Approaching International Women's Day, the country witnessed a day of infamy in the House of Assembly, one of the most repugnant moments in the chamber in living memory.
Tall Pines MP Leslie Miller boasted, emphatically and unequivocally, that he had inflicted violence on, assaulted and brutalized a woman. In a 105-word horrendous analogy Miller noted, as reported in this journal: "'That's like beating your wife or your girlfriend every time you go home. You just beat her for looking at her. I love ya. Boom, boom, boom. I had a girlfriend like that.
"'When I didn't beat her she used to tell me I ain't love her no more cause I don't hit her. But seriously I had one like that. I had one. She used to tell me,' he insisted as other members murmured and chuckled.
"House Speaker Dr. Kendal Major injected, 'We know that you're joking with that.'
"However, Miller said he was 'serious with that'.
"'I tell her I get tired, man,' he continued, laughing. 'My hands hurting a little bit... give me a break.'
"After a comment from a sitting member inquiring whether he was joking, he reiterated, 'I am telling you the truth. One thing I don't do is lie.'"
Miller "entertained" his colleagues with braggadocio and misogynistic machismo. He twice said that he was serious. He said that he was telling the truth. He said that he doesn't lie. He could not be clearer. There is no way to misconstrue the remarks.
Equally infamous, many of his party colleagues erupted in laughter. Recall that this was before Miller later claimed that he was joking, making the laughter even more contemptible.
Laughter
Aside Miller was Central and South Andros MP His Excellency Picewell Forbes, the country's high commissioner to CARICOM, shaking uncontrollably with laughter, throwing his arms wildly in the air, howling his enjoyment.
A few weeks ago Forbes told Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell on the floor of the House that he had "some different views" with him about LGBT issues.
With Mitchell generally voicing the views of successive governments, was Forbes disagreeing with government policy and non-discrimination of gays and lesbians?
It is clear from those remarks and in his delight in Miller's woman-beating story, that Forbes represents an antediluvian mindset. In his public career he has proved an intellectual troglodyte. He is not alone.
Sadly, revealingly, Forbes was also not alone in his raucous snickering at the horror of a woman being brutalized.
What particularly tickled his funny bone and that of certain PLP colleagues? Was it when Miller sighed: "I tell her I get tired, man. My hands hurting a little bit... give me a break." At that point Miller insisted that he was telling the truth.
How long is it into a beating before one's hands start hurting "a little bit"? How long before one's hands start hurting a lot? What is the equation of brutality? Is the victim supposedly to feel more loved the more she is brutalized: "I love ya. Boom, boom, boom"? Miller's comments packed more than a punch or a punch line.
As deafening as the laughter, the misogyny, the nauseating sexism, was the silence, not just in the moment, but more egregiously, the veil of silence of the PLP in the weeks after Miller's revolting statement.
Miller's story of brutality was repugnant enough. The aftermath is as disturbing and as revealing. It was a week before his comments gained notoriety amidst a gathering storm of disgust and rebuke.
Outrage
The outrage on social media exploded, with a Photoshopped image quickly going viral of Miller beating a woman on the ground, surrounded by PLP colleagues, including three female MPs, standing aside laughing. Comments on Facebook are running heavily against Miller, with the PLP's silence equally condemned.
An audio of Miller's repulsive comments was placed on YouTube. On March 8, nearly 630 people had listened to the comments, that number climbing the next day to approximately 1,500, climbing approximately another 400 by the following night to around 1,900, and climbing still.
Having plunged the PLP into a quandary, Miller made matters considerably worse. Instead of humility and restraint in his defensive words and offensive tone, he has appeared belligerent and bullying, continuing to offend. His exercise in damage control has been slapdash, ineffective, unconvincing.
The speaker of the House said that he believes that Miller was joking. Many do not share the speaker's opinion. They take Miller at his first words. Why did it take him approximately a week and enormous pressure before he addressed his remarks?
With Miller having taken nearly a week to backtrack, many concluded that either he did not understand his offense or that he was mostly engaging in damage control or some combination, none of which speaks well of his mindset.
Especially for many women, his eventual apology was too little, too late. It has often been said of misogynists that they simply don't get it. Had Miller's comments not come under scrutiny, he may never have apologized.
An expression of remorse is typically the response of someone who appreciates that they have offended others. But when Miller first took to the floor of the House to address his prior comments, contrition was not his first impulse.
Incredibly, he raged against The Nassau Guardian for reporting his remarks. He threatened to return fire to Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner who had upbraided him earlier.
A number of the male PLP MPs who laughed a week earlier at his claim of beating a woman cheered on as he promised to deal with Butler-Turner if she persisted in her criticism. Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe suggested that Butler-Turner should apologize to Miller for having criticized him!
Revived
The exchange revived misogynistic remarks Miller made during the 2012 general election in reference to Butler-Turner.
In 2014, Miller's misogyny went even beyond his prior sexist remarks, with his mea culpas growing in proportion to the political heat he was taking.
Full contrition is unconditional: "I was wrong and I am sorry." By contrast, Miller played the victim. His apology was conditional.
He bemoaned: "Unfortunately, the media choose to highlight certain words without executing the entire story and truth... that's how papers are sold and unnecessary drama unfolds. This is common in our society, but unacceptable on all [sic] levels. I will continue to challenge anyone that tries to assassinate my character, especially on such a sensitive topic.
"To anyone that my analogy may have offended, I sincerely apologize. We [sic] are one Bahamas, let's make an effort to put politics and hidden agendas aside and live that way."
It's mostly the media's fault. My words were taken out of context. I'm angry that they reported exactly what I said. Let's put politics aside and love each other. Odd, that the latter is not his modus operandi when he is viciously attacking his opponents.
His is the language typical of faltering damage control campaigns. There was the classic conditionality and half-apology typical of such public relations: "To anyone that my analogy may have offended ..." May have offended?
Miller has condemned himself and assassinated his own character by the rank misogyny he spewed and by the fuller and unconditional apology he could not bring himself to offer.
He can go on wildly blaming others. But it is he and he alone who is responsible for the position in which he finds himself. The more he attacks others in this debacle the worse his position.
Miller has done irrevocable damage to his public standing. He has significantly damaged his party. Still, it is the party that is doing greater damage to itself by remaining coldly silent.
There is the silence of the men of the PLP including Prime Minister Perry Christie. There is the silence of the women of the PLP including Social Services Minister Melanie Griffin, whose words rang hollow in commemoration of International Women's Day.
Historically, silence in the face of racism, sexism and homophobia have suggested a certain complicity with those who would dehumanize others with the most repugnant remarks, as did Miller.
Had an FNM MP uttered Miller's contemptible words, Christie and a host of PLP men and women, including Griffin and her female colleagues, as well as possibly Miller, would have lined up to vehemently assail the FNM in question.
The PLP's silence is more than hypocrisy. It is vile and nauseating.
Sadly, where are the apologies of those PLP MPs who laughed along with Miller? Having failed to apologize, they are even more complicit in the misogyny and the sexism, as is the PLP generally for refusing to rebuke Miller.
Following the 1987 general election, widely thought to have been fraudulent and underhanded, Miller noted, "All's fair in war and love", an idiom suggesting that in love or war or politics one does not have to abide by certain rules of fair play or ethics.
Surely Miller was being "serious about that" back then, just as perhaps most Bahamians view him as having been deadly serious in his more recent comments.
o frontporchguardian@gmail.com, www.bahamapundit.com.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian