View from afar

By JOHN ISSA

We live in a multi-party democracy, thank God.

We all know that it’s not a perfect system, other than the fact that it is better than all others. That said, it operates with varying degrees of efficiency and success in different countries. For example, in the United States it often leads to gridlock and abuse.

The parliamentary system, where one party has a majority, can be more efficient but can be abused if the customs of the system are not respected.

In The Bahamas, where elections have to be held every five years, one would expect that after an election the successful party would go about carrying out the programmes in their manifesto and the opposition would ensure that there is no abuse of citizens’ rights or the national interest. Then as the end of the five-year term approaches, all parties would start campaigning in an attempt to win a majority of seats in the next parliament.

What, however, appears to have become the more usual in The Bahamas is that as soon as an election is over, campaigning begins for the next one. It also appears that whatever one party proposes, the other opposes. I have observed this to be the case more often than not, regardless of which party forms the majority.

This is true, even when the opposition were trying to do the same or similar things when they were in power. Should my observations be correct, this situation cannot be good for the Bahamian people.

I am by no means saying that this situation is unique to The Bahamas but that is no excuse. Remember, the worst excuse or reason that someone can give for doing something wrong is “everybody is doing it”.

• John Issa is executive chairman of SuperClubs. He is writing regularly in The Tribune.