Two things struck us in Dr. Hubert Minnis' victory speech on the historic night of May 10.
The first was his pledge to probe how the people's money was spent.
It appealed to voters who rejected Perry Christie and the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) at the polls in dramatic fashion.
Many will be waiting to see if the new prime minister was serious in his pledge to prosecute if there is any evidence of criminality.
If there are no prosecutions, the prime minister would run the risk of appearing insincere in his pledge.
Evidence of criminality would, of course, be necessary for the attorney general to proceed in any such case.
The Free National Movement's campaign was largely shaped around the Progressive Liberal Party government being corrupt.
Many voters want to see someone in handcuffs.
The next statement from the FNM leader, now Prime Minister Minnis, that stood out to us was a pledge to do what some members in the PLP administration failed to do: Remain humble and accountable and avoid the temptation to self deal.
With thousands of ecstatic FNM supporters at the carnival grounds listening to him, and thousands of other Bahamians tuned in over various broadcast media, Minnis said: "As we go about the business of governing, we ask for God's help; that he protect us from the sins of arrogance and greed; that he keep us ever mindful that this new day is not about us, but about the people we have the honor to serve."
The Bahamian people have given Minnis and his new team a tremendous mandate.
They have a fresh slate.
They have no controversies or screw-ups under their belts.
They have no conflicts as ministers.
They are a new group.
They are not plagued by damning perceptions.
They have the people's trust, and trust is an important tool in governing effectively.
The former administration abused the people's trust right out the gate.
Its decision to ignore the results of the 2013 gambling referendum portended doom for the PLP.
In the remaining years of the last term, then Prime Minister Christie found it difficult to convince the Bahamian people to believe him when he spoke.
It did not help him that many of the actions he and his ministers took worsened perceptions and so eroded trust that, in the weeks leading up to the general election, they struggled to find a message and became so out of touch that they were eventually obliterated at the polls.
If Minnis and his Cabinet and those who surround them fail to learn the lessons of the former administration, they risk suffering a similar fate as Christie and the PLP.
Upon their shoulders they carry the hopes and dreams of a large number of Bahamians who had long lost trust in the unaccountable, arrogant and disrespectful Christie administration that wore out its welcome with the Bahamian people.
Most members of the Minnis administration are getting their first taste of power.
True, they are servants of the people, but they are a special bunch who will likely be treated more as masters than servants as they move about The Bahamas.
The challenge will be for them to remain grounded, to avoid getting enthralled by power and forgetting that it is about the people and not about them and their desires.
It is not about self enrichment or doing special favors for friends, families and lovers.
It is about providing equal opportunities for Bahamians everywhere, and being answerable to the electorate.
One of the biggest sins committed by the former administration was its failure to be accountable.
Christie and his Cabinet behaved as if the Bahamian people had no right to know what their government was doing on their behalf.
They treated the media with disdain and the Bahamian people generally with contempt when demands were made that they make public agreements they entered into on our behalf -- like the secret August Baha Mar deal.
Repeatedly, Allyson Maynard-Gibson, who was attorney general, committed to making the deal public.
This was never done.
We were clearly misled.
But there were other agreements that were never made public, like the agreement the Christie administration signed nearly three years ago to get back two percent of the shares in the Bahamas Telecommunications Company.
The Bahamas Power and Light business plan, which cost taxpayers nearly $1 million, and the Renew Bahamas contract for the New Providence Landfill all remain out of public view.
The former administration also did a poor job at explaining to the Bahamian people how our tax dollars were spent.
It collected more than $1 billion in value-added tax.
Amid a national outcry over 'where the VAT money gone' Christie made a communication to Parliament several weeks ago, seeking to explain, but there were still questions after that communication; and by the time he delivered it, many people had already made up their minds to get rid of the PLP.
Minnis seemingly understands that the Christie administration's failure to account, the various conflicts in which ministers were caught and clear abuses of power combined to cause an intense wave of discontent toward Christie and the PLP.
Minnis has a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate he is not like Christie.
Christie often talked, but his actions did not match his words.
He talked about holding ministers accountable, but failed to do so when it was necessary.
He talked about ensuring that his ministers adhered to the highest standards of probity in public life, but when instances of wrongdoing, abuse and conflicts arose, he protected compromised colleagues.
He talked about being accountable, but he was far from it.
He presided over a government of secrets.
He led a team that became untouchable, that is, until the Bahamian people voted the PLP out.
They did what they wanted when they wanted, obviously without any real regard to the public's expectations.
They were gods and Christie was the greatest of the gods around the table.
They lost touch with the Bahamian people.
They abandoned the PLP's cause for social and economic justice.
Governance became more about maintaining their power and less about focusing on the people.
Combined with their failure to fulfill key pledges, this placed the PLP on a collision course.
They suffered greatly on Election Day as a result of their abuse of power, abandonment of their stated commitment to govern for all and contemptuous actions.

Challenges
Prime Minister Minnis and his team have awesome challenges ahead.
While they come to office with a tremendous amount of goodwill -- with the FNM securing 57 percent of the votes in the recent election -- they will quickly become confronted with sobering realities.
Our fiscal house is in bad shape; in the first seven months of the current fiscal year, the deficit was $295.3 million, according to the Central Bank.
Our national debt is over $7 billion.
Unemployment was recorded at 11.6 percent in October. That's lower than it would have been due to temporary hiring related to Hurricane Matthew, according to Department of Statistics officials.
At the time of the survey, 25,365 people were listed as unemployed. Unemployment among people between 15 to 24 was 24.1 percent.
While Baha Mar has reported hiring over 1,000 people, the number of unemployed people remains significant.
We also need answers on the true financial health of Bank of The Bahamas, and we need to see a clear vision and path for economic recovery in general.
The crime problem remains a critical issue for Bahamians. More than 600 murders were recorded last term. Many Bahamians still do not feel safe in our communities.
We imagine people will have little tolerance for more fires at the New Providence Landfill. They expect the new government to act on that quickly.
There are many other significant issues this government will have to address.
It will likely find that the patience of the Bahamian people can wear out quickly.
People want to see good governance at play, but this is not only a function of being accountable and showing respect for the electorate.
They also want to see and feel movement in the national economy.
They will not likely have any appetite for more taxes, but they also will not have a great deal of patience about a rising national debt, deteriorating infrastructure and an electricity grid that continues to fail.
Minnis has only spent a few days in the prime minister's chair.
We imagine that the enormity of his task ahead is only now beginning to set in.
His honeymoon will not be long.
FNMs remain in a celebratory mood.
They should.
The victory last week was monumental, no matter how some bitter PLPs like former Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell seek to play it down.
Minnis overcame substantial difficulties within party circles and outside party circles to rise to high office.
And while the vote last week was more a rejection of Christie than it was an embrace of Minnis, he deserves commendation for what he has been able to achieve.
A key challenge for Minnis may be demonstrating his competence as prime minister.
He failed to show strong leadership qualities when he led the Official Opposition.
For sure, Minnis has demonstrated that he is politically astute. He has fought off all the daggers that came his way. He got up every time he was slapped down.
That could not have been easy.
But, as leader of the opposition, Minnis did not do a commendable job at holding the Christie administration accountable. He was not a strong voice in Parliament. He did not demonstrate visionary or strategic thinking.
Christie and his government were so awful, voters were willing to overlook Minnis' faults.
He now has an opportunity to prove he can do what he says he can do, and that is "rescue The Bahamas".
He has assembled a solid team.
If his ministers perform competently and avoid the temptation to abuse power, his government would likely be well positioned.
Bahamians everywhere feel like a burden has been lifted off The Bahamas.
A dark cloud has dissipated.
A fresh breeze is blowing.
They feel hopeful again.
A key lesson of the PLP's loss ought to be instructive to the new administration: Goodwill takes a lot of time to build, but it can evaporate in the blink of an eye.

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