Rick Lowe
According to news reports, here... and here..., 800 to 1,000 people blocked Bay Street earlier this week in protest of the sale of BTC to Cable and Wireless/LIME and it all seems odd.
Some people were saying that rights are being violated by selling BTC. But what rights are being violated?
I would agree that sometimes Mr. Ingraham can be brash, but does that mean he is uncaring , a dictator, or corrupt, or violating rights as alleged? I doubt it.
Using emotive language and trying to rile people up as some are doing could violate rights for sure.
What the protesters are missing, in my not so humble opinion, is BTC is not owned by Bahamians. That's an illusion. A political construct. It is owned by the Bahamas Government.
Over the years successive governments have led us down the garden path by wasting and borrowing beyond the country's ability to sustain it and the sale of BTC might help keep the Bahamian dollar stable and reduce some of the debt that we all have to pay one way or the other.
The Opposition seems shameless on this one, after trying to sell BTC themselves under similar circumstances to a company called Bluewater, now they seem to be trying to incite people.
It's sad.
Another turnabout by the Opposition was the Constitutional Referendum of 2002. Both parties agreed in principle in the House of Assembly, then one campaigned against it, confusing the electorate.
The latest reason not to sell is there are complaints about LIME posted on the Internet.
If you research every company in the world online it seems you will find bad comments.The company I work for survey some of our clients, and last quarter we had an 84% approval rating (our goal is 85%), but the one client that complained, really complained, bringing the results of all the good comments lower. Is that what is happening with CWC? We also find that often it's people with complaints that fill the survey out. Those that had no issues, do not take the time to respond etc.
I wonder what complaints there would be about BTC going around on the Internet?
Could the government have been more open? I think so. Both the FNM or PLP governments could have been more open over the years. Promises of a Freedom of Information Act have been made by each of them. Let's see who passes it into law. That might help with government transparency in the future.
By the way, if I own shares in BTC I'll take any reasonable cash offer from those that say Bahamians own it. In fact I'll accept cash for my shares in BEC and Water & Sewerage too.
There were apparently no dissenenters before it was sold, at least publicly. So why the dissent now? BTC should be sold if for nothing more than to get politics and politicians out of it.
As I said, all this protesting is odd. When you dig a little deeper than what appears to be trumped up emotionalism it seems that unseemly politics is at work?
