The more I hear from KP the more concern I become. I wanted to give him an opportunity but to come out of the gates proposing to borrow $722 million without even a cursory assessment and then two and a half months later now talking about austerity measures really caused more damage and international harm than good. It shows either lack of knowledge or lack of planning and preparation or both. It is a classic case of the cart before the horse. It appears that he and several other Cabinet Ministers enjoy performing for the audience in the balcony which is exactly the skill set we do not need at this time. I am afraid, even though I hope that I am wrong, that time will likely show him and several other Cabinet Ministers to be akin to the Donald Trump syndrome, that is much and very exaggerated form that appeals to shallow public sentiment with very little real substance.

And what does any of what you refer to above have to do with corruption and illegal enrichment by virtue of holding a public office. Stop the nonsense, the question is simple, do you believe it is acceptable to use public office for self enrichment through corruption and bribery?

Agree! Must be a slow news cycle because the above article and comments are both shallow and nonsensical.

This is not a fully fair or accurate statement. I agree that they have come out of the blocks a little sluggish but the issue here may be more systemic and of messaging more than a complete lack of preparation. The fact of the matter is that our system dictates that within a few days after winning the election the new PM is sworn in. Up to that point the new PM and the incoming government has no, and I mean absolutely no, idea of the true state of affairs of the country's business. What we have seen in the twelve months leading up to an election is that successive governments have converged the country's fiscal economic policies with the financing of their election campaigns during the election year such that the actual state of affairs almost always has much larger than expected adverse or negative surprises as well as dealings that defy common sense. This is a systemic problem because there is really no way you can actually plan for the nonsense we have been hearing about. Performing an effective appraisal of the state of affairs is indeed a very prudent approach before just diving in and doing something just to be seen as doing something. What is missing is the right messaging to accompany this appraisal.

Where I do fault the FNM and agree with HAI, is that all of this name calling under the privilege of Parliament, sometimes without any evidence of wrong-doing, is not only wrong but it breaches a fundamental tenet of our jurisprudence system of innocent until proven guilty and creates a mob mentality. If there is wide-spread evidence or suspicion of wrong-doing then impanel an investigatory body to address these suspicions and conduct the necessary investigations with a view of making recommendations on charges and to ensure that this state of affairs never happens again.

Excellent point! But it is not just electoral reform that is need; the fact of the matter is that our current form of the Westminster system incentivizes the Political Party in power to use the Public Treasury to finance their political campaigns every five years. The PLP has become particularly adroit at this but make no mistake the FNM is equally as guilty. The real losers in all of this are of course the Bahamian people.

Our current system results in successive governments pursuing or telescoping their fiscal economic policies to the short to medium term because they cannot resist the temptation to use fiscal policy to further their own self-interest during the period leading up to an election. This system and the behavior of our politicians create significant headwinds for our economy. When the obituary of our economy is written, our inability to formulate and execute coherent and sustainable long term economic policies will be a primary reason for its demise.

Unfortunately, we are often our own worst enemy. In addition to containing the mis-direction of government funds and reducing future government deficits, to truly get us out of this hole we need bold leaders with knowledge, vision and the courage to say to the Bahamian people we have been living above our means and we must now cut out the excesses. At the same time, we must expand the aggregate supply and productive capacity of our economy with a focus on GDP growth without an over-reliance on FDI and creating domestic employment opportunities that concentrate on expanding exports and reducing the reliance on imports.

I believe the PM's heart is in the right place but so was the former PM's heart. The real challenge will be whether or not he has the courage to say to the Bahamian people and to his Cabinet that we must all now be prepared to make sacrifices for the survival of the Bahamas as we know it today and hold his Cabinet accountable. In that regard, the former PM failed miserably.

An apology, though a good start, may not be sufficient here. It seem to me that it is time for the government to appoint a special body with a specific scope to organize these investigations and consolidate these findings with a duty to recommend further criminal/civil action to be taken and also recommend the structural, institutional and legal reforms necessary and required to be implemented to ensure that such blatant self-interest pandering and corruption never happens again in our country without dire consequences. People often wonder why our GDP growth is so anemic, and in fairness there are a number of reasons, but I am convinced that one of the primary reason is that for too long political actors have pursued economic policy decisions and laws based on their personal incentives for self gain, self-interest and corrupt practices. This is a self-inflicted wound and is just not sustainable.

I understand that when the facts are not on your side one then resorts to ad hominem attacks and generalizations. Such tactics only confirm the weakness and flaws of your position. I do not know Sarkis and have nothing against him and in fact may be sympathetic to his plight but none of that changes the simple fact that "it is what it is" and that if he had a legal remedy he would not be relying on a political solution.

You may be entitled to your opinions but not your own facts. Sarkis significantly and legally contributed to his own demise that placed him in legal jeopardy in the first place.

Good points

What he has done is provide a pretty accurate description of the headwinds facing local manufacturing. My experience has led me to believe that most local politicians have not grasped the simple fact that it is just not sustainable for our economy to continue to endlessly import basic goods or endure the uninterrupted balance of trade current account deficits without this permanently and negatively impacting the continued parity of the B$ to the US$, GDP growth and domestic employment rates. When we import, those dollars are lost forever to our economy. The real issue here is to ask the question, "what is the role of government and fiscal policy in an economy". The answer to that question provides an answer to the issue above. Can these local manufacturers really compete or are they really inefficient when the foreign firms have an absolute advantage because of the above structural weaknesses in our economy? We are running deficits between $300 to $500 million dollars a year yet no one can touch what we are spending this money on. If we can just focus a little of those dollars on fixing these structural issues then that alone would significantly expand the productive capacity of our economy.