The Tribune

IT’S hard to imagine. Just four years ago the FNM swept to power with a huge majority giving it licence to do as it wished for the benefit of the country. All that stood against them was an Opposition of just four MPs – Philip “Brave” Davis and his three colleagues – the only survivors of the electoral rout.

How radical would Dr Hubert Minnis be in the coming years? There were promises made during the campaign that excited the voters, but were they really interested in them or was the PLP’s humiliation more the response of an electorate - of all shades - sick to the back teeth of how Prime Minister Perry Christie and his party had behaved in office.

The Minnis administration started off with several high profile prosecutions stemming from the PLP’s time in office. Neither succeeded.

Then came Oban - a disastrous plan to allow the American company to build a huge refinery on Grand Bahama. The Tribune quickly exposed the shabby credentials of the men behind the project – one described as an international logistics expert when in fact his last job was as a used car salesman. By the time an Oban official was caught signing another Oban executive’s name on the filmed Heads of Agreement ceremony, the deal was dead.

You could forgive Minnis and his men of making a newbie mistake but it should never have happened if they’d simply done their homework.

So we waited for the big ideas, the campaign trail promises to be delivered to change the FNM story to the good but there was very little to get excited by.

Minnis resorted at the end of his first year in office to turn the guns on illegal Haitian migrants, ordering them to return home “by Christmas”.

Increasing the VAT rate to 12 percent was a kick in the teeth for many businesses and families. They were starting to feel it wasn’t the people’s time after all.

We rolled on ‘til September 2019 when Dorian raced in – and in destroying Abaco and large swathes of Grand Bahama, Minnis’ hopes of an easy ride through to 2022 were over. Maybe yesterday the results would have been different if the government’s response had been as massive as it should have been.

Then there was a list of promises not kept, from term limits for Prime Ministers to regulating campaign finance, and time was starting to run out.

The PLP was gaining ground, but not through its arguments in the Assembly – at one point marked by the number of times Brave led his band out of the House.

And then COVID.

It is hard to point to any country, anywhere and say they have done a great job since the pandemic broke on the world. The United Kingdom – probably the most vaccinated nation by percentage of population – got there with an appalling number of deaths.

Minnis tried, following his experts’ advice, drawing on his own medical experience and the need to keep the nation safe while not killing its economy. It was – and remains – an impossibly hard balancing act especially when there is such huge reluctance to take the now available vaccines.

To keep things going, keep food getting to those who needed it, he borrowed funds from abroad at unprecedented levels.

Then suddenly there was talk of an election which, eventually, he called early. That itself ran counter to his earlier promises, with a campaign pledge for fixed election dates now broken.

“Brave” and his party were suddenly back in a real fight with loads of ammunition to throw at Minnis – some deserved, others just the normal bluster of an election season.

For a public tired of COVID, many still out of work, it was the examination of the FNM over the last four years not what “Brave” was offering which sent us running back in the opposite direction from the one voters took just a few years ago.

Now “Brave” has his hands on the wheel and it will be fascinating to see how he drives this administration.

The Tribune, genuinely, wishes him luck because it is in our and everyone’s interests for the government – any government – to serve the people well.

If we see a misstep we’ll call it out. If we see a policy that’s progressive, we’ll support it. That’s our job.

But please, Mr Davis, hit the ground running. You know the mistakes the Christie administration made and those of this now departed FNM administration so you should know what to avoid.

We pray you do serve us well.