Dear Editor,

In the weeks following the referendum loss for the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration under the leadership of Prime Minister Perry Gladstone Christie, calls have been mounting for Christie to step down as prime minister and leader of the PLP. Interestingly, it seems as if some PLPs have joined the chorus of those calling on the prime minister to leave frontline politics so that the younger generation of PLPs can assume the leadership role of the governing party and indeed the nation.
Not surprisingly, there have also been Free National Movement (FNM) supporters calling on Christie to exit the political stage. Christie is 69 and will be about 73 when the next general election is held in 2017. He was appointed to the senate in 1975 and became a member of Parliament in 1977 for the Farm Road/Centreville constituency - a constituency he has won eight consecutive times. He has now been an MP for an astounding 35 years and has been in frontline politics for nearly four decades.
Perhaps it is safe to say that Christie is one of the longest serving MPs in the history of our Parliamentary system and one of the longest serving active frontline politicians in the Western Hemisphere. For what it's worth, he is by far one of the most resilient politicians that this nation has ever produced. Despite being fired from the Pindling Cabinet in 1984, and despite being virtually kicked out of the PLP for speaking out against alleged wrongdoing by his party, he was able to win his seat in 1987 against a PLP candidate as an independent.
Of course, credit must also be given to the FNM for not running a candidate in that constituency. Had the FNM done so, history would have undoubtedly been different for Christie and for The Bahamas. For one thing, he probably would not have been invited back into the PLP and subsequently the Cabinet in 1990 by Sir Lynden Pindling. As a seatless politician he would have been of very little value to the leadership of the PLP, which at that time was beginning to realize that most Bahamians were becoming unbearably exhausted with the then government, which had been in power for over two decades.
Anyway, him being within the fold of the PLP allowed Sir Lynden to groom him for the leadership role he would eventually assume after Sir Lynden's retirement from frontline politics in 1997. Christie has led the PLP for nearly 16 years and has led that party to two general election victories. He is the second longest serving PLP leader, after Sir Lynden. With The Bahamas facing a myriad of challenges, such as high joblessness, an unacceptably high crime rate, a budget deficit over half-a-billion dollars and a national debt pegged at nearly $5 billion, a failing education system that continues to churn out graduates who can barely read, write, figure and comprehend; a crumbling infrastructure in the utterly neglected Family Islands; a grossly overstaffed and underperforming civil service which consumes well over 60 percent of the government's annual revenue; government corporations such as Bahamasair, the Bahamas Electricity Corporation, Water and Sewerage Corporation and the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas, which continue to leach off the treasury and unreasonable government unions which continue to agitate for more money and more benefits.
The weight of the world is clearly on Christie's shoulders. Christie is now finding out that it is lonely at the top. But he wanted the prime minister's job, and now it is his. He must now deliver. The Bahamian people gave him an overwhelming mandate by giving him 30 of the 38 seats in the House of Assembly. By giving Christie such a huge vote of confidence, the Bahamian people spoke in no uncertain terms that they wanted nothing to do with the FNM. Now some nine months into his current term as prime minister, some PLPs and FNMs are now calling for Christie's head. Should Christie resign as prime minister? My answer to that question is no.
The Bahamian people made their own bed on May 7, 2012 by voting for the PLP and for Christie, so they must lie in it. They knew the kind of leadership Christie brought to the table, because he had already served as prime minister between 2002 and 2007. Bahamians had a resume on Christie. Him stepping down now will make very little difference on the myriad of problems the nation is facing and it would be of no benefit to the FNM. If Christie resigns as prime minister, it goes without saying that he would also resign from the House of Assembly. A by-election would then be held, and we can be absolutely certain that a PLP candidate would win that seat by at least 800 votes. And even if the FNM wins, the PLP would still have an overwhelming majority of the seats in Parliament. The people spoke loud and clear last year that they wanted Christie as their leader, so why now all the chatter for his resignation after nine months?
I say let him remain as prime minister. Bahamians knew exactly what they were doing when they voted PLP. When you vote for a party, you are saying that you want that party's leader to be prime minister. While I don't support Christie's political organization, I do support him as the leader of the nation. What goes on within the PLP is of very little interest to me. The country at this time needs stability at the leadership helm. Him leaving now would only be another major distraction at a time when the nation desperately need focused leadership.

- Kevin Evans

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