Editor,
Finally, a Prime Minister armed with the testicular fortitude to confront the Grand Bahama Port Authority forced them to honor the many responsibilities and commitments they brazenly intentionally ignored.
The power players in the Port now know that Philip Brave Davis is not a weakling and must not be taken for granted. Anyone who thinks otherwise does so at their peril.
We have watched the Port Authority bludgeon the people of Grand Bahama, siphoning money from the economy from day one. They tried to create their own country here in the Bahamas while successive prime ministers did nothing.
The Port has forgotten that it is here at the pleasure of the Bahamian people. According to a newspaper article, Rupert Hayward was presumptuous in saying that he does not believe the Government should take “majority” control of the Port Authority, insinuating that the Port owns Freeport and has the last say.
The many hardships that Grand Bahamians experienced, which forced them to be second-class citizens in their own country, could have been avoided if the Port had done its part. But it is plain to see that their game plan was to strangle the lifeblood out of Freeport so that the vulnerable could leave. They could seize a stronger position to rebuild it like they wanted, to the disadvantage of the ordinary Bahamians who now feel ostracized. Thus, the force-feeding of heavy taxes brought many to their knees.
The purest question is, did the Port want a better way of life for the Grand Bahamians, or did they want to use Bahamians to make money?
Freeport’s dark days could have been avoided if the Port had acted responsibly. Instead, the top brass selfishly whistled Dixie to the ban while the Bahamians suffered. Freeport was allowed to deteriorate, with dilapidation and decay everywhere. It is sad what the Port has allowed to happen under their watch, even after they were given carte blanch to do as they wished.
They failed us!
The Port already knows what the Bahamas is like because no other country would have agreed to this deal. They bent us over and drove it home.
Now that the Hawksbill Creek Agreement has been breached, it is time to start talks with new friends of the Bahamas about restoring Grand Bahama to its glory days.
The Government should move quickly to retrieve Freeport from the clutches of the Port, who never had our best interests at heart. It is time for new players who are serious about not only the growth of the Bahamas but, in this case, Grand Bahama as a whole, never separating Freeport from the rest of the island again.
I implore the Davis government to package the whole island in the new dispensation. Then, it would be the newest, most needed, and well-deserved day.
I am guided by these words, which were given to me in my early adult life: “Move in silence, only speak when it is time to say, CHECKMATE!
Ivoine W. Ingraham
Your Conscience
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