I see the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) has chosen to close out 2025 with what can only be described as a dark political joke.
“Rahming says govt sensitive to concerns from marina operators” — The Nassau Guardian.
According to the Guardian, Prime Minister Philip Davis met with Ministry of Finance officials to “review” the newly imposed boating and cruising permit fees after sustained complaints from marina operators. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism Chester Cooper echoed this sudden burst of sensitivity, announcing that the government would reconsider the fee increases—after marina owners reported, again via the Guardian, an estimated 40 percent drop in boating traffic compared to 2024.
Enter OPM Director of Communications Latrae Rahming, assuring the country that the government has “consulted with industry from the start” and that the prime minister is now “listening.”
Listening—now.
This entire performance reeks of disingenuousness and is frankly insulting to anyone capable of independent thought, Bahamian or otherwise. The implication is that the cries of marina operators, employees, and Family Island businesses somehow materialised in December, as if concerns had not been raised loudly and consistently since February or March, when the fee increases first began to bite.
So, we are now to believe that Prime Minister Davis has only just discovered the voices of the people? That this economic distress—felt most sharply by marina workers, small businesses, and seasonal tourism-dependent communities—was previously inaudible?
That suggestion is not only nonsense; it is condescending rhetoric of the highest order. This government creates the hardship, tightens the noose, and then expects applause when it loosens it slightly—calling that act a “favour.” Meanwhile, the real damage has already been done: cancelled bookings, lost income, and livelihoods squeezed during what should be the most productive season of the year.
Let us be clear: the PLP did not rescue the marina sector from harm. They made the situation worse, ignored warnings, endured international backlash, and only then rushed to rebrand a belated correction as evidence of compassion and consultation.
That is not leadership. That is damage control.
The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) fails for one simple reason —it is its nature.
It would hardly be decent—or necessary—for me to accuse the New Day Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government of deliberately misleading the Bahamian people about the Grand Lucayan Resort. One does not need to allege bad faith when sheer ineptitude, incompetence, and administrative laziness provide a far more reasonable explanation.
The reality is painfully clear to the workers on Grand Bahama who are now pleading with the government to simply be honest with them—to tell them the truth so they can make life-altering decisions about seeking other employment. As reported by The Nassau Guardian in “Worries grow on Grand Lucayan,” the so-called “turning point” deal announced with great fanfare in May has produced exactly nothing. No construction. No redevelopment activity. No economic revival. What it has produced instead is delayed pay checks, reduced workweeks, and a fully shuttered resort.
Employees deemed “essential” are now working two days a week to maintain a property where nothing is happening, while payroll delays have become routine. The Chief Financial Officer’s apologetic emails, citing “circumstances beyond our control,” have become the most tangible output of a government that promised transparency and accountability but has delivered silence and excuses instead.
This is not an isolated incident. It is a pattern.
The Grand Lucayan deal is now the second major agreement inherited from the former Free National Movement (FNM) government that the Davis-led PLP cancelled, only to leave the public in the dark about what—if anything—replaced it. The first was the ongoing renovation and upgrade of the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), for which funding was already in place. That money was actually sent back by the PLP government, only for the same administration to later cry foul over crumbling healthcare infrastructure while borrowing anew for a specialty hospital that does not even address core emergency services. To this day, the Critical Care Block at PMH remains incomplete under PLP stewardship.
Now, the people of Grand Bahama are once again left in limbo, and the wider Bahamian public is expected to accept press releases and photo-ops as substitutes for progress. Deals are announced. Heads of agreement are signed. Promises are made. And then—nothing happens.
This is governance by illusion, where announcements are mistaken for action and accountability is perpetually “forthcoming.” The failure is not accidental. It is systemic. The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason only: it is their nature.
Early yesterday morning, Fred Mitchell—Chairman of the “New Day” Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) and part-time narrator of political ghost stories—decided to warm up the country for the government’s latest borrowing binge: a tidy $201 million for a new “speciality hospital.” And, of course, in classic Mitchell fashion, he also attempted to predict the Opposition’s objections… because nothing says “transparent governance” like a pre-emptive blame-fest.
So out came the same old tale he dusts off whenever he needs to scare Bahamians into line: the spooky story of how the Free National Movement (FNM) once opposed “advancements in healthcare.” According to Mitchell’s folklore, the FNM didn’t just oppose NHI—they single-handedly strangled it, suffocated it, and left Bahamians to hold cookouts for medical expenses.
It’s the same script, just with a new dramatic reading.
What he didn’t tell the people—because why let reality ruin a perfectly good scare tactic?—is that the PLP absolutely did pass NHI… without the small technical detail of how to pay for it. Funding mechanism? Too risky before an election. So, the great PLP “healthcare revolution” stalled—not because of the “vicked FNM,” but because the PLP didn’t have the courage to stand behind its own tax implications.
But, again, why tell the truth when blame is free?
And then there’s the FNM’s actual historic position on NHI, which Mitchell selectively forgets every time he speaks:
FNM’s actual concerns about the 2006 NHI Bill: • They supported the principle of healthcare access • They opposed a poorly drafted, cost-mystified, last-minute plan with no transparency • They objected to zero consultation, sloppy legislation, poor administrative capacity, and bad timing • And yes—the bill was so full of errors it needed editing, not applause
But fast-forward to today, and the New Day government has discovered its new scarecrow: “If you don’t support borrowing $201 million, you’re against healthcare.” How convenient.
Prime Minister Philip Davis is now using the kind of crafty language that makes Gambier House proud—framing this loan as the ONLY sane path to healthcare salvation, while hoping no one remembers that the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) is already undergoing massive renovations and new construction works.
Renovations which began under the previous FNM government.
Renovations which seemed to have been reviewed, stalled, and seemingly cancelled under the New day PLP government.
Renovations for which funding was left in place.
So the real question is:
What happened to the money that was already allocated to modernize PMH?
Because somehow the funds that could have continued or completed the PMH upgrades have magically transformed into a $201 million-justified loan for a brand-new specialty hospital. A specialty hospital, by the way, that does not even meet the needs of a full major medical facility—but sure, let’s mortgage the country anyway.
And yet, the Prime Minister insists that “incremental fixes” are not working.
Yes, Prime Minister—“incremental fixes” do not work. But the FNM was not doing incremental fixes. They were doing full-scale renovations, expansions, and modernization of the national hospital you now pretend does not exist.
Cherry-picking language does not make your argument clever—it just makes it crafty. And that is exactly the kind of wording that the New Day relies on to guide the unsuspecting into thinking this $201 million loan is the only path forward.
As for the article trumpeting the big loan:
“The government intends to borrow $201 million from the Export-Import Bank of China to construct a hospital… Considering the state of PMH, it is abundantly clear that a new facility was needed.”
Needed? Or politically convenient?
Because here’s what’s actually abundantly clear:
The New Day government is pretending PMH’s upgrades do not exist so they can justify a loan they’ve already decided to take.
They tout a new 200-bed women’s and children’s hospital with “green spaces for holistic healing”—lovely, peaceful, and utterly irrelevant to the critical needs of a national hospital bursting at the seams.
And still not a word—not a syllable—from the Prime Minister about:
• What will happen to the massive PMH works already underway • Why those works were slowed, altered, or cancelled • What happened to the money allocated for those upgrades • Why borrowed funds couldn’t finish PMH • Why the country must instead commit to a loan for a facility that cannot replace PMH’s capacity
Instead, we get theatrics, ghost stories, revisionist history, and a “New Day” government hoping that a shiny new project will distract from old, uncomfortable questions.
Questions like:
Why are we borrowing $201 million for a specialty hospital for a few while ignoring, delaying, or cancelling the modernization of the national hospital we already have for the many?
But I suppose when you don’t want to answer the real questions, a spooky story about the FNM is easier to tell.
The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) fails for one reason, it is their nature.
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