The Tribune

TOURISM Minister Obie Wilchcombe, admitting that the PLP made crime a political issue, says his government now realises that they didn’t have the answers to the problem, but needed the whole community — not just PLP politicians with their secret potions— working together to combat what is now destroying the country.

We agree with Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn that “the fact that the Minister of National Security suggests that persons in the country receive with ‘glee’ the news that the murder count exceeds the previous record, demonstrates the fact that the Minister has clearly lost sight of reality”.

Not only has National Security Minister Bernard Nottage lost sight of reality, but he is misreading his tea leaves. What he interprets as “glee” is sarcastic disgust — a sort of “see, I told you so, you hadn’t a clue what you were talking about when your party said if elected it would eradicate crime”.

It would seem that they are all now in the same boat that Sir Lynden Pindling was in when he lost the 1992 election to the FNM. At that time Sir Lynden ruefully admitted that his party’s defeat was because it had lost touch with the people. He conceded that he did not realise that the economic conditions were such at that time that it would cost him his election. Mr Christie is almost in the same position as was Sir Lynden with rising unemployment and an overburdened Treasury.

Also we advise Mr Wilchcombe not to encourage too much marching, because he too might be misreading the public temperature and find that the people, once unleashed, might march in the wrong direction.

During an interview with The Tribune this week, Mr Wilchcombe said that instead of pointing the finger at politicians for the increase in murders, Bahamians should “get angry and march against it.”

Mr Wilchcombe also told The Tribune that the new murder record is “disgraceful”. However, he said, while the rise in murder has not impacted the tourism industry thus far, the country needs to “reverse this negative trend” before The Bahamas’ brand is negatively affected.

But marching is not the answer. The late Sir Kendal Isaacs, QC,for a short time FNM leader, would never lead a demonstration, because, as he often said, a demonstration could get out of hand and turn into an uncontrollable mob. He never wanted to have such a responsibility.

And our uncle, the late Eugene Dupuch, QC – at the time that Sir Lynden threw the Speaker’s mace out of the window of the House, followed by the late Sir Milo Butler with the hour glass, and the late union leader Sir Randol Fawkes with his disruptive unionists – warned of the dangers of playing with people’s emotions. Unlike a water faucet, he often said, once on, emotions can’t be turned off. The PLP certainly played on the people’s emotions in those years and started a disruptive trend that has taken many twists and turns since then.

And as a commentator warned Mr Wilchcombe on The Tribune’s website tribune242 on Wednesday:

“In the history of the world, a sitting government calling for citizens to march in protest against that very same sitting government is a rare development. One must question the sanity of the government if this is the position they find themselves forced to advocate for three years after taking office, although sane Bahamians have been questioning the sanity of their governments for quite some time now.

“It would also be pertinent to add, as a warning to the illustrious Minister, that one should be careful what one wishes for. Once the people genie comes out of the bottle, it is very hard to get the people genie back in the bottle. Granting wishes is not what the people genie is about. The people genie or mob, to use the more accurate term, does not necessarily answer to reason either. The mob, once it manifests, is impossible to control and impossible to direct and has its own reasons for existing. Usually, it is opposition politicians who flirt with unleashing the mob and most often they eventually come to regret it as events then get beyond them. In calling for the mob to take to the streets, the PLP government are quite literally playing with fire now. The country better force them to resign and get a real government in place or it will find that governance itself and Parliamentary democracy in particular may be challenged moving forward. Those are developments that some may welcome, but most, who know history, would not. It is very hard to maintain a tourism and financial centre when there is chaos on the streets and political stability is brought into question, something the Bahamas has never really had to confront before.

“Of course, this warning will fall on deaf ears as it seems that many sensible and capable people in this country have already decided to leave. We are now facing the law of ever diminishing returns. The PLP will finally have what they wanted, a totally ‘pure’ country of brain washed, loyal and ignorant people. As to how they will manage those people when there is no industry, no tourism, no banking and no real estate market to speak of is another matter entirely, but I digress. The PLP is now flirting with disaster, not just for itself, but for the country as a whole. Sensible citizens need to find a way to get this government out of power as quickly as possible. We need an election.”

Yes, we need an election, but a united Opposition is needed first – no splinter groups. And that opposition needs a strong leader with the natural ability, not only to fight an election, but to be sufficiently forceful on the campaign trail to win.

“It is said that great leaders are born, not made” and so no matter how hard one struggles against nature, if leadership qualities are not a part of that nature, one will never acquire them no matter how long and hard one labours in the vineyard. It takes a wise man to have the humility to look in the mirror, face the facts of life and step aside. Such a man will be greatly admired for having the wisdom to accept his own reality.

This country needs a second chance. There have been too many broken promises, too many missteps, too much money wasted with no returns. The Bahamas cannot survive such ineptitude much longer.

The Opposition must be led, not only by someone with leadership qualities, but someone who has the wisdom to draw the best and brightest to their side and work in unity together for the good of the country.

Remember: God did not give this country to the PLP, nor did he give it to the FNM. He gave it to the Bahamian people in trust for future generations.