Dear Editor,
On March 22 during the Mid-Year Budget Debate in Parliament, Prime Minister Perry Christie gave FNM Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis a condescending tongue lashing. Christie joked to Minnis that he could give him some of his supporters from Mason's Addition, who would gladly back him for a paltry fee of $30 apiece.
The $30 notion was probably borrowed from the biblical account of Judas Iscariot's betrayal of Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. In any event, the joke was condescending not only towards the beleaguered FNM leader, but also to the people of Mason's Addition -- many of whom are of the lower economic strata.
To suggest that these Bahamians would engage in political prostitution was demeaning. Christie also claimed during his severe scolding of Minnis that he was one of he first to warn the FNM leader of a plot hatched by several FNM MPs to meet with the governor general with the aim of removing him as the opposition leader in the House of Assembly.
He also gave a veiled threat about cutting off Minnis from his support base, which is quite possible via political boundary cuts. Throughout the tongue lashing, Minnis remained hushed.
He didn't even bothered to repudiate anything Christie confidently said. This deeply troubled me as an FNM.
If there is anything I have gleaned from the mid-year budget debate, it is that the FNM Parliamentary caucus is severely outmatched by Christie and his PLP MPs. With the exception of Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner and to a limited degree, Fort Charlotte MP Dr. Andre Rollins, who is an FNM Johnny-come-lately, the FNM has no one who can go head to head with PLP heavyweights such as Christie, Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell, Bain and Grants Town MP Dr. Bernard Nottage, Marathon MP Jerome Fitzgerald, West Grand Bahama MP Obie Wilchcombe, Golden Gates MP Shane Gibson, to name a few.
FNM MPs such as Richard Lightbourn, Hubert Chipman. Theo Neily and Edison Key have underwhelmed.
The FNM party's performance in the Mid-Year Budget Debate embarrassed me. I have been an FNM since 1987. I love this party. I was a huge fan of Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield and Sir Kendal G.L. Isaacs.
Look, I am not writing to criticize Minnis and the principals of the FNM. Writers such as Front Porch Simon, National Review columnists, The Tribune Editor Eileen Carron and former FNM candidate Michael Scott have done a good job of doing that.
I have defended Minnis in this forum ad nauseam over the past three plus years, even when it did not make an ounce of sense to the anti-Minnis faction.
But due to the fact that many FNMs are hellbent on not coalescing behind Minnis as leader, I don't see how the FNM will be able to muster up a victory in the 2017 general election. Based on its current trajectory, I can see the FNM winning about eight seats.
The FNM is way too fractured and its PR machinery is in shambles.
I love Minnis to death. I think he is an outstanding MP. His tenure as FNM leader has not ignited the FNM base.
I think it's time for former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and other FNM old guards such as Zhivargo Laing, Tommy and Orville Turnquest, Brent Symonette, Janet Bostwick, Lynn Holowesko, Larry Cartwright, Robert Sweeting and Desmond Bannister to return to active, front-line politics in order to save the FNM from its current hemorrhaging.
The FNM must be restored to its golden image. It has to once again be seen as a viable alternative to the governing PLP.
Christie would not have gotten away with scolding any FNM MP in the manner he did to Minnis had Ingraham been present in the House as an MP. It would have ever happened. Christie's arrogant posture suggests that he is not afraid of the FNM and its leadership team and is overconfident that he will easily defeat Minnis and Co. next year.
The political pendulum should have been swinging in the direction of the FNM.
Based on all that has transpired over the past three years, the FNM should have been poised to win in landslide fashion next year. But such is not the case. Clearly something is wrong with the FNM. I can no longer bury my head in the sand and pretend that the party I love is in tip top shape. I love this party too much to see it hobble towards an upcoming election.
The FNM is too vulnerable. It is too anemic. I am of the view that no PLP MP can go head to head in a debate with Ingraham, Not even Christie. The FNM sorely misses Ingraham's gigantic presence.
The party is in dire straits. Its base is uninspired. The party desperately needs Ingraham and the senior FNMs mentioned above to return to active politics.
The Bahamas is pleading for the FNM to get back to what it used to be in order to restore the country to the greatness it enjoyed during the prosperous 1990s. Ingraham has got to reconsider his pledge not to return to front-line politics. Time is of the essence. The FNM old guards have got to return.
- Kevin Evans
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