The Tribune

By KHALILA NICOLLS

ON ONE side of the stage, dozens of volunteer actors dressed in red flaunt their enthusiasm, jeering and cheering slogans, chants and insults, across the way. On the other side, there are yellow volunteers, equally adept in their jesting and equally inflamed. The array of colour is completed with spots of green.

Centre stage is set with an imaginary red carpet, not for a parade of clowns, which would seem appropriate given the setting, but for a parade of voters making their way to the polling booth. Such is the circus, technically known as an election. It was in full swing on Tuesday at the advanced poll, and it will peak on Monday during the general election.

The excitement of an election is like the greatest circus coming to town. Many of the people who turn out to support political parties at election time have pennies in their pockets and crumbs in their cupboards but they still manage to show up in their colours, morning until night, to invest time-money as actors at the circus.

The jostling between parties is akin to the competition between Junkanoo groups, and in the same way, the rivalry fills Bahamians with energy, excitement and the hope of bragging rights. Every five years, the people revel in the carnival atmosphere.

When at the end of the day the actors all go home to their mundane, often broke existence, they are steadily primed for when the circus comes back to town with the greatest entertainment in a half decade.

How can anything be taken seriously in the midst of a circus? How can something so fundamental to our democracy, according to the propaganda, be so easily compared to a circus?

How do genuine, hopeful Bahamians, with a desire to serve and a commitment to progress, disassociate with the clowns and still break through the circus?

I sat down with Mark Humes, Fort Charlotte candidate and chairman of the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) to find out. Mr Humes is an assistant professor in the School of English Studies at the College of the Bahamas.

The first time I visited COB to speak to a class of students about my work as a journalist, specifically my contributions to the dialogue about the Haitian-Bahamian connection, it was at the invitation of Mr Humes. At the time, I did not mark him for a politician. When I learned of his decision to foray onto the front-line I was intrigued and concerned.

As a first time candidate, running on a green ticket, the cards are stacked against Mr Humes. Even still, in his idealised and hopeful way, he is confident about his chances to be the next member of parliament for Fort Charlotte.

As deserving as Mr Humes may be of such a parliamentarian honour, he is in for a sisyphean fight, and in his own way, he admits so.

At a recent barber shop visit, Mr Humes said a Fort Charlotte constituent said he would likely be the best man for the job in the three-way race against Progressive Liberal Party Andre Rollins and Free National Movement candidate Zhivargo Laing, but he would not agree to go green, for one simple reason.

It was not a philosophical reason, or a policy driven concern. It was a petty and macho concept in all of its seriousness.

"He said he was retiring this year and he wanted to beat (Prime Minister Hubert) Ingraham. He just wanted to go out beating Ingraham. He said, 'I just want to win'," said Mr Humes.

The elderly man in the barber shop made Mr Humes wonder, for the sake of one's own competitive fantasy, who is going to lose?

Mr Humes said voters have been concerned about whether or not he plans to stick around, win or lose. He suspects they have a "sneaky feeling" that what they are about to do will be something regrettable in the end, and they want a man like himself to be around to hear their cries after the dust settles.

"It is that abuse syndrome," said Mr Humes. That keeps voters hopeful against better reason and judgment that if they give the FNM or PLP "just one more chance" they will do better.

In the face of such folly, Mr Humes maintains a core DNA belief, that "insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results." He believes his candidacy and the DNA gives Bahamians the opportunity to do different.

He supports the DNA platform to institute term limits for prime ministers; to enact campaign finance reform, mandating disclosures that would cover any political figure for as long as he/she receives a government pension; to curtail the power of the prime minister; and to implement a constitutional recall system that would empower constituents with a process to oust a candidate, who they feel has broken the public's trust.

He said the DNA government through its townhall formats and community forums has showed that it means to be a government that engages and listens to its citizens.

"This idea of empowerment and becoming owners. That is what I believe in. That comes from the core of me. That is what I am fighting for. Many of us have been marginalized and have become disillusioned with the system and the way things have been done in the past. This is not something we have bought into willy-nilly. This is what we believe in," said Mr Humes.

In one way or another, Mr Humes has always been pursuing a noble objective to better the Bahamas, first as a journalist, then as an academic. He has an optimistic and self-reflective view of people, thinking they are good-natured and well-intentioned.

He took up the activist platform during the protest against the sale of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC), and he took up the political platform after connecting with and being inspired by Branville McCartney, leader of the DNA.

As a former writer for The Tribune, Mr Humes said he was one of the first journalists to interview Mr McCartney, who at the time was running on the FNM ticket for Bamboo Town.

Some seven years later, Mr Humes took up the charge of a church sister, who wanted someone to communicate to Mr McCartney the positive light in which some people saw him. Mr Humes' political relationship with Mr McCartney and consequently the DNA was cemented at that meeting.

"I was inspired by this idea that you could do something different than what had been. We all knew there was more potential than what was being utilised.

"We all had a common vision that the Bahamas could become a more productive nation, more of a producer nation, and we recognised the common idea that political will and interference was getting in the way of the country moving forward," said Mr Humes.

He first signed on initially to work behind the scenes, as party chairman, but on January 1, he decide to step into the front-line as a candidate.

Mr Humes grew up in Fort Charlotte and travels there almost every day to visit his family, who still live there.

"I saw there was a need for a representative in Fort Charlotte. I had a genuine concern for the area," said Mr Humes.

Come May 7, Mr Humes intends to be the member of parliament for Fort Charlotte and he intends to bring a new kind of governance to the people of Fort Charlotte and the Bahamas.

And if he finds himself warming the bench for the next five years, he plans to stay active in the constituency. He said political parties and candidates should take on the function of an opposition, or ombudsman for the community, in areas for which they fail to win the vote, similar to the position of shadow ministers.

"I think if each candidate looked at it this way, you would see how it changes the system," said Mr Humes.

He believes the DNA has already forced positive changes to the system, causing the PLP and FNM to up their games. He hopes Bahamians will give him and the DNA a chance to continue in this light.

For live election coverage follow on Twitter @noelle_elleon or contact khalilanicolls@gmail.com.