory quote from the Bible about vision and perishing is thrown in for good measure of course.

Cynicism aside, the reality is governing politicians have their hands so full trying to ensure the Civil Service gets the job done with their current responsibilities, adding the eight vague items above makes their job impossible.

Besides, are these things really the purview of the political class? Not according to the Constitution any way.

And after all those promises above, and more, there is not a single word about fixing governments fiscal and monetary imbalances, probably the most crucial problem facing the nation and its future generations.

Some politicians seem to believe they have to portray that they can or will solve every issue imaginable if voters simply mark their X against their colours. But when you dig below the surface of statements like legitimizing, transforming and authenticating Bahamian culture and ensuring food security and sustainability, one must conclude they are simply space fillers.

A quick search of the Internet reveals not one country in the world can feed itself without food imports. Neither is there a single country without hungry people.

And to legitimize, transform and authenticate Bahamian culture all at one time is simply contradictory. Culture rises up from the people. It's not handed down from the political elite.

With any luck the political class will get down to offering specifics on how they might get the Civil Service to fulfill all the functions that the Government is already responsible for and understand we don't need them to do anymore than that.

Limiting the scope of government and the promises made will undoubtedly lead to better results for the Bahamian electorate.