"The first thing you always do is seek out the best people that you can find for your organization.
If you find the best people, you can basically go anywhere you want to go because they will take you there." - Keith Kellogg

Last week, we suggested that, for the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) to once again be attractive to the Bahamian electorate, it would have to travel the road of reform which must be a decisive, considered and introspective journey. We noted that, at its next party convention, the PLP must make very important decisions about the party officers and soberly address some of the anomalies that have surreptitiously crept into the party's constitution. Finally, we emphasized the urgent need to modernize Gambier House, the party's organs and reenergize all constituency branches.
We were extremely gratified by the numerous favorable responses we received in support of last week's column. We were invited by several respondents to specifically address some of the characteristics that we should look for in the people who will offer for various party posts at the party's upcoming convention in October.
Therefore, this week we would like to Consider this... What are some of the characteristics that convention delegates should look for in those candidates who offer for national party office? Also, who are some of the individuals who would qualify to fill those offices to definitively demonstrate that the PLP is seriously prepared to put its best foot forward?

Correcting the record
On Tuesday past, one of the daily newspapers ran a headline, which stated that I suggested that the PLP should "ditch all losers". If the reporter from that daily had taken the time to read my column last week, he would have observed more correctly, in print, that I suggested that: "None of the former Cabinet ministers or Members of Parliament who served in the last administration and who lost their seats, because they were unequivocally rejected by the people, should offer for any office within the party if they wish for the party to put its best foot forward."
I repeated this suggestion on "Ed Fields Live" on Monday, August 14.
This author never suggested that anyone who lost his or her Parliamentary bid should be ditched. My suggestion was limited to Cabinet ministers and members of Parliament who lost. Nor did I suggest, as was erroneously enunciated on social media, that such persons should never again offer for national party office. The clear suggestion was that such persons should not offer at the upcoming convention, if they wished for the PLP to put its best foot forward. I unapologetically maintain that position. We suggested that persons who fall into this category should sit out this convention and possibly offer at some point in the future, but not now.
The reason is simple: if the party seriously accepts the will of the people, the PLP should chart a new course and clearly recognize that those who were rejected should not resurface now, because to do so would signal that the PLP has not heard the people and not learned its lesson from the last general election.

Will history be repeated?
There is an adage that suggests 'those who do not learn from their history are doomed to repeat it'. One of the respondents to last week's column, an iconic PLP supporter, perfectly noted: "The rejection of the PLP this time around was so numerically overwhelming, so unequivocal and so completely unprecedented in the 60-year electoral history of the party, that I have to believe that no matter how bad things get for the FNM, there is no way the Bahamian electorate is going to accept anything other than a new, reconstructed PLP. Without that, 2022 will, I believe, be another 1997. Remember, we won in 2002 with a 'new PLP', including a new leader representing a post-Pindling generation. Perry was in his early 50s then. By contrast, we lost big time in 1997, because it was 'same old, same old' with Pindling still at the helm. The electorate was saying there was no way they were going back to that."
I could not have said it more lucidly or more articulately. The party must therefore determine whether it wishes to remain in opposition for at least 10 years by failing to make the necessary personnel adjustments by presenting the same people with the same old faces and personalities whom the people rejected on May 10.

Selecting a new leader
We believe that the party leader should be an individual who is a member of the House of Assembly, and that Mr. Philip Brave Davis is currently the best choice for that office. Mr. Davis has the political experience and embodies an all-encompassing appreciation for the party's history and its core values; he knows what is required to reform the PLP.
Mr. Davis' election as party leader in October will not necessarily suggest that he will be the person who will lead the PLP into the next general election; however, we believe that he is a stabilizing force and a unifying agent for the PLP, and is best suited to begin the process of reformation within the party.
In addition, by announcing the party convention in October this year, Mr. Davis has already clearly demonstrated that he will not fall into the trap of ignoring the party's constitution by failing to convene annual conventions. We should never forget that, before January this year, the PLP, under the leadership of Perry Christie, completely defied the party's constitution by not holding an annual convention since 2009. That is a travesty that must never be repeated.
We earnestly believe that Mr. Davis will not demonstrate the level of insecurity by stacking the decks in his favor by appointing a plethora of stalwart councilors that his predecessor did.

Selecting a new deputy leader
We believe that the person best qualified and suited to be elected as the deputy leader of the party is Mr. Chester Cooper, the member of Parliament for Exuma. Although he is a newcomer to elective politics, Mr. Cooper represents a younger generation of Bahamians and has already demonstrated a level of maturity that will augur well for the party.
We believe that Mr. Cooper will prove to be an effective deputy who will understudy Mr. Davis and who, in the future, might contest for higher office within the party.

Selecting a new chairman
As we observed in an earlier column, the selection of the next chairman is one of the party's most important decisions. The successful candidate must signal to the Bahamian people that the party has learned its lesson and heard the voice of the people. It is important to select someone who will be able to effectively coordinate the reform of the PLP and the re-engineering and renovation of the party's constituency branches. Additionally, we cannot underestimate the primacy of political optics in projecting and profiling a new chairman who is not tainted by Christie's failed leadership.
We believe that, if he is prepared to serve, Mr. Alfred Sears, a former member of Parliament, attorney general and minister of education, would be an excellent choice. Although Mr. Sears previously offered for party leader against Mr. Christie in January this year, as we said before, we believe that the party leader should be in the House of Assembly.
Because challenging times require thoughtful consideration of innovative and out-of-the box options, and given the enormous challenges that lie ahead for the PLP, we suggest that the party might consider amending its constitution to allow for co-chairmen of the party, at least for the next few years. There is precedent for this: Perry Christie and Bernard Nottage previously served as co-deputy leaders of the party during the leadership of Sir Lynden.
Conceptually, one of the co-chairs could be responsible for reorganizing Gambier House and the constituency branches in New Providence and the other co-chairman could focus on Grand Bahama and the Family Islands. Co-chairs would also be the party's spokesmen for their respective areas of responsibilities.
The arrangement of co-chairmen would also enable the party to fast-track its reformation and rebuilding efforts.

Conclusion
We are extremely optimistic for the positive prospects for a renewed, reenergized, re-engineered and reinvigorated PLP. This is no time for politics as usual.
If it is to succeed in the near-term, the PLP must widen its tent to encourage innovative ideas to flourish in what has become a stagnant, entitlement-ridden organization, where self-interest and personal political agendas have been allowed to metastasize, much to its detriment.
Now is the time to put the nation and the party above individual interests and personal agendas, to demonstrate that the PLP is ready and able to change and to firmly take the necessary steps to prove to the Bahamian people that the PLP is prepared to do all that it can to put its best foot forward.

o Philip C. Galanis is the managing partner of HLB Galanis and Co., Chartered Accountants, Forensic & Litigation Support Services. He served 15 years in Parliament. Please send your comments to pgalanis@gmail.com.

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