Dear Editor,

Mr. Editor, please allow me a space in your valuable column to express myself.
In reading your editorial "A PLP in crisis might give Minnis a chance after all", I wondered what it is about these two gentlemen that you don't like. From reading your editorials on a daily basis I can tell that you are not a fan of Perry Christie because you use him most every day as a punching bag. He can't seem to do any right in your eyes.
Then poor Dr. Hubert Minnis. You just seem to take pleasure in embarrassing the good gentleman. I am sure that Minnis would like to beat Christie the same way Christie beat Hubert Ingraham, with all his political genius. But according to you that can only happen if the PLP remains in a crisis mode until election time, then falls apart at the seams, or else he has no chance. That is embarrassing and punching the good gentleman below the belt, in my opinion. It seems to me that you would like to see the FNM with a different leader; a more gifted orator, one who is a natural politician.
Then comes the big one. Let's not forget the various statements by the prime minister and the national security minister on the new crime plan while Bahamians grieve over their loved ones who were killed during acts of violence. Mr. Editor, why do you and others dramatized crime when one party is in office and refuse to do the same when the other party is in office? For example, when the PLP is in control then the talk is crime at an all-time high. We have never seen it on this level before and I wonder what level you are talking about. What is the different level of 124 murders in a single year and 127 murders in a single year? What do you mean when you say you have not seen it on this level before? What is the difference of people grieving over their loved ones today and people grieving loved ones during the entire five years the other party was in office? Why all the dramatization with people grieving their loved ones? Where have we lived for the past 10 years? Or are we just trying to be mischievous?
Here comes the biggest one of all: With all those failures, we must not forget value-added tax. Mr. Editor, who are the we that you are trying to reach and why must we not forget? You left me in the dark - and in the dark you can think funny things.
Mr. Editor, you mentioned three failures of the FNM during its time in office - the high crime rate, high unemployment and out-of-control spending - that caused it to lose the last election even though you know it was a whole lot more than just those three. But when it comes to the PLP it has all those failures even though it has not yet handed in the results of its five-year contract.
Mr. Editor, the advice you gave Minnis to make the general election a campaign on Christie just might backfire on him. He will have to do some long and hard praying that things remain the same as when he left it or that the PLP remains in crisis. According to you, that is the only way he can win. So here we go again trying to get that cookie jar party elected again. The party that believes only it is supposed to put its hands in the cookie jar. Lo and behold Christie got his hands on that cookie jar and found that the cookie monsters ate all the cookies and left the jar empty. So, Mr. Editor, I hope and pray that when election time comes around you remind us not to forget the empty cookie jar, especially if some cookies are in it.
Mr. Editor, it is time for you to take off the failure lens that you have been wearing for the last couple months and put on your success lens. It can't be that you only major all the time in the negative and minor in the positive. Try hard through your success lens to see if there is anything positive that can come out of the BAMSI project, the carnival, VAT and NHI.
Everything about these projects can't only be negative. See if the Bahamian people can benefit from any of these over the long run or in the not too distant future and let us know. If this fails then maybe we have to move on to something new - like green if you know what I mean. Straight talk!

- Godfrey Gardiner

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