Today the FNM begins its convention - the one that will decide who will lead it into the next general election.
High drama preceded this event and there may be more high drama during it. The leadership race has been fierce and, at times, nasty. Moreover, it has even been imaginative at times.
According to creative political fabricators, this writer is on his way back to politics, will be the FNM's next candidate for Lucaya and was to enter the former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham's name into nomination for leader of the FNM at this convention. Between pursuing all my business travel and dealings and working on several book projects, my family and I have had quite a chuckle about how busy I have managed to be politically, according to these fiction writers. We in The Bahamas can surely start a new industry in writing tall tales.
Anyways, it might well be true that the FNM has had a contentious and often times unflattering fight for leadership moving toward its convention. It may well be that it will have a rambunctious time during the convention. However, it can ill afford being deeply divided following the convention. With Dr. Hubert Minnis or Loretta Butler-Turner as leader, the next election will be no cake walk. With either as leader and a continuing rift between them and/or their supporters, they surely will not win. Hubert Ingraham was right about this. Voters will punish the party for daring to come to them asking for support when they cannot support each other.
Unity following the convention will be a mission in and of itself. The wounds of the fight for leadership are deep and gaping. Too many negative things have been said in public and behind the scenes. It is not constructive criticism about anyone's ability or performance that is an issue, for criticism in politics and public life is par for the course. It is personal insults to people's dignity; the threatening to politically disembowel opponents; even the cussing of adversaries for their support of others. Such nonsense has been hurtful to many people and will not go away by singing "Kumbaya" on Friday night.
Unity must be an acknowledgement of offenses, request for forgiveness, repentance from wrong-doing, agreement on the common vision and a commitment to work together doggedly to achieve the mission. Of course, there will have to be discussions with the public, for it will want to know how the FNM factions got over their distrust, concerns and failed confidence. This will be no easy task but honest people can achieve things often impossible for the crafty.
Intending no disrespect to Butler-Turner, I believe that Minnis will emerge leader of the FNM following the convention elections on Friday. It seems that he has done the work, good or bad, necessary to hold his post. I could be wrong, but this is my view. If I am right, Butler-Turner will have nothing of which to be ashamed; in fact she ought to be proud. She has come as close as any woman in the history of The Bahamas to earn the top post in the FNM party and in our land. In democracies you offer and people decide. Sometimes their decision is less about you than it is about them, the times and tactics of others. I do not presume to tell her what to do should she not succeed, saving this, "To thine own self be true."
As for the good doctor, if he succeeds and remains as he was before he went into the convention his leadership will continue to be weak and in doubt. Victory in convention may confirm preference of delegates but will not be proof of ability. There remain deep concerns that the PLP's support of Minnis (as was seen by Leslie Miller and others, whose perplexing praise of him on numerous occasions was strange to say the least) is entirely about its view that Minnis gives them the best chance of succeeding in the next election, even in the face of the many failures that they have had in government to date.
Furthermore, there remain deep concern that Minnis' poor judgement (evidenced by a number of appointments, recruitments, choice of counsellors and budget performance, among other things) may not prevent him from winning the next election, but may prevent him from succeeding in government. His insecurity might not prevent him from convincing voters to choose him but will certainly cause his colleagues in government to have a difficult time cooperating with him. His inarticulate and uncharismatic ways may not prevent him from garnering a crowd of party faithful for rallies preceding an election victory but will cause Bahamians, at large, to be terribly concerned about his representation of them at home and abroad.
Win or lose, Minnis has glaring deficits and if he does not correct them victory during the next election will be difficult; and governing following the election, if he wins, will be even more so. He can surround himself with as many sycophants as he wishes and as many ego-boosters as he pleases. None of it will hide the fact that The Bahamas needs a true and capable leader. Our nation needs a thinker, communicator, unifier and diplomat who is comfortable in his own skin, has a sense of his own self, has a core that is anchored and problem-solving skills equal to the challenges of our time. It does not need the pre-convention Hubert Minnis. It needs a version of himself that is far better. It will not be long before we find out which will emerge. Should Butler-Turner emerge leader, she too will have to be that which The Bahamas needs. Again, we shall soon find out and the FNM and our nation will be the better or worse off for it.

o Zhivargo Laing is a Bahamian economic consultant and former Cabinet minister who represented the Marco City constituency in the House of Assembly.

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