With the country beset by lingering challenges and crises on various fronts we are faced with the least capable combination of leaders atop the major political parties since independence.
The country is caught between the chronic incompetence and indecisiveness of Prime Minister Perry Christie and the deep-seated ineptness of Opposition Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis.
In this time of crisis one of the broader challenges is a deficit of leadership: A government failing to deliver on core promises of reducing violent crime, and significant job creation and a litany of other promises, juxtaposed with an opposition stymied in confronting a failed government because of a leader woefully lacking in the political, policy and public communications skills necessary to check an out-of-control administration.
The deficit of leadership and the surplus of ineptness were on dramatic display at the House of Assembly last week with the presentation of the 2013/2014 mid-year budget communication by the prime minister.
During his presentation he concocted one of the more confusing and bizarre statements of his approximately 40 years in public life. As reported in The Tribune last Thursday, he declared of a meeting he attended: "'... I am the minister of finance and I am the prime minister, the minister of finance is not in this meeting, you [sic] are talking to the prime minister.
"'The minister of finance wants to go ahead with VAT as indicated, all of the mechanisms are in place for VAT to move forward, that is the minister of finance, but you are talking to the prime minister and the prime minister will hear you and the prime minister has not joined with the minister of finance.'"
Christie's statement portrayed a leader paralysed by indecision in a labyrinth of confusion attempting to avoid responsibility through what he obviously thought was clever indirection.
Christie has become a laughingstock, yet he doesn't realize the extent to which he is no longer taken seriously.
Opportunity
Speaking to the media following Christie's statement Minnis had a golden opportunity to respond quickly and to roast the prime minister, but Minnis is neither adroit nor agile in political combat.
Instead, inexplicably, out of left field, he criticized the government's radiation detection program, an important matter, but not one central to the matter at hand. It was as if he had slept through Christie's communication, another missed opportunity by the opposition leader who, using a well-known adage, never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Had Christie made such a statement in the British House of Commons he would have been laughed out of the chamber and quickly roasted by the opposition leader. He would have been severely criticized in the press and the political cartoonists would have had a field day with him. Alas!
The introduction of VAT is one of the potentially more complex, divisive and consequential economic developments since internal self-government.
VAT involves a fundamental shift - psychological, cultural, administrative and otherwise - in how we are taxed and how government is financed, especially for a country more used to indirect taxation as well as laxity in paying a range of taxes, often with little or no penalties for non-payment.
The Christie administration's handling of the issue has been a monumental disaster. Christie's statement made matters even worse. In making a final decision on VAT he is in a classic bind of dammed if he does and dammed if he doesn't, much of which has been of his own making.
What has mostly saved Christie is the startling ineptness of Minnis. He is the PLP's not-so-secret weapon to win re-election.
In politics one needs to be feared by one's opponents and enemies, as well as by opportunistic flatterers, remembering always that the opportunists will always have a for rent or lease or sale sign on their politics and conscience.
Sir Lynden Pindling feared Hubert Ingraham. Ingraham and Christie enjoy a healthy respect for each other's political strengths. Christie and the PLP fear FNM Deputy Leader Loretta Butler-Turner. But they do not fear Minnis, and for good reason.
Ludicrous
Minnis recently made a statement that near rivals the ludicrous aforementioned statement Christie made during the mid-year communication.
As reported in The Tribune: "'If the government does not know how to do their job,' he said, 'I'm not going to let The Bahamas sink because of them. You're going to see us bring numerous bills and run the government from the opposition. If the ss PLP wants [sic] to sink, then the ss Bahamas won't go down with it. The FNM will ensure the ss Bahamas has a life vest on and will float while the ss PLP sinks.'"
Are we in high school? Run the government from the opposition? Minnis is barely able to run the opposition.
In another deer in the headlights moment for him, in which he didn't seem to initially appreciate his error, Minnis was lampooned for failing to give prior notice on a bill he wanted to introduce.
Any casual observer of the House understands the need to give such notice. Into his second term in the House, having served in the Cabinet, now nearly two years as opposition leader, Minnis didn't understand a basic parliamentary procedure that even a newly minted MP appreciates. Imagine what a disaster he would prove in attempting to run a Cabinet meeting.
If Minnis is this incompetent as leader of the opposition, imagine him in the extraordinarily more demanding and difficult job of prime minister. He would prove a disaster.
Worryingly, Minnis increasingly seems incapable of taking advice, becoming more autocratic and less tolerant of those who disagree with him. It is as if the office he holds and the one that he covets have gone to his head.
Reportedly, as a part of the PLP's opposition research, the party is collecting Minnis' endless gaffes and poorly crafted statements. Recall his statements on VAT and crime which were amateurish, riddled with errors of thinking and language, reflective of a stunning lack of policy judgment.
Minnis is frighteningly inarticulate. He would be demolished in a leadership debate with Christie. Minnis is not simply gaffe-prone. His pattern of endless and amateurish mistakes demonstrates that he simply lacks even the most basic political and parliamentary knowledge.
No wonder Christie opined that Minnis is unqualified to be prime minister - harsh criticism, especially considering the source.
Failed
Minnis often fails to defend the FNM's extraordinary record. Much of the PLP's new crime plan after the carnage in Fox Hill was taken from a previous FNM plan, much of which the PLP failed to continue or implement. Minnis called the plan, lame and vacuous.
Either Minnis did not read the new plan or he failed to understand its contents, neither scenario of which redounds to his credibility.
He should have criticized the government for failing to advance plans by the Ingraham administration.
Minnis seems deluded that he can just run out the clock and that dissatisfaction with the PLP and Christie will redound to his favor. He is sadly misguided.
If Minnis remains as FNM leader, Christie may feel confident that he can win re-election.
Christie's scenario may be based on the PLP base remaining with the party "come hell or high water", with the DNA garnering a significant number of votes because of overwhelming dissatisfaction by FNMs and others with the incapable and politically unappealing Minnis.
Yet despite its current leadership deficit, the FNM potentially enjoys better prospects than the PLP.
The PLP is stuck with Christie until he decides to leave, which may be no time soon. The possible successors to Christie have outsized weaknesses and vulnerabilities and limited public appeal beyond the PLP's base.
With possible leadership candidates like Dr. Duane Sands and Loretta Butler-Turner, the FNM can fix its leadership problem more readily than the PLP.
The PLP is widely loathed in the country and voters are hungry for a credible alternative. With its largely still untold history, its extraordinary record in government and possible appeal, the FNM may be poised for renewal and re-emergence as a more vital force.
But first the party must find a leader who can unite the party and appeal to a broad cross-section of voters weary of the PLP and desperate for a new direction, including many who voted DNA last time, but who now believe that they helped the PLP to win.
If the FNM wants to lose again, it will retain Minnis. If it wants to win again, it must find a new leader this very year.
ofrontporchguardian@gmail.com, www.bahamapundit.com.
Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian
