The Tribune

AS ANTHONY “Ace” Newbold took his place at the lectern of Holy Trinity parish church on Friday, he looked down on the draped coffin of his friend of 30 years, then donned the mantle of a Marc Antony come to bury his Caesar. This Bahamian Anthony, like that Roman Antony, and his Caesar, was determined not to let the good that Edmund Spencer Moxey, 80, had done for his people be interred with his bones.

Mr Newbold would tell the truth about Mr Moxey, the dreams he had had for his people, particularly the people of the Grove, and how those dreams were destroyed by his political party, especially some of his closest colleagues in that party. It was a party that Mr Moxey believed was born of the people, supported by the people and was for the people.

However, it was thought at the time that Mr Moxey’s ambition for his people was getting in the way of “One Man’s Dream.” In pursuit of that other dream, Mr Moxey’s hopes for his country were dashed, leaving many convinced that the PLP had lost its way. Today we are reaping the whirlwind of the social upheaval left in the wake of a political party taking the wrong fork in the road to the future.

Not only was Mr Moxey’s dream—Jumbey Village – promised as this country’s cultural centre for the people, destroyed, but Mr Moxey and his family were persecuted for not following the party line.

Mr Newbold, who had recently completed an award winning documentary on Mr Moxey, was fully aware when the Moxey family asked him to speak, that he would be speaking at a state funeral paid for by his employers, the Bahamas government. It was the government — under another leader — that had hurt his friend.

Mr Newbold, was also fully aware that he was employed as Director of the Parliamentary Channel of the Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas and that his future employment with the government – members of which were sitting in the pews in front of him — would be on the line.

But Mr Newbold was not thinking of himself or even considering that the next morning he might be joining the line of the unemployed.

“My intention in the tribute to Ed Moxey,” he said, “was to do justice to his memory by telling as much of the real story as I had the time to. No primary thought about anyone else, but hopefully in the process, pricking the consciences of those in government and those who hope to be in government, so that they would not repeat such dastardly and ungodly acts against anyone, much less a Bahamian citizen.”

No sooner had Mr Newbold finished his tribute than someone whispered in his ear: “You know you’re fired, eh?”

“While it was not at the top of my mind,” Mr Newbold said, “I accepted that I might have to deal with fallout from the tribute, but that was not something that I shirk. I don’t intend to roll over and play dead because someone is uncomfortable being reminded of their misdeeds or of misdeeds associated with their party. Maybe it will cause them to stop and think before allowing it to happen again.”

But the next day another warning shot was fired across his bow. This time even closer to home. BahamasUncensored, formerly associated with fredmitchelluncensored, and a PLP mouthpiece, had this to say:

“Sometimes we try to wonder where people’s heads are at. The man who is in charge of the Parliamentary Channel, whose job it is to provide balanced commentary for the reports of the Parliament, gets up in a public platform, in a church and proceeds virtually to hold a political rally for the Free National Movement. We are talking about Ace Newbold who runs the Parliamentary channel who was asked to speak at the funeral service, a state service for the late Edmund Moxey, the former Parliamentary Secretary, MP and Senator. He paid a tribute on Friday 1st August at Holy Trinity but it could well have been a political rally, since it was punctuated with wild cheers and interruptions of applause from the FNM partisans in the church, then a standing ovation by them. This is a free country and so one does what one likes but there is something called an occasion. Church is not that occasion. If Mr. Newbold wanted to send a message to his employers about what he thinks of them, he could well have spoken at the memorial service which the FNM had for Mr. Moxey.” And so it went on.

If the PLP and its mouthpiece thought that they could buy silence and flowery words with a state funeral, they were wrong. Mr Newbold, although loyal to his job, was not a man for sale.

We hope that the days of cowards are over. All those who cried “shame” and “disgrace” in church that day were not all

FNM — they were the true friends of Ed Moxey and they — regardless of their political affiliation, were Bahamians who were highly offended.

We hope that the days of the shorn sheep are over – those cowards who would bury their consciences, meekly hang their heads, toe the party line and warn their fellow politicians “not to be fast on their tongue” if they wanted to preserve their political future. It is because there have been too many cowards in our body politic over the years who put their political future above the good of their country that we are in the mess we are in today.

“If the government and the Bahamian people are prepared to accept that in 2014 we are in trouble.....but I will resist it to the bitter end,” was Mr Newbold’s final words.

And until we get politicians who will put country above party there is not much hope for the Bahamas.

We are writing this column today because we know that there are a handful of politicians still in government who would deny Mr Newbold future employment — as they did Mr Moxey, Carlton Francis and many others. The only hope is that they are now under different leadership.

One can say what one likes about Prime Minister Perry Christie, but what we do know is that the way that Edmund Moxey was persecuted is not Mr Christie’s style. He might have squirmed in the church as he had to sit and listen to Mr Newbold’s harsh words. However, we hope that he took a lesson from those words and the reaction of those friends who had come to bury Mr Moxey.

In 2002 in the first Christie government, Mr Christie promised that he was introducing a “new PLP”. Unfortunately, he had brought too many with him who cherished the old ways.

Not only will The Tribune, but so will the public, be watching Mr Newbold’s future in government employ. We hope that Mr Christie does in fact represent a “new PLP”, and will not only respect another Bahamian’s point of view, but protect him from the wrath of the old PLP who would persecute him for telling the truth as many other Bahamians see it.

'Ace plays high stakes card in tribute to his old friend' - click HERE