Dear Editor,
The naked truth makes us uncomfortable. Politics aside, Prime Minister Philip Davis seems to be a decent and compassionate human being.
But he has a problem. He is too nice for politics.
His party was swept into power by a tidal wave of popular enthusiasm, and truth be told, in just two short years he might have subconsciously driven the first three nails in his own political coffin.
The first nail was driven when he failed to dismiss Minister of Education Glenys Hanna-Martin, who openly disagreeing with a Cabinet decision, which was a breach of protocol under the Westminster system of governance.
Hanna-Martin is a capable and competent minister, but she should have been removed notwithstanding.
The second nail was driven when he did not remove Kirk Cornish, MP for North Abaco, for his reckless and chest pounding remarks declaring himself prime minister of Abaco. Political grandstanding serves no purpose, and even as a newcomer to politics, Cornish should have known better.
The prime minister drove the third nail when he did not remove Minister of Immigration Keith Bell for the two blunders he made as minister of immigration.
Firstly, for conducting a citizenship swearing-in ceremony at a funeral, and secondly, for releasing the Chinese nationals who were discovered on the British Colonial Hilton premises in January.
Davis might have rebuked these ministers privately but what we see or hear in public is far more impressionable, and could serve as a deterrent to similar activities moving forward.
Get tough! Someone once said that politics is the art of the possible, meaning that in politics, a person would do what he thinks he can get away with.
Davis does not need me to advise him. I would only venture to say that nice prime ministers do not seem to fare too well in our culture of politics.
Longevity in politics requires a degree of ruthlessness. The prime minister seems too hesitant to wield the political axe, unlike others before, but this must change if he hopes to keep those with runaway ambitions in check, and if he hopes to remain the master of his own political house.
— Zephaniah Burrows
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