Leader of the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) Branville McCartney said after weeks of selling the country false hope about the future of Baha Mar, Prime Minister Perry Christie has finally revealed that “things have fallen apart concerning the resort.”
McCartney said based on the contents of many media reports, the government’s most recent attempts to broker a consensual agreement between Baha Mar’s stakeholders has failed miserably and now, weeks after the company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in Delaware, “things went completely downhill.”
“On Thursday night, for the first time since the company began experiencing difficulties, Mr. Christie through a national address sought to lay out the ‘facts’ concerning Baha Mar for the public, this despite numerous calls from the Democratic National Alliance and others for him to be transparent about the issues plaguing the development,” he said.
“In his address, Mr. Christie seemed to lay the blame for failed talks completely at the feet of Baha Mar’s CEO who, according to the PM, while asking for more than a half million dollars to complete the project, refused to drop his Chapter 11 filing, or his UK lawsuit against the lead contractor, a move which Mr. Christie called unacceptable. In media reports from Friday however, Baha Mar executives suggested that the government abandoned its role as mediator in the matter in order to pursue its own legal recourse.”
Mr. McCartney said the company further accused the government of significantly jeopardizing the future of the resort and nationalizing the assets of a private investor and according to him, these comments issued via a company statement paint a vastly different picture than the one presented by this government, which since the beginning, touted the need for good faith negotiations and pledged its commitment to ensuring that those talks succeeded.
“In the face of those failed talks however, who are Bahamians to trust,” he asked.
“The conflicting reports from both the government and the developer have done little to restore public confidence and faith in the viability of the project. The talks which had been meant to provide Baha Mar’s employees and the wider public with a sense of closure regarding stakeholders’ plans for the future have raised even more questions and destroyed the credibility of all involved.
“Most notably though, the disintegration of those talks is a scathing indictment on this administration and in particular, Prime Minister Perry Christie from the beginning, has been intimately involved in the process.”
The DNA leader said it appears however, that the prime minister was so desperate to use this opening of the mega resort property as the final feather in the cap of his political legacy that he simply chose to ignore the early warning signs.
“His account of the negotiations suggests ignorance about the true nature of the individual to whom he made a billion dollar commitment on behalf of the Bahamian people,” he said.
“One can only wonder exactly how much research went into choosing Izmirlian as a suitable investor for our country. The government’s handling of this obvious national crisis is reminiscent of the way this Christie administration has handled all of the country’s major national concerns since coming to office, with the prime minister taking his usual reactionary position.”
Mr. McCartney also blamed the nation’s chief for missing out a very important piece of the puzzle.
“Also missing from the prime minister was any mention of the government’s plans to address the country’s wounded international reputation or the economic impact,” he said.
“As would be expected, the breakdown of negotiations in China will undoubtedly have far reaching and long-term economic implications for this government’s plans for projected economic growth and will send thousands more Bahamians to the unemployment line.”
