Dr. Hubert Minnis has been incompetent, intellectually sterile and disastrous as leader of the Free National Movement. In significant ways he is dangerous for the party because he has little to no ethical compass as a leader. But he is dangerously effective on two fronts.

He is utterly and incessantly disloyal to his colleagues and to the grand legacy of the FNM. He is also responsible for the destruction of the party, of its traditions and legacy, of party organs and associations, of the hopes of thousands who once eagerly supported the party. He is destroying the FNM in record speed.

Minnis is so excruciatingly deficient as a leader that he has an unlimited capacity to dumbfound and surprise others with his inexhaustible supply of stupidity, ignorance and cravenness.

If one believes that one has already heard the stupidest and dumbest thing Minnis has ever said, and that it can't get worse, wait a few days or a week at most.

With breathtaking speed, over less than a fortnight, he has acted in an imperious, arrogant and profoundly undemocratic manner, making serious philosophical and policy shifts without due consultation of his parliamentary colleagues, whom he treats with manifold more contempt than exhibited by his ousted and once breathless protegee Lanisha Rolle, who has now also been stung by Minnis' disfavor.

Vapidly, Minnis indicated that the FNM would be open to a coalition with the DNA, an idea shot down by former Deputy Leader Loretta Butler-Turner followed by current Deputy Leader Peter Turnquest. More on the asinine coalition talk shortly.

In one of the greatest acts of betrayal of a party leader toward his colleagues, Minnis has run for cover in the fight for equality. He has not learned the lesson that, in the end, voters tend to reward the moral courage of those who, even though they may take an unpopular position at the time, stand by their convictions. Voters have an even more crystal clear image of Minnis' deflated character.

Having flip-flopped and shown timid support for the referendum questions, and perhaps sensing a defeat in the vote, Minnis has dissolved into shameful equivocation, advising that Bahamians should "vote their conscience".

Discrimination

The referendum is a stark choice: A yes vote will remove certain discrimination and the possibility of future discrimination. A no vote will be a vote for continued discrimination.

Instead of fighting for equality, Minnis is pandering to bigotry, xenophobia, homophobia and ignorance. This is what fascists do, not democrats. His stance is beyond contemptible. Here is a sample of the nauseating bile he has vomited:

"One of the best things you can do for your people is empower them through knowledge. With this referendum, that is what we believe should happen. We need to empower the people through knowledge so that they can understand what it is all about.

"That will help them make up their own minds to vote their conscience based on what they know. And not what they're told. That is democracy."

The last thought is a typical insipid and nonsensical Minnis circumlocution, a sort of "quagmire of web" which demonstrates the idiocy and emptiness of his thought process.

People come to knowledge or remain ignorant through what they are told or of what they are informed. If they are told sense, they will have greater sense. If they are told foolishness from people like Minnis, then they will likely think foolishly. Moreover, it is not democracy to pander to base instincts.

Minnis has not empowered voters with knowledge. Instead of leading the people he pretends to champion, he hurriedly retreated to the back of the crowd, fanning ignorance and prejudice.

He has not vigorously campaigned for equality, like Heather Hunt, Loretta Butler-Turner, Lynn Holowesko and others. Former Governors General Sir Orville Turnquest and Sir Arthur Foulkes, patriots and former senior FNMs, have been clear and vigorous in their support of the referendum.

But like a general who has turned tail on his heels and left in the heat of battle, Minnis has been weak-kneed, abandoning his colleagues on the battlefield, running for cover, leaving his people to fend for themselves. Minnis is not now nor will he ever be a leader.

Abandoned

In the 2002 referendum, the PLP collectively abandoned principle in order to defeat the referendum. In 2016, Minnis has singlehandedly thrown the legacy and principles of the FNM, as well as his colleagues, under an 18-wheeler.

To hell with his colleagues and the FNM. It is all about Minnis' egomania and deeply selfish needs. He doesn't give a damn about the FNM or the country. He is a glutton for power, screw everybody else. His needs come first.

Hubert Minnis is a traitor to gender equality. He is a disloyal turncoat who is abandoning the legacy of the FNM, which in 1972 at the Constitutional Conference in London, two years after its founding, supported gender equality.

How Maurice Moore, C.A. Smith and others can continue to follow and prop up such a man is beyond comprehension. It is a sad commentary on these figures. Minnis is not a man deserving of party leadership or of being followed over a cliff of his own making.

Warning to FNMs: Hubert Minnis will always be disloyal if it serves his narrow political interests. Those minions in his small and dwindling circle who believe they can work with him will learn quickly how he will cut their political throats when it suits his unseemly purposes.

He has already left a trail of destruction in the FNM, and he will have little to no restraint, using every instrument at his disposal to maintain power and to destroy his perceived enemies.

He seems thoroughly lacking in political convictions and principles. He will say just about anything to get his way. Many of his colleagues find him duplicitous, not a man of his word, someone for whom truth-telling is a strained activity.

Meanwhile, it is a testimony to the utter failure of Minnis that with the PLP tottering from scandal to scandal and blunder to blunder, the party has not been able to mount an effective opposition in the country and to inspire hope in the electorate.

The FNM should have been able, under the country's dark and depressing circumstances, to run away with the next election. Instead, in a pathetic effort to appear viable, they are talking about yielding to the political blackmail of the DNA.

Minnis says he is considering entering into a coalition with the DNA, Bran McCartney's vanity party. It's akin to a mom and pop shop seeking to enter into a coalition with a large chain store.

Moribund

The DNA was on life support, a seriously weakened and moribund party after the 2012 general election. But after four years of disastrous governance by the PLP, and after four years of disastrous leadership by Minnis, the DNA found a lifeline.

Polling has shown that the PLP and FNM are in single or low double digits in popularity. The PLP's low polling has mostly to do with the poor performance of Perry Christie and his colleagues. The FNM's low numbers have overwhelmingly to do with Minnis. His replacement with more competent and inspiring leadership will help the FNM's numbers to skyrocket.

The DNA's lifeline is scores of independent voters and scores of FNM base voters who cannot bring themselves to vote for a Christie-led PLP nor a Minnis-led FNM.

It is highly unlikely that the PLP will elect a new leader before the next election. But if the FNM elects a new leader, the FNM base will return home in lightning speed.

The FNM does not need a coalition with the DNA. The FNM needs a new leader who will negotiate the merger of the DNA within the FNM. Minnis is negotiating from a position of extraordinary weakness, and McCartney knows it.

Minnis is so frighteningly weak that a heretofore weak, unimpressive and politically unserious McCartney can mock him with the most condescending language.

McCartney said of Minnis that he is "a leader who let the PLP grab his testicles, tie them together and wrap them around his back..." More than a disturbing and anatomically uncomfortable image, it reeks of contempt. How does one negotiate with someone who believes that you have been emasculated by the PLP?

Minnis is so weak that McCartney can talk such foolishness about a coalition. He wouldn't be able to talk such foolishness with a stronger FNM and a stronger leader. McCartney should desperately need Minnis, not the other way around.

There are rumors of light and hope piercing the veil of darkness which has descended on a party whose symbol is a torch, the heat and light of which are desperately needed to reignite and restore the fortunes of a party dragged low by an egomaniacal leader lacking in conviction who must be removed as FNM leader if the party is to survive.

o frontporchguardian@gmail.com, www.bahamapundit.com.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian