"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean”. Matthews 23, v.27
A union of corruption and hypocrisy came to light in August 2021 when a serving MP, Adrian Gibson, who had written more than 300 articles and Blogs (~2014 to 2017), to address a number of issues facing the country, including public sector corruption, was himself, front and centre of the headlines. Below are three of his numerous headlines with selected excerpts, which first appeared in The Tribune before being re-published online (https://www.weblogbahamas.com/blog_bahamas/articles_by_author_adrian_gibson/):
“No one is above the Law, No Matter their Political Persuasion” (Jun 2014)
“There are some things that are simply indefensible and whether it’s a FNM or PLP politician or the spouse of any political leader, no excuses should be offered, no attacking of the messenger would suffice”.
“Tiefin at the heart of our Society” (May 2016):
“EVERY time Auditor General Terrance Bastian and his team releases a damning report, I become more and more convinced that we live in a society where “tiefin”, in one form or another, has become the order of the day. To use a phrase I heard bandied about this week, “we don’t need no VAT, we need a moratorium on ‘tiefin’!”
“The Culture of Criminality that pervades our Nation” (May 2016)
“THERE is a culture of criminality that is alive and well and pervasive in The Bahamas. It transcends the fabric of our nation. Given that adherence to the law is only a reasonable option when people believe that they would likely be caught – and if such people believe that they will be caught – adherence to the law is relative”.
His provocative and accusatory headlines were only exceeded by the prolificness of his publications, sometimes on the order of one per week. What could only be described as a three-year relentless tirade against all of society's ‘abnormalities', and mainly targeted at the opposition PLP, only stopped when he was elected as the FNM MP for Long Island. This 3-year run was his first step in ‘training’ to become a poster boy for hypocrisy.
After the successful election in the safest of FNM seats, he was then upset that he had not been nominated for a Cabinet post, so like an unruly toddler, ‘threw his toys out of the pram’, and in order to settle him, the new Government surprisingly acquiesced in his juvenile behaviour, awarding him Chairmanship of a main Public Sector Corporation, Water and Sewerage. Apparently, one year into his reign and for the succeeding two-years, 2018 – 2020, it is alleged that the Chairman funneled contracts to his fiancée and ‘campaign general’.
It really is difficult to pretend to hold certain beliefs or attitudes and not genuinely hold those beliefs when publishing so prolifically on the specific topics. But in late summer 2021, it was publicly alleged (reportedly by a disgruntled WSC worker) that Mr. Gibson had funneled contracts to a company in which his fiancée and ‘campaign general’ were principals. Abandoning all pretense at principles, Mr. Gibson allegedly carried on this corrupt practice for two years, thus prompting the below headlines on 01st September:
“Adrian Gibson’s fiancée Alexandra Mackey aka “Da Elites” quits job amid scandal” (Sep 2021)
“Alexandria Mackey, the fiancée of embattled WSC Chairman Adrian Gibson, resigned from a top firm on Friday amid a scandal involving fat contracts she received from WSC between 2018 and 2020”.
The headline writer had become the subject of the headlines! If proven, his egregious behaviour will be the lowest of the low, in my view, which occurs too often in our society as we show an inability to learn from the mistakes of others or arrogantly to think, 'I won't get caught'. Rather than thinking this should not happen, we know it will happen and it does not matter who it is, the indecorous behaviour must be exposed and challenged because as Gibson said himself, “there are some things that are simply indefensible and whether it’s a FNM or PLP politician or the spouse of any political leader”, we should not make excuses or attack the messenger. Such behaviour is disgraceful and totally reprehensible in its own right; but Gibson's decision not to engage with the allegations publicly shows he is a coward and then, not to resign, shows he is cut from the same cloth as the arrogant corrupt hypocrites who preceded him. Thus, Mr. Gibson has cemented his place as the latest poster boy of corruption and hypocrisy in Bahamian politics, for which he gave us fair advanced notice:
"Given that adherence to the law is only a reasonable option when people believe that they would likely be caught – and if such people believe that they will be caught – adherence to the law is relative”.
By Selwyn Seymour
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The views expressed are those of the author, and not necessarily those of Weblog Bahamas (which has no corporate view).
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