16th July 2005

I am delighted and honoured to be back with you in Exuma for the second time within a week.  Last week, I had the honour of hosting the Chinese Ambassador and his wife to Exuma and he had a wonderful time.   The Ambassador wrote me a letter.  I received it today. In it he asks me to convey to the Representative Anthony Moss and to the Administrator Everett Hart his appreciation for the many kindnesses showed to him while he and his wife were in Exuma.  He offered up the observation that Exuma has a bright future from all that he has seen here.

He would have no argument from me or from the Government.  It is clear that the island is developing, and developing rapidly.  The question is how is that growth to be managed to able to take advantage of all of the opportunities that it presents?  There are challenges but more importantly opportunities.   Migration provides one of the greatest challenges, and by that I mean the inward movement of people both legal and illegal into this small community and how that affects and will affect the community.  There is no sense saying that we have to slow down the changes in order to better manage the changes.  One really has to accept that change comes when it comes and at the pace that it comes.  We have simply to be ready to manage what those changes will bring.  I am sure it is a subject that takes up much of the time of the citizenry here.  I am sure that the re-establishment of a Chamber of Commerce is a response to the changes that have been wrought within the last five years.

Let me say congratulations to the officers of the Chamber of Commerce here, and wish them well in their endeavours.  I wish also to bring greetings from the Right Honourable Prime Minister Perry Christie who was hoping to be able to come here today but is unavoidably unable to be here.  Please be assured that he sends his warmest greetings and has asked me to extend warmest congratulations to all the officers and members of the Chamber, wishing them every success.

My history with Exuma is a relatively recent one although for many it is really a life time ago.  I first came here at the feet of Sir Lynden Pindling in 1977 shortly after taking charge of the Public Affairs unit of the Broadcasting Corporation. The representatives for the area at the time were two Ministers of the Government, Livingstone Coakley and George Smith.  Both are no longer in the House of Assembly, and you have a new leader today in Anthony Moss.  In those days, Mr. Moss was a youngster.

When I came first to Exuma, the men who were the civic leaders were men like the father of the representative the late L. E. Moss, and I remember the Rev. E.J. Rolle.  Of those local leaders that I remember, John Marshall, Sam Gray and Charles Clarke, Kermit Rolle all feature prominently in my memory.  Kermit Rolle and Sam Gray of that group are the only ones who are still alive. I also remember Danny Major who ran BEC at the time and he is still alive but I think retired.  I believe he was the organist at the Roman Catholic Church. I found that out because at another time, I traveled here with Monsignor Preston Moss who used to administer holy-communion at St. Theresa’s in Georgetown.

Today, as I was taken out on the water for the interment of the ashes of a constituent, the boat was piloted by Anthony Balfour who reminded me that in those days when I first came here, Keith Cartwright used to be the Anglican priest and he was one of the young men who were shepherded at the rectory.  Today he is a grown man with his own business, and hoping to make his place in the community.  In those early days, John Marshall and Sam Gray were the big businessmen, and at one time Sam Gray’s was the only establishment from which you could get rental cars.  Today, there are many, and all headed by young men and women.

It is a truism that the only thing that is constant in life is change.  I reminded the audience at the ecumenical service last week of the lines from Shakespeare’s As You Like It.  All the world’s stage, and all men merely players on it.  Each man in his life plays many parts.  They have their exits and their entrances.  When I became a Minister of the Government, the brutality of our system came home to me.  I was an Opposition provocateur one day, Minister of the Government the next day.  There was no time to think, no excuses, because people want you to have an answer for their problems.  You are it.

I remember telling the people of Fox Hill as I went to say thanks that I recall the biblical expression that in the moment in the twinkling of an eye, we shall all be changed.

My political involvement in Exuma is also a story of many parts.  I thought as I sat at breakfast at the Peace and Plenty this morning, how just before 1992, I sat with the former Governor General Sir Orville Turnquest a few nights before the general election in 1992 and he looked into Elizabeth Harbour as we ate dinner and went on to say that he thought that he would finally achieve his life’s dream to become a Minister of the Government.  Ironically, it was almost in that same spot that ten years later the leader of my party asked me to fly to Exuma to speak with your now representative about his running for the House of Assembly.

What is the point of all of this story telling?  Well to explain I need to tell another story.  I had the good fortune as a lecturer at the College of the Bahamas to meet some bright students in the Politics and Government class that I worked in for one semester.  In that class amongst others were Raynard Rigby, the now Chairman of the PLP, and Michael Halkitas, the now Parliamentary Secretary for Finance, and Tyrone Fitzgerald, an attorney with his own firm.  All of them are successes in their own right. When I worked at the Broadcasting Corporation, Obie Wilchcombe was an anxious but determined and talented sports writer and broadcaster, who I thought ought to be brought to Nassau which I did when I was Director of News and Public Affairs, introduced him to politics and you know the rest of the story.

Now, I could  stand still and say that these have always been boys to me, but what entitles me not to respect their views and their  determination to succeed and to imprint upon this country their own vision upon The Bahamas.  The future is as much theirs as it is mine, and they were all trained to make their contribution with the finest education that any generation of Bahamians could get.   So my point is that the now generation of leaders must be allowed to get on with their work.

Twenty five years ago, there were some glory days in one sense in Exuma but today these are bigger and better glory days, and the now leadership of Exuma must be trained and encouraged to do their part to embrace it.  You who take over the Chamber of Commerce tonight are part of that now leadership.  It is the young with the not so young; both must work together, none undermining the other.  It is now your time to help Exuma fulfill the dreams of the generations of all of those men and women who went before us.  We must build on their vision.  And those of who have the experience must not try to pull down those who now have their time on the stage.  It is the duty of the past leaders to help, to continue to nurture and to encourage, but the now leaders of Exuma must be allowed to make their own mistakes and forge their own way.

In one sense we have to let go of the past.  In another sense we must remember it and pay tribute to it, but we cannot dwell in the past.  We must embrace the future.

At the beginning of this address, I spoke about managing the effects of migration in Exuma both legal and illegal.  It is estimated that the population of Great Exuma may have increased by 1500 since the year 2002.  That is a significant increase in mature persons with substantial income and earning power.  They will therefore not be an inert group.  They will have new choices and bring a culture and way of life that is different from the traditional Exuma way of life.  The challenge is how to integrate these new people in the society, absorbing from them the best, and sharing your own cultural and economic values with them and they with you.

One of the current issues that the Government is interested in is making sure that the traditional Exumian is able to share in the economic well being and windfall of Exuma.  No doubt there is a great deal of discussion over just how the native Exumian can share and benefit in the success, and not just by being workers in the economy.

The new growth will demand better service in restaurants and other points of the distribution of goods and services.  New banks are coming to cope with the increasing demands and investment opportunities.

At Emerald Bay which has been the catalyst for much of the growth, one of those observations made is that there is a need for a greater variety of social activities on the island so that guests will feel that once they had a good time during the day, that there is some variety of other things to do at night.  The need for a wider variety of social activities must also apply to the local population as well. There must be movie houses, nightspots, theatres and social clubs. There must be opportunity in that.

A key factor then will be access to capital, and we are all committed to expanding the opportunities for access to capital.  The Bank of The Bahamas will provide that.  The Office of the Prime Minister headed by Danny Strachan should aid that effort.  The Bahamas Development Bank has already made and will continue to make substantial investments in the economy of Exuma.

But no matter what we do unless there is an entrepreneurial class, that is willing to commit their own resources and talents to the success of Exuma, capital will go to waste and the opportunities will be lost to the natives of Exuma.  It seems to me that the Chamber must be pivotal is that lobbying effort for access to capital and the training and encouragement of entrepreneurs.

The legal migration is one thing but with the legal migration will come illegal migration.  The Bahamas is a magnet for illegal migration because of the opportunities for the labouring classes to get work, and work that Bahamians are generally unwilling at the offered price to do. You all know that the debate about illegal migration is quite intense in The Bahamas at this time.  But if we are seeking solutions to this, let us not descend in the useless politics of rowing; we need to be serious about seeking to solve the problem.
 
I don’t know if your Chief Councilor Rev. Franklin McKenzie remembers this but he was talking to me once about the changes that had to be made in the church to be able to attract the new people who have come into Exuma. He made the point that in order for the church to grow, it could not just confine itself to what it was doing before.  If it wanted to attract the new members with their different views and experiences, then the church itself had to fashion its methods and practices in order to keep the old but to attract the new.

It seems to me that this is a healthy approach and is to be commended across the board.

I would like to say something also about the infrastructural need of Great Exuma.  Suffice it to say that   the message is loud and clear in Nassau about the need for water to be taken to Little Exuma, and to Rolleville.  The efforts are being made by the Minister of Works to secure funding for these operations.  The same can be said for the primary school that has long been promised for Georgetown.  You have the assurance that your representatives both Parliamentary and local have been pushing the government on these issues.   The Minister of Works just last week authorized the Rev. Franklin McKenzie to begin working on the new temporary structures at the Exuma International Airport.   Infrastructural investment is also a key factor in the development, the second key factor along with the management of migration.

So the old has passed away.   All things are made new, and change is with us and more is coming.  This government is not afraid, nor apologetic about using political power to bring about change and to foster change.  The unfortunate thing in my view about the public debate is that many in the non government advocacy sector seem to want politicians to apologize for being politicians and for exercising political power.  There is no need for any such apology.  Political power is good and just like any other power can be used for good or for evil, but when it is used for good it must be used and must be used without hesitation, with deftness and imagination for the good of people. That is my view.
 
I want to thank you all for inviting me there today.  I have a special responsibility and love for Exuma and I know that you will all do well as you embrace the future.