THE HONOURABLE PERRY G. CHRISTIE MP
PRIME MINISTER OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF THE BAHAMAS

Address to The National Conference of Celebration of the 71st Anniversary of The St. Kitts-Nevis Labor Party
17th May, 2003


I am doubly delighted to have been invited here to celebrate the 71st anniversary of your great Party and to address you on this very special and historic occasion.  It is an occasion with which I can enthusiastically identify because my own Party – The Progressive Liberal Party – is this year celebrating its golden jubilee.  Although you started your march as an organized fighting force more than 20 years before we started our own back home in The Bahamas, we are nonetheless kindred spirits in the ongoing crusade for the social and economic empowerment of our respective peoples.  

Let me, therefore, extend my heartiest congratulations to you on achieving this important milestone in your evolutionary progress as an instrument for social and economic change in this great nation.  Few political parties anywhere in the region, or in the world, can lay claim to the record of longevity you have amassed.  It is a testament to your perseverance and your fortitude and to the continuing relevance of your vision for your country that you have endured these four- score-and- ten-plus-one years as a viable and effective vehicle of popular empowerment and upliftment. I congratulate and salute you all!

“Forging Ahead with Confidence and Prudence to ensure Stability and Progress in a Challenging Global Environment”.

The theme around which you have chosen to wrap this celebratory occasion has a very timely significance for all the nations of the world and most especially, I would venture to say, for the smaller island-states of our CARICOM family.

The inexorable progress of globalization has presented new and complex challenges for us all.  It is your credit, therefore, that you have chosen the occasion of your 71st anniversary to bring a sense of urgency to these challenges as they relate to St.Kitts & Nevis and to the broader Caribbean family.

Tonight, allow me, if you will, to share with you some insights into some elements of my own vision of how we, in The Bahamas, under my Government, are attempting to adapt ourselves, our thinking and our values to the changing global environment.  Perhaps, some of what I say will strike a chord that will resonate with your own experience as you, too, go about the task of managing popular expectations while at the same time re-conditioning the minds of your people to better meet the challenges that lie before them in this rapidly evolving global environment.

Firstly, let me re-affirm the commitment of The Bahamas to the concept of regionalism and to CARICOM.   Make no mistake about it, we are all in this together.  Isolationism is not the way to go.  It is dead-end street. Our future lies in more intra-regional co-operation, not less of it.  The core of our strength is not in our individual personalities as sovereign-states but rather in our collective persona as a people bound together by geography;by ethnicity and culture; by a common history of colonization; by the same political, constitutional and legal traditions, with few exceptions; and by the common vulnerabilities we face, especially in the spheres of tourism and economic relations with other countries and the world at large.  

Let us never lose sight of the fact that the things that unite us, the things in which we find common cause, are infinitely greater than the things that divide us.

Our challenge is to build upon the things that unify us rather than focusing inordinately on the things that tend to fragment us.  As in any family, there will occasionally be quarrels and disagreements among us but we must never allow such episodes to drive a wedge between us or to distract us from pursuing the agenda of common interests that urges itself upon us in this vexing time of turmoil and uncertainty in which the world now finds itself.  There is too much at stake. And our common vulnerabilities, especially in relation to our economies, are much too pressing to allow us any time to be diverted.

CARICOM must, of course, lead the way, as it has from its inception, in fostering regional integration.  But in leading the way, the most urgent imperative that confronts CARICOM and its members to make CARICOM more directly relevant to the man in the street who, all too often, tends to see CARICOM as a glorified debating society “full of high sentence but a bit obtuse”, as the poet T.S.Eliot would have said.  The intellectual resources, the reservoir of scholarship, and the technical capabilities that have been aggregated under the umbrella of CARICOM are truly immense and a source of never-ending pride for the peoples of the Caribbean.  Still, the sad fact of the matter is that member-states have, for the most part, limited the role that CARICOM can and should play in developing an authentic ethos of regional consciousness in the peoples of the region.  

As leaders, we have that ethos deeply ingrained in our psyches but the peoples we lead do not themselves have it.  Instead, CARICOM is too frequently viewed at the grass-roots level as an abstraction on the outer margins of Caribbean society rather than as the central, driving force that brings us all closer together in a tightly-knit family.

Our task, then, is to enhance the relevance of CARICOM to the peoples of the Caribbean so that it can become a better known quantity in the lives of all our peoples.  

One of the ways that can be done is to intensify and broaden political dialogue and cultural exchanges under the auspices of CARICOM.  Caribbean leaders have to start circulating more than they do.  Simply showing up for Heads of Government meetings or ministerial meetings will not cut it anymore.  We need to reach out to each other not only multi-laterally but bi-laterally as well.  We must do the same at the cultural level so that our peoples can develop a better understanding of each other and, more particularly, so that they can come to a fuller appreciation of how we are all so very much alike in so many important ways.

I must congratulate and commend my brother Prime Minister for leading the way in inviting me to his country.  Having taken his lead and having learned the excellent lesson of his example, I am resolved to reciprocate and therefore hope to have him visit my country in the near future.  This is one of the important ways in which we help to bring the Caribbean family closer together.

The second subject that I would like to touch upon concerns what is unquestionably the single most important political imperative that faces us as national leaders : the need to deepen and strengthen our democracies.  

The power that has been entrusted to us by the suffrage of our respective peoples is not some sort of trophy that we get for winning the fight, nor is it a gift by which we have licence to use it as we like for own self-aggrandizement.  Rather the power that has been vested in us encapsulates a sacred trust to use that power to bring about the greatest good for the greatest number.  

Now that trust imports two duties, one negative, the other positive.

The first is that we cannot use the power that has been entrusted to us to crucify our enemies. Nor can it be legitimately used to stigmatize or victimize those who opposed us in our bid for power.  

Back home in The Bahamas, in own my campaign for election, I pledged to the Bahamian people that, if elected, I would conscientiously adhere to a political doctrine of fairness and justice for all, irrespective of partisan allegiance.  In the one year that I have been in office even my severest critics will, I think, grudgingly concede that there has been no victimization based on party politics nor, for that matter, on any other basis.  Mind you, it’s sometimes hard, especially when it means that one of your own supporters may be denied a job that was given by the former government to one of its own party faithful.  But a promise is a promise. And, more to the point, adherence to the democratic ideal gives you no way out.  You simply cannot punish someone, you simply cannot victimize someone, just because he was on the other side of the political fence.  

Victimization is fundamentally repugnant to the idea of democracy and any popularly elected leader who thinks otherwise is a hypocrite and a fraud.  Democracy is not a crapshoot in which the victor wins the spoils.  That may have been the order of the day in another age but in the new political order that has come to dominate the global environment, democracy and freedom represent the only morally acceptable reality.  

The second duty that is tied to the sacred trust we hold is this : we must use state power to broaden the participation of our people in the governance of our nations. That is what democracy is really all about.  And it is our challenge to make it a reality, not simply give lip-service to it.  

When I addressed my own Party’s National Convention last year, not long after we had been elected to office, I promised the Bahamian people an Age of Transformation – a transformation in the way we govern; a transformation in the institutional framework of governance; a transformation in values and attitudes; and a transformation in the way we relate to each other as members of our society.   

Already we have begun to transform the way we govern in The Bahamas.  In the past, the cabinet was treated as if it had a monopoly on wisdom.  In the past, the cabinet made out as if it had all of the answers to all our problems. But no more! Instead, a transformation is already underway.  We have created a new circle of power that serves as a vital support-system for the executive government in the formation of national policies.  

This new circle of power consists of a network of Commissions made up of ordinary citizens who before would never have dreamt of being asked to serve in such a vital capacity.

Collectively, these commissions serve two purposes:

Firstly, they represent a network of specialized think-tanks, a great reservoir of brainpower flowing into many different streams.  Together they comprise an intellectual treasury that is helping to inform and shape the policies of the Government in the most critical areas of national life, whether it be in relation to:
·    the reform of our constitution; or
·    the re-structuring of our public service sector; or
·     the creation of a more co-ordinated approach to national security; or
·    the problems of crime, recidivism and prison reform; or
·    the need for a viable system of national health insurance; or
·     the creation of an aggressive new thrust in urban rehabilitation and community renewal; or  
·    the re-structuring of our taxation system in anticipation of fundamental changes in the global economy; or
·    the economic expansion of the less developed areas of our nation’s second major island, Grand Bahamas and indeed of the other less developed Islands in The Bahamas;
·    or the re-positioning of our  financial services sector in the wake of the OECD/FATF offensive against offshore jurisdictions; or
·    the development of more effective systems for identifying and treating kids who suffer from autism or who have special learning needs; or
·    the creation of a proper framework for the development of our cultural resources.  

Commissions for these and other vitally important areas of our national life are already at work.
Indeed some have reported already.  And in some instances, the recommendations are already in the process of being implemented.
 
Make no mistake about it, this new circle of power is ushering in a new model of governance and, with it, a genuine deepening and broadening of the democratic experience in The Bahamas.

The second major purpose of this new circle of power represented this new network of commissions that I have appointed, is to involve considerably greater numbers of people in the process of national governance.  Before now, the only real participants in policy formation were the politicians and the civil servants.  In my election campaign, however, I committed myself to the deepening and broadening of our system of governance so that that there could be an ongoing and wider participation of our people in the running of our country.  

We will continue to transform the way we govern by maximizing the opportunities for public involvement in the affairs of state.  That is why the commissions that I have appointed are so important.  These commissions will not be operating behind closed doors.  They will be harnessing the brainpower, the thoughts and ideas of the wider community as they go about their work.  In that way, we will be engaging the entire nation in the kind of dialogue that will give true meaning to participatory democracy.  

As you meet in this conclave, I would exhort you to study this emerging new model of governance that I have introduced in The Bahamas. It is, I believe, worthy of emulation throughout the Caribbean because it represents the best hope that we have of bringing our people more fully into the process of governance.  

The old model simply won’t cut it anymore.  The old, autocratic model is going the way of the dinosaurs.  We are dealing today with an infinitely more enlightened, more informed, more demanding electorate.  People want to have structured input into how policies are formulated.  They are no longer content just to be called upon once every 5 years to mark an “X”.  That’s the old way.   The new way is the only way and that that is the way that I am determined to lead my people in The Bahamas.   

The third subject I would like to briefly address has to do with economic development.

As your theme indicates, we are all operating in an acutely challenging, even menacing, global environment.  There was a time in the not too distant past when small nations were insulated from the vagaries of distant political, economic and environmental events.  If we created shoddy products and shoddy services, no one cared because our customers had little choice but to accept our products and accept our services. This was especially true of people who lived on islands within our region.  Our markets were too small to interest producers in other parts of the world and if our services were found to be wanting many people simply shrugged and said “well, that’s the islands”.

That is no longer the case today because our people and our visitors have too many other choices to tolerate any substandard services or substandard products.

There was also a time when many of us found comfort in some market protection for our agricultural, petro-chemical, and mineral exports.  We produced and others contracted to buy whatever we produced at a pre-determined and pre-negotiated price.  In far too many cases, there was little concern for quality and even less concern for creating efficiencies and economies of scale.

Some countries were not blessed with great agricultural soils and varying microclimates.  Others had few minerals of significant interest to export markets and so they had to develop other means of supporting their people and supporting their economies.  Much of these latter descriptions apply to The Bahamas.

Much of the economic success you see in The Bahamas can be attributed to two things : one, our very close proximity to the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth which  also happens to be the largest exporter of tourists to the region and the world; and two, the fact that we have had a significant head-start in an industry that is, far and away, the most powerful engine for economic growth available to the smaller island-states of the region – the industry of tourism.  

Thus far, no one has found any significant oil reserves in The Bahamas. There is no bauxite nor any other extractive industry of any significance. Moreover, there is little agricultural export even though there still is much potential in that area.  What we do have is an abundance of sun, sand, sea and an abundance of friendly, welcoming and very proud people.  Thus, while many of the other countries of our region were enjoying the economic benefits of oil, bauxite and banana exports, The Bahamas supported itself on the economic foundation of tourism.  It has been our bread and butter now for more than 80 years.  We also have an important financial services industry to supplement our fortunes but we do not delude ourselves : our main specialty is tourism.

We all understand that it is politically and sociologically comforting not to have to put all of one’s eggs in one basket but it is becoming increasingly clear that the road to economic suicide is the old nationalistic desire to be all things to all people.  Becoming specialized in a global environment is not a national choice; it is now a national economic imperative.

For a variety of reasons, The Bahamas, St Kitts & Nevis and indeed all of the Caribbean have a long-term, sustainable and significant comparative advantage in the area of tourism. There is no need to detail these advantages because they are well known to all of us.  What is less well known, however, is the relative resiliency of the tourism industry.

 Back in the early 70’s with the onset of the oil crisis, our tourism industry suffered a severe blow.  But it bounced back.  Our tourism business suffered during the Gulf War of the early 1990s.  But it bounced back.  Our tourism was again sharply reduced in the aftermath of 9-11. But it bounced back.  Our business was again buffeted by the recent war in Iraq. As before, however, it bounced back.  

If we compare the performance of the Caribbean tourism industry to that of many other global industries, we find that it is far more resilient and reliable than the demand and prices that attend many other sectors of the global economy.  

But there are complex challenges we must grapple with.

For one, it is clear that all of us, St Kitts & Nevis included, are no longer competing only within the region.  We are also competing with Disney, with cruise ships, with Universal Studios and many other global mega-corporations.  Many of us have seen, for example, imitations of what we offer in the Caribbean in theme parks in Florida.  
While there is recognition that our natural products are attractive, there are many who are trying to re-create them and siphon off market share from our region.

It is not possible to compete against this global onslaught and this global threat to our economic well-being with any thing other than the best of our citizens.  I will tell you that the most destructive practice of the peoples and nations of the Caribbean is our lack of interest in attracting our best indigenous talent to the tourism sector of our economies.  We must bring the best of our citizens to this industry instead of allowing, in too many cases, our tourism industry to become the employer of last resort.

With this practice rampant in many territories in the Caribbean, why are we surprised that our nationals control and successfully manage many sectors of our economy while we have been spectacularly unsuccessful in ensuring the same for our largest regional industry?  

We have come to know that no matter what the marketing people tell you about fancy advertising slogans and clever marketing campaigns, if we do not have the best services and the best products, fancy slogans and clever marketing will only serve to accelerate the revelation to the world that it is all without substance.  God has already provided us with the best sun, best sand, best sea, best flora and the best fauna.  All we need to do is lead our best people to this industry; provide them with the best training and retraining; and build and maintain the best products.  Without these fundamentals in place we build our industry on shifting sand; with them, we are building on solid rock.

We are also aware that there are no short cuts to long term success and long term solutions.  Attracting our best, educating our best and training and retraining our best will take some time.  I am convinced that in the medium term, if we do our jobs right, if we focus on the skill sets and techniques that make for a successful tourism industry, we will have at long last found another export that is based on our people’s talent that will reverberate around the world.  You see, if tourism is now and is expected to continue to be the world’s largest industry for the foreseeable future, people of St Kitts & Nevis and people of The Bahamas and people from around the Caribbean should be in demand by the rest of the world to buy our knowledge, buy our consulting advice and buy our techniques.  

In The Bahamas, our Department of Immigration is now in the business of tracking and ensuring the transfer of knowledge from people in The Bahamas on work permits to our talented Bahamian people within their organizations.  We no longer assume that such transfer of knowledge is being delivered automatically.  In fact, we are convinced that after many people arrive within our region and when they experience the goodness that God has given us, they then set about ensuring that there is no transfer of knowledge.  In the result, we continue to be reliant on imported talent for years to come.  

It is the government’s responsibility to ensure this transfer of technological know-how and expertise will become an indispensable element of immigration policy.

Indeed, that is another investment in the education of our people – education as a means of equipping our people with the leverage they need to attain the top rungs of the economic ladder whether in tourism or any other area of economic activity.  

We have also found that the working relationship between the public and private sectors is crucial to the short, medium and long term success of tourism.  Both the public and private sectors should be working from the same plan even though each side might have different emphases.  In the absence of such a coherent plan, there is also a considerable waste of resources.  We are already competing as individual nations with national marketing budgets that are a fraction of the marketing budgets of many of the corporations that are in our marketing space.  If we do not have a coherent private / public sector tourism business plan, we widen the gap that already exists.  Of course there will be difficult issues to be resolved across the divide but we cannot allow these divisions to remain.  They must be bridged even if they have to be bridged at the highest level of our country.

Prime Minister, you will have heard by now that we will be following in your footsteps when we open the second Four Seasons Resort in our region this coming October on the Island of Exuma in The Bahamas.  We have learned the lesson that the fastest route to placing our properties on the world’s tourism map is to go after the world’s best brand names.  As much as we would wish to believe that we have the creative brilliance and the marketing resources to tell the world our message, the fastest way to educate the world is to take prospective consumers from the known to the unknown.  We bring more visibility to our islands through these global brands and we can thereafter take people to the lesser known properties in our countries.

That is why, Prime Minister, we also applaud your efforts with the Marriott here. We have noticed that it is already bringing more airline attention to St Kitts and more attention from prospective corporate groups and more attention to St Kitts & Nevis in general.

Finally in relation to tourism, let me say that we must continue to find ways to talk to each other across national boundaries throughout our region.  We are developing tourism information management systems in The Bahamas that I am told are second to none in the world.  We have knowledge of our customers, of their likes, desires and dislikes by reference to their geographical origin; by reference to where they stayed; by how long they stayed etc, etc, etc.  I have already agreed with my Minister of Tourism who, as you may know, is also the present Chairman of Caribbean Tourism Organization, that these systems should not be tightly-held secrets within our regional tourism industry.  They will be made available to our sister countries in the region.  We have negotiated terms for internet booking engines.  If and when they are adopted by other countries in our region, economies of scale will be achieved to our mutual benefit.  

Prime Minister, ladies and gentleman, I am one of those Caribbean men who firmly believes that as we grow the individual tourism industries of our respective countries, we accelerate the reputation of the entire Caribbean as a place for the world to visit. We should not be about stealing business from our neighbour next door; we should be about growing our collective share of the global tourism market.  We do that fastest and we do that best by sharing our knowledge.

The final subject that I should like to briefly address tonight is to challenge you to preserve your territorial integrity. Protect and cherish, promote and preserve your wholeness as the independent sovereign nation of St.Kitts & Nevis.

Like The Bahamas, your nation does not rest on a single, unbroken mass of land.  Rather, like us, you are splintered into different parts.  But together these different parts are what make you whole. So it is with us as well.  Just as we ourselves experienced at the time of our Independence 30 years ago when there was a tendency by some to go their separate way, it is no secret that you have long experienced a similar tension within your own territorial borders as a nation.  

But I am convinced that there is a common destiny that binds the different territories that together constitute your nation. And I believe with all my heart that you are called by history to preserve that destiny.  Therein lies your identity no less than your purpose.  

I implore you then to stand as a beacon of the unity that is possible amidst diversity. I beseech you to recognize that the differences that subsist within your marriage are no reason for divorce. And I come to tell you tonight that you are a stronger nation if you march forward into the future with all your limbs attached.

I implore you then : Stay united! Stay together! Stay strong!

May Almighty God impress His infinite wisdom upon your counsels and may He shine perpetual light upon the path that lies before the great nation of St.Kitts & Nevis and its proud and wonderful people….united! …united!….. always and forever!

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