Dear Editor,

It wouldn't take a political scientist from Havard University to see that the Free National Movement (FNM) is a deeply fractured party. FNMs are their own worst enemies.

FNM Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis (Killarney), in my view, is perhaps the most highly scrutinized and overly criticized politician in The Bahamas today. Some 18 months after succeeding Hubert Ingraham as leader of the official opposition party, Minnis continues to be mercilessly critiqued by a bevy of critics calling themselves staunch FNMs. It has gotten to the point where some of these people are clamoring for a convention in order for Minnis to be replaced.

To some of them it doesn't really matter who replaces Minnis, just as long as he heads toward the exit door. These pseudo-FNMs are doing the Progressive Liberal Party's (PLP) campaign work. At the rate they are going, by the time 2017 rolls around there will be nothing left for the PLP and its campaign generals to do when it comes to telling the Bahamian people why they shouldn't vote for Minnis and the FNM.

These people never tire of bludgeoning the FNM leader. What is important to these people is to discredit Minnis and to make him look like a bumbling incompetent leader who cannot do anything right. Everything he does or says, no matter how infinitesimal, is fair game. And if that means destroying the party they claim to love and cherish, then so be it. I don't think these people really want the FNM to win the 2017 general election with Minnis at the helm. They would rather see the PLP and Prime Minister Perry Christie remain in the seat of authority.

Say what you will about PLPs, they support their leader despite his glaring leadership shortcomings. While some PLPs may not necessarily agree with Christie, or even want him as their leader, come election time, however, they will put aside their petty differences and support their leader and party, even if it doesn't make a bit of sense to do so.

Not so with these FNM impostors, however. Their irrational quest to destroy Minnis will have a domino effect on the opposition party. If these people succeed in their smear campaign, the FNM party will be as relevant as activist Rodney Moncur's defunct Workers Party in 2017. Why would any political fence-sitter support the FNM when so-called FNMs are always bashing their leader?

Minnis must remain focused and ignore these so-called FNMs who are attempting to tear him down. He must continue to work to rebuild the FNM and to map out policies that will make his political platform more attractive to the electorate in 2017. Bona fide FNMs must rally behind their beleaguered leader with the view of assisting him to become a more effective and seasoned leader and politician. To be sure, Minnis is still a ways away from being in the leadership league of Ingraham. But that is to be expected at this juncture in his still relatively young political career.

Many sincere FNMs want to see Minnis succeed. Tearing him down won't serve any meaningful purpose, other than to bolster the PLP.

- Kevin Evans

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian