It would appear that former Prime Minister Perry Christie, after breaking his long held silence, still does not seem to get the ‘big picture’.

While he defends his himself and his  government’s actions on certain issues, he seems not to realize that the Bahamian people took a look at the big picture as it relates to our fiscal position, the manner in which we were being taxed and judged him and his administration accordingly.

“Christie defends claims on spending

• Former PM is ‘disappointed by FNM’s allegations
• Says govt. did nothing wrong over $8m payout
• Calls for review of documents” – The Tribune

Excerpt from this article; “FORMER Prime Minister Perry Christie yesterday condemned efforts by the Minnis administration to portray his government in a negative light, as he challenged the nation’s leader to carry out a ‘dispassionate examination of the records’.

During a lengthy interview at his Cable Beach home on Thursday, Mr. Christie defended his administration from accusations of irresponsible spending, malfeasance and cronyism.

He also said he was ‘disappointed’ by the allegations being tossed around by the new government concerning matters that transpired during his term as prime minister.

Hitting back at accusations from members of the Minnis administration concerning the controversial pay out of more than $8m to one vendor for hurricane clean up and the write off of $1.2m to an airport tenant who was in arrears, Mr. Christie described recent moves by the government as a ‘misstep’ by a party pandering to its base.”

Mr. Christie maintained that a review of documents relating to these two controversies would absolve his administration of any wrongdoing and prove the FNM’s rhetoric is nothing more than ‘political slogans.”

I say that it does not absolve the previous Christie administration of any wrongdoing, as these allegations all detail a pattern of wanton, blatant and careless economic wastage by the Christie administration, especially at a time when we were lest able to afford it and also due to the fact that the former prime minister’s explanation of the controversies that he choose to focus on makes absolutely no sense.

It is my opinion that as the former prime minister defends his administration against allegations of fiscal malfeasances, he misses the big picture by which his administration was judged and which he nor anyone his the former Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) ministers has been able to adequately explain; why after collecting over a billion dollars in value-added tax (VAT) and other taxes, why was our economy downgraded four times in the five years of the Christie administration with both the fiscal deficit and national debt increasing at an alarming rate?

The Progressive Liberal Party failed for one reason, it is their nature.

END