The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

FORMER FNM Chairman Darron Cash yesterday blasted Prime Minister Perry Christie for saying his future as PLP leader ultimately lies with his party, adding that Mr Christie is “too intoxicated with power” to relinquish his role as leader to anyone else.

Mr Cash said Mr Christie is too fixated on the “pomp and pageantry and trappings of power” to step aside as party leader. The former senator said the only way for party members to get Mr Christie out of office is to “force him out”.

He added that it is time for Mr Christie to be “pushed on the side in favour of a new generation of leadership”.

On Monday, Mr Christie said he is in the process of mulling over who will succeed him as party leader. However, he added that the ultimate decision on whether he remains leader of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) lies with his party.

“Perry Christie is too intoxicated with power to give it up, and unfortunately while he is intoxicated with power he is fixated only on the pomp and pageantry and the trappings of power, like armed security guards and outriders on motorcycles and so on,” Mr Cash said. “He is not focused on the details of governing, he is not focused on doing things that makes a difference to the vast majority of Bahamians. That is the reason why he is not going to give up power.

“So when the prime minister talks about the party telling him when it’s time to leave, that is utter nonsense. What he should pay attention to is the fact that his deputy prime minister and his minister of tourism, his boy wonder, have basically said publicly that it’s time for him to go. Because they know that the only way they’re going to get Prime Minister Christie out of office is to force him out.”

During an interview that aired on ZNS on Monday night, Mr Christie said after 40 years in public office he still has the “energy and the ability to continue with new ideas”.

He added: “At the end of the day the decision will be one made by the PLP family and one made by me. I would only want to stay there – period, full stop — if it was with the full support of colleagues because I am a part of them and that means I am a part of their future as well.”

Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis and Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe publicly stated they are ready to lead the party, but only if a vacancy becomes available. Both Mr Davis and Mr Wilchcombe have stated that their actions will depend on if Mr Christie offers himself for re-election.

Party insiders have also named Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell and Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald as possible contenders for the PLP’s leadership.

Weighing in on the matter, Mr Cash said yesterday: “The song was well written and performed many years ago: nobody move, nobody gets hurt. None of those men or women (in the PLP) seem to have the courage of their convictions to oppose Mr Christie.

“They know it’s time for him to go, but he has stacked the deck so well in his favour that when he decides he is going to stay around and consume all of the time that ought to be applied to the new generation of leadership, none of them will have the courage to oppose him. So he will sail through convention yet again. And the country will be worse off because of it.”

Mr Cash painted the prime minister as a leader who is “disengaged” and “running on fumes”.

“So it is time for him to go,” he added.

While in opposition, Mr Christie indicated that he would consider stepping down as party leader mid-term and name a successor. However, he later said he intended to serve a full term if elected as prime minister in 2012.

In January, during a televised interview with State of Affairs, Mr Christie, 71, said it would take a “compelling, tangible” reason for him to lead his party into the next general election. He is currently serving his second, non-consecutive term as prime minister.

The PLP’s next convention is set for the last week in October, when all positions will be available to be contested.