PM Defends Involvement Of Church Leaders In Governance:

By Macushla N. Pinder -
Nassau, Bahamas:

Responding to comments made on Saturday by FNM Leader Hubert Ingraham, Prime Minister Perry Christie on Monday again defended his style of governance, which involves the Church playing a leading role.

Mr. Christie said The Bahamas has reached a stage in its development where he cannot hesitate to bring together all parties that may be able to resolve some of the challenges in the country.

"Unlike maybe even those who preceded me in office, I am a great believer in having a sort of transparency in an industrial dispute and using myself not as the person who would negotiate the details of a transaction, but who would ensure the integrity of the process – that is that the process is moving forward towards a just conclusion," Mr. Christie told reporters.

"That is the role I have played…that is my style of governance."

But it is that approach to governing that the opposition continues to criticize, while saying the government continues to take too long to make key decisions.

At a rally in New Providence on Saturday, Mr. Ingraham accused the Christie Administration of stumbling from one crisis to another.

He said the people elected "them" to govern, not a bishop of the church. Mr. Ingraham was referring to Mount Tabor Full Gospel Baptist Bishop Neil Ellis who has been working to resolve a number of industrial disputes, including the ongoing one involving the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEWU).

The BEWU claims its members are owed $9 million in back pay. However, the government maintains that the BEC workers are not entitled to anything legally.

Bishop Ellis has however proposed that 920 BEWU members be paid some $1.234 in back pay.

The issue remains before the Industrial Tribunal.

"It is not a question of substituting Bishop Ellis for myself, but adding Bishop Ellis to the governance of the country, adding the Christian community to the governance of the country and telling them – like I recently told the Pentecostal ministers – that it is important that they get to understand the central issues of this country and have a voice in them," Mr. Christie said.

"They would have a greater reach than I would. FNMs might not want to listen to me; they would listen to you (religious leaders) on the goodness of a particular policy and the need for you to participate in the delivery of whatever we’re trying to do.

Speaking on a recent morning talk show, Bishop Ellis also commented on the criticism.

At the time, he admitted that the church is usually the first institution to condemn and criticize, but he said the country cannot continue to kill what God is using.

"When you do the work of the Kingdom, the Bible admonishes you that persecution comes and so we take our persecution. We take our licks gracefully," he said.

"But let it be known that if we are real church leaders, real Christians and real people in the body of Christ, we don’t go in a corner because we are being persecuted and we don’t go under in a bush. We take our licks and we keep doing what God has assigned for us to do. There is a lot of work to do in The Bahamas. I believe this is a tremendous chance and I believe God has anointed me to do an assignment and I am focused and ready to do it."

The BEWU dispute is not the only one that religious leaders and labour officials have had to deal with.

There have also been fallouts between Bahamasair’s management and its line staff union as well as the Bahamas Union of Teachers and the government earlier this year.

Mr. Christie said as Bahamians become more outspoken and conscious of what their rights are - there will likely be more industrial tension.

23 August 2006

bahamian politics