The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

In two non-consecutive terms as Foreign Minister, Fred Mitchell never passed up an opportunity to travel to the Caribbean or to wave the Caricom flag.

Sometimes his zealousness got him in trouble. Most of his travel around the region was on the taxpayer’s dime, with the exception of the years when he was out of office and he had to spring for his own fare.

In a speech to the prestigious Institute of International Relations at the St. Augustine’s campus of the University of the West Indies in 2014 Fred shamelessly lionized Caricom as a true-true friend of the Bahamas. Said he at the time:

“The Bahamas took great comfort in 2013 when Caricom issued a statement in support of the Bahamas in the face of withering criticism by Cuban American protesters in Miami. We knew we were not alone. Someone (Caricom) had our back”.

In what can only be described as brazen hypocrisy Fred let us know that when it comes to politics he is nothing but a low-down, two-timing, fair weather friend.

In Caricom there are only two countries that are officially styled as commonwealth – the Bahamas and Dominica. The legal foundation of a commonwealth is that the supreme authority of the state is vested in the people and their government must act for the common good of those people.

The Commonwealth of Dominica was, until hurricane Maria struck, one of two rain forests in the Caribbean (the other being just 60 miles away in the Basse-Terre National Park on the French territory of Guadeloupe).

On a clear day, from a perch high in the tony village of Sainte-Anne on Guadeloupe, you can see past the French island of Marie Galant and gaze upon Mount Diablotin which, at almost 5,000 feet above sea level, is the highest point in Dominica.

Dominicans are our Caricom partners. They speak a lilting English that betrays their French heritage but they are a former British colony who have organized themselves pretty much the same as us. They have embraced modernity but hold fast to their English and creole ways.

The island was struck by a category five hurricane that damaged or destroyed 80 per cent of the buildings on the island and sent hundred-year-old stately trees rolling down the mountainside towards the sea.

Life, as the people there knew it, took a decided turn for the worst. They are destitute. They are hurting and they look to their Caricom neighbours for help. This crisis was practically made for Fred Mitchell.

But our Sometimey Caricom statesman decided that the suffering of the Dominican people must take a back seat to his political grand standing. Prime Minister Hubert Minnis and his government had bruised Freddie’s ego and he was determined to make the poor suffering Dominicans take a back seat while he exacted his comeuppance.

Fred took to social media to essentially say to the Dominicans “go to hell, my career is on the line now. Your suffering will have to wait”.

His hypocrisy could hardly have come as a surprise to those people who know the uncensored parts of Fred Mitchell. In my opinion he is a grand-standing, self-serving, two-timing poser who will make a deal with the devil if it gets his name in the headline the next day.

The hosts of an internet blog tried to give Fred a diplomatic ladder to climb down on after he stuck to the silly PLP propaganda of “message discipline” instead of practising the kind of humanity that Archdeacon Ranfurly Brown preaches to a congregation of the Sunday morning faithful at St. Agnes Church, Fred’s home parish.

Dominica is also the birthplace of his great friend and ally, the Baroness Patricia Scotland of the UK, still uncomfortably ensconced as Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, a job she got partly through Fred’s conniving.

Said Fred of the Prime Minister’s attempt to build a national consensus around his compassionate effort to help Dominica tangibly as well as figuratively: “I am not going to help you out with your problems. You called us stupid, crooked, corrupt and dishonest and now you want us to join hands and say we are all together.”

Really! Fred doesn’t want to go down that road. Since when is this a Minnis problem?

Petty is only one word to describe Fred’s crocodile tears. But his behaviour towards Dominica also borders on wilful neglect. Dominicans are still in a daze and this charlatan who harbours dreams on one day becoming Prime Minister could not see the lesson Dr. Minnis was giving, right before his eyes.

Minnis schooled Fred and his colleagues in the PLP on leadership. Minnis was proactive. He was empathetic. He was compassionate. He was decisive and he was unequivocal in his belief that he was doing the right thing.

We are so used to the detached ruminations that some lawyers bring to the business of governing. Most Bahamians were unwittingly brought to tears during the communication to the House of Assembly by a physician (who knows about trauma and about physical and emotional suffering), embracing the better angels of the Bahamian people by acting on behalf of a sister nation.

The great Caricom flammer Fred bet that Bahamians would oppose their Prime Minister and do so in such numbers that he would back down.

But then the Christian Council came out of shadows as did the teachers union, followed by businessmen, the Bahamian-Dominican community and every day run-of-mill Bahamians who understood and could appreciate that our religious convictions and our humanity compel us to help Dominica.

As for Fred. He remained on the PLP’s message of disingenuous reasoning. What he fails to recognize is that the Bahamian people deleted that message on May 10.

We ain’t checking for Fred.

THE GRADUATE

Nassau,

September 30, 2017