We voted for change, so what happened?

 If the public shouted “No” to the PLP, did it shout “Yes” to the OBA?

Given the slim overall national vote majority and the final 19 – 17 split, just one off an even-steven finish; the public didn’t exactly consign the PLP to hell nor did it elevate the OBA to Heaven.

Instead, through the sometimes chaotic order of the democratic system, the public dumped the PLP and got the OBA.

In getting the OBA, Bermuda voters showed that they had ‘growed up’ inasmuch as they had now kicked two political parties out of office and had selected — by default — a third governing party.

Having voted for change, came the realization that “plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.” In plain Bermudian: “Things may change, but they stay the same.”  

Leading up to the December election, the deepest concern was the state of the economy and job prospects. Die-hard PLP supporters were deeply engaged in all kinds of mental and political gymnastics that sought to turn $1,469,000,000 of Debt into investment; and nine years of unwise overspending into nine years of wise financial management.

PLP gymnastics

Those PLP gymnastics failed — but only just failed.

The OBA floated into power with Nandi Davis bringing it home by just four votes. Those four votes for Nandi meant the difference between 18 – 18 and 19 – 17.

On 18th December 2012, the OBA took over Government. By the end of January 2013, just 45 days out, the OBA owned the Government and all of its nine-year long build-up of problems, simple messes, and god-awful messes.

By 31st January 2013, the OBA owned the Debt and every other consequence of nine years of mismanagement. The biggest thing that the OBA took over was a Civil Service that, over the previous nine years had begun to build, and had then consolidated a reputation for questionable decision-making and advice giving; and for using bad data as the base for some decision-making processes.

Anyone who looks at the nine-year build-up of Debt and the steadily widening gap between Revenue and Spending, will instantly recognize that whoever was responsible for giving financial advice must have been EITHER not giving good advice at all; OR that good advice was being given but was being ignored.

The incoming OBA also took over the same Civil Service team of managers that had been in place over the entire nine-years. The minor changes — Financial Secretary moving up to Cabinet Secretary and the Assistant Financial Secretary moving up to Financial Secretary — were not really changes. It was the same minds and faces, but with each face just one chair further along in a game of Civil Service ‘musical chairs’.

This means that from 18th December 2012, the OBA were getting the same quality of advice that had been tendered between April 2004 and December 2012.

Same team? Same bad data? Same bad policy likely to emerge. The change of political party should have made a difference. But two events showed that this was not so.

Fahy delivered

New boy Cabinet Minister Mike Fahy chucked out Term Limits and got a strong negative reaction. But the country had voted for change and Fahy had delivered. For a time he was on the defensive, but eventually his position was proven right and he was largely vindicated.

New boy Finance Minister Bob Richards made a good decision by recognizing that Government had to make realistic estimates of Revenue. In his first OBA Budget, he projected revenue of just $871.2 million.

Then, facing the mandarins in the Ministry of Finance, new boy Bob surrendered to the past and agreed with a plan to overspend by $331,000,000 in his first budget year. Bob did not take the same bold step as his more forthright counterpart.

Bob did not tell the voting public what he had found ‘under the hood’. He did not, and still has not, come forward with a clear and believable and factually supported explanation of what he sees, what the immediate future holds for all us lot out here, and what hard decisions lie ahead.  

Now, after that December change, many of the Voters who voted for change still see “la meme” — the same.

And the Voters wonder? “What happened?”