The Free National Movement (FNM) is doing an exceptional job, according to Member of Parliament for Pinewood Reuben Rahming, who said as much when he appeared as a guest on JCN’s Jones and Co. yesterday.
However, Mr. Rahming also stated that unreasonable expectations were created in the minds of Bahamians.
Responding to Jones and Co. host Wendall Jones’ question on how he feels the government has done within its first five months, Mr. Rahming said the quality of governance so far has been good.
“I think that they’re doing very, very exceptional. The thing we need to understand with kinetic energy is that the greatest part and the most greatest risk to your engine is always at start up,” Mr. Rahming said.
“That’s where the oil has been resting and that’s where things begin to move.”
Likening the change in governance and the government to a big ship, Mr. Rahming said much had to be done to understand what needed to be done in the country.
“Remember, we talked about expectations and people don’t expect things. We come in with so much expectations it will hurt us,” Mr. Rahming said.
“We fail to sync into people’s head that the government is a big ship, to turn a ship, it doesn’t have a brake, an emergency brake, it’s how you turn it and how you move it.
“When you jump in the government, you don’t just jump in and we just roll, you have to get familiar with the data. You have to know if to trust the data and then you begin to move forward.”
As for whether the country could be ‘fixed’ within a matter of months, Mr. Rahming stated that no one could master the government in that space of time.
“So, there is a period of assessment. This is the government of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas,” he said.
“Do you really think that anyone can master the government, the problems, accurately within four months? You have to assess, you have to figure out.”
He alluded to when a government changes over it’s only a matter of maintaining while reviewing laws and putting governing into perspective.
“What you are doing is, you’re maintaining,” Mr. Rahming explained.
“Then you have to view the laws and put them into place responsibly. We have a compendium of laws that over that break period from the budget debate that was being prepared. Those things had to be prepared.
“And so again, we create unreasonable expectations among our people in that regard.”
Mr. Rahming, responding to a question as to whether the FNM were not ready to govern from day one, he stated that the government was ready, however, the fact of governing is “knowing and getting hands on” experience.
“That’s a reality, whenever you make a shift, there is a continuance of government, but that is a folly because whenever you are elected, you are given a new mandate,” Mr. Rahming said.
