The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

No matter how hard one tries to metaphorically give up Hubert Minnis for Lent, the good Doctor comes down with another case of foot-in-mouth disease. Now he has veered from just plain old poor taste and mangled syntax onto a dangerous minefield that causes one to question just how much of a democrat he really is.

We expect, sometimes demand, but always need a measured and thoughtful response from our leaders and those aspiring to lead us. Flippancy, impetuousness and brutishness are not qualities we expect from someone waiting in the wings to be our next Prime Minister.

We want our Prime Ministers to always exercise good judgment. We want to be able to appreciate the positions they take in the public square even when we respectfully disagree with it.

And so we looked askance when the leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition joined the picket line with our fellow citizens who were exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to protest the denial of access to a public beach.

No one cannot dispute their qualified right to use the beach. But we expect the authorities to have some say in how all citizens use the beach and any other public venue. There are zoning, health, public safety and other laws that govern what can take place on a public beach. To my knowledge, nudity is not allowed: There are laws for that. Solicitation probably has some restrictions even though we have turned a blind eye to it for years.

Those demanding access to the beach were vendors who ply their various trade on the shoreline to either the delight or the disgust of beach users, tourists and residents.

For whatever reason, legitimate or otherwise, they were denied access and so they protested. Along comes Dr Hubert Minnis the grand poser hoping to score a political point from their misery. Glad-handing for votes, plus a chance to make the evening news was simply Minnis operating from his primal default position. Extreme poor judgment in my book.

Because the Commissioner of Police has the brief to maintain law and order in the Commonwealth, he exercised his best judgment and charged his officers with doing whatever it took to restore access to the public roads and to allow others the right to peacefully go about their business.

I was raised to obey any lawful order given to me by a police officer. I suspect the protesters may have received the same lesson from their parents. Apparently some of them forgot it, crossed the line from peaceful protest to malicious mischief, giving the proverbial finger to law enforcement. The officers, probably reluctantly, may have had no choice but to do their jobs. I don’t know. I am not a trier of facts. But that is where the wheels of justice started to turn and it is where our dear Dr Minnis should have left well enough alone.

Say what you like, the justice system works in this country. It creaks and strains under the weight of financial neglect and bureaucracy but the central brain trust is functional and vibrant. As the third spoke in our democratic government we can rest assured that our civil liberties will be guarded by everyone from local Justices of the Peace all the way up to the Her Majesty’s Most Honorable Privy Council in London.

You would have thought that Dr Minnis understood this. But no. As the protestors got their first day in court, Dr Minnis urged fellow citizens to descend on the precincts of the court in a show of support for those made to stand before the bar of justice.

I would not have played it that way, but I shrugged it off as yet another Minnis PR stunt. But then I outright spilled my cup of fever grass tea when I read that Minnis touched the third rail of politics and almost electrocuted himself.

Dr Minnis, in an appalling show of poor judgment and a complete misunderstanding of our system of separation of powers between the Executive and the Judiciary, says that if in the pursuit of justice, the courts find that the evidence presented at trial points towards guilt and after weighing all mitigating circumstances returns a verdict of guilty, then he, His Imperial Majesty King Hubert Minnis of Killarney will grant his own divinely conferred Royal Prerogative of Mercy and will order all the court records expunged.

For starters, the Executive has no such power under the constitution. Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, Monarch of The Bahamas and of her other realms, sitting in Council may so exercise that right but even that, without invitation, will be a gross and insulting over-reach by the Sovereign. Zero chance of that happening.

The Doc did say he will impose on the courts the legal construct of nolle prosequi, which to earthlings means the prosecution no longer thinks it can win its case, so they ask the judge to drop it. This is done before or during the trial, not after a verdict. At that juncture the system offers other legal avenues for the convicted.

If King Minnis were to sit in Cabinet and magically developed the power of persuasion over his equals at the table and they so decide to reverse a court order, who would carry it out?

The Attorney General would have to be recused from that Cabinet meeting because of conflict. The Commissioner of Police is a sworn officer of the Court and he won’t touch it.

In seconds the PLP, then in opposition would move a motion of no-confidence in the entire government.

That would inflict damage to our reputation that we could not contain. One can only guess how many seconds it will take for foreign investors and institutions to lose confidence in this country. If they win a court judgment on any matter and King Minnis doesn’t like it, he would order the judgment wiped from the records. So Mr. or Madam Chief Justice pin that to your jabot and don’t mess with the King.

This was Minnis boldly telegraphing to the Judges that they should sit small till their name call. A dangerous and egregious move only contemplated by the likes of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe or the late despot Idi Amin of Uganda. I have no doubt that the judiciary doesn’t take too kindly to what may smell and feel like threats and bullying, regardless of the original intent.

The old folks say “if you don’t laugh you’ll weep”. The Minnis comedy hour is long over. We are now tearing up at the prospect of a nation in the hands of the good Doctor.

Dr Minnis is a trained physician who apparently never bothered to read philosophy when he was at University. He probably didn’t join the debating society or sit in on a reading of the classics by the book club. Pity because he might have learned a thing or two about the craft of political judgment. He is seriously lacking in sagacity as a result of his insularity.

Any Politics 101 class will shed light on the need for sagaciousness in political leadership. It is the ability to understand difficult ideas and situations and to make good decisions.

To do so, you needed to be grounded in a certain ideology. You must be guided by a set of core principles that will see you through tough times. Minnis’ lust for power is not a foundation principle. It seems to be the only discerning quality King Minnis ever learned.

THE GRADUATE

Nassau,

March 13, 2016.