ANDREW ALLEN REMINDS US OF BAD FNM GOVERNANCE

This letter first appeared in the Nassau Guardian Thursday 2 April 2026:

For those with short memories, the last time we followed the dictates of the deeply biased local media and elected the Free National Movement to office, the consequences proved even worse than those of us who knew better could have imagined.

Predictably, the party that has opposed every positive step in our country’s development since the early 1970s left us in an unenviable state.

Taxes on the poor were increased, minimum wage saw no rise and private interests prospered at the expense of Bahamians in areas ranging from healthcare (where the emphasis switched from free, universal access to “user fees”) to criminal justice (where residents of Lyford Cay got exemptions from COVID rules to bury their pets, while residents of Bain Town got arrested for visiting outdoor water pumps).

In all of the positive senses, we are where we are as a country because of progressive policies pursued primarily by Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administrations. These policies created our middle class and our social safety net and made us easily the most successful majority-Black independent country in history.

On the other hand, most of our major blunders and self-inflicted harm (like rolling back Bahamianization and selling off public assets) have flowed from the instincts and policies of the party that still pushes the primitive capitalist/colonialist ideology that flourished here up to 1967.

Once again, under a responsible PLP government, we are seeing advances in almost every area that matters to the mass of Bahamians (though obviously not to the editorialized media).

Energy and public infrastructure are being dramatically improved and geographically spread throughout the islands; new investments are being made in skills development for young people (like BPATH and the Opportunity Hub) and significant investment is again being made in affordable housing (an area almost totally neglected by every Free National Movement (FNM) administration to date).

It would be the height of stupidity for us to turn back at this point. But dumber things have happened.

— Andrew Allen