One would have thought that, out of respect for Emancipation Day, Fred Mitchell might have taken a day off from his now familiar pastime of political revisionism.

Apparently not.

Instead, Bahamians were treated to yet another broadside from the Chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), this time directed at the Free National Movement (FNM), its leadership, and even the staff of The Nassau Guardian. Their apparent crime? Reporting and scrutinizing Mr. Mitchell’s own public comments on the continuing Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) crisis.

Imagine attacking the messenger because the message was your own.

What is truly astonishing is Mr. Mitchell’s latest attempt to convince Bahamians that today’s electricity crisis is somehow the FNM’s fault, despite the PLP having been in office since September 2021. Governments inherit challenges—that is true. But governments also inherit opportunities. The question is what they do with them.

When the Davis administration took office, BPL certainly was not a perfect utility. Decades of underinvestment under successive governments had left major structural issues. However, the FNM administration had begun implementing a broader reform strategy that included fuel hedging, refinancing efforts, and plans for new generation intended to stabilize electricity costs and improve reliability.

The fuel hedging programme, negotiated with support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), had already provided consumers with unusually stable fuel charges during a period of volatile oil prices. Planned follow-on hedge transactions scheduled after the 2021 general election were not executed by the incoming administration—a decision the Davis administration has defended but one that has remained highly controversial because critics argue it contributed to significantly higher fuel costs.

Whether one agrees with that decision or not, one fact is difficult to escape: the PLP did not continue every major element of the strategy it inherited. It chose a different course.

Five years later, Bahamians are asking a very simple question.

Has that course produced a better BPL?

The answer is written every time another island experiences widespread outages, every time businesses lose revenue because the power disappears, and every time families wonder whether the next thunderstorm will once again leave them sitting in darkness.

Mr. Mitchell insists the FNM “tried and failed.”

Perhaps.

But what exactly should we call five years of PLP management?

Because if the FNM supposedly failed after beginning a reform programme, what word describes an administration that dismantled significant parts of that programme and has still not delivered the reliable electricity system Bahamians were promised?

Mr. Mitchell also declared:

“The PLP does not stick its finger in the wind and pander…”

Indeed.

At this point it seems less like finger-in-the-wind politics and more like reading tea leaves—or perhaps consulting bones—hoping that political spin will somehow generate electricity where sound policy has not.

One has to wonder whether this statement is intended to justify not only the continuing problems at BPL, but also the government’s handling of other major national projects that have attracted public criticism over the past five years.

The irony is almost too rich.

Mr. Mitchell now complains that newspapers and political opponents have twisted his words.

No, Mr. Mitchell.

They quoted them.

There is a significant difference.

If your own words produce headlines you dislike, perhaps the problem is not the headlines.

Perhaps it is the words.

Political leadership requires accountability, especially after five years in office. The public is entitled to ask difficult questions, and the media is entitled to report the answers—or the absence of them.

Instead of blaming the FNM, blaming the newspapers, or blaming anyone else who dares point out the obvious, perhaps the PLP Chairman should answer the question Bahamians continue to ask:

After nearly five years in government, if the PLP inherited a foundation it believed was flawed, where is the stronger one it promised to build?

Because blaming yesterday’s government does not keep today’s lights on especially when that government is one administration removed.

The Bahamian people deserve better.

END