The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

HUNDREDS of Bahamians took to the streets on Friday in solidarity with the "We March Bahamas" movement, whose organisers called on Bahamians far and wide to "turn their backs" to some politicians, mainly those affiliated with the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP).

Promoted as a silent protest, "We March Bahamas" began at Arawak Cay at 1pm, with one estimate of up 1,000 gathering at the rally point.

Dressed all in black, protestors faithfully marched from the rally point to Rawson Square without incident, occasionally singing the Bahamian national anthem and chanting things like "the power of the people is better than the people in power".

Moments prior to the start of the march, Labour and National Insurance Minister Shane Gibson, Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald, Environment and Housing Minister Kenred Dorsett, as well as South Beach MP Cleola Hamilton, all clad in black, made an unexpected appearance at the Arawak Cay meeting site. 

As the four PLP MPs mingled with those participating in the march, which included union leaders, religious leaders, radio personalities and the like, various protestors could be heard questioning - mostly under their breath - why Mr Gibson and the others were there.

Others lamented that those appearances would offset the focus of the demonstration, and at one point during the march, some protestors started chanting "Shane got to go".

This comes after Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell, in an apparent audio recording, condemned the protest as a propaganda exercise, and avowed that no PLP supporter should be "caught dead" at the event. Mr Mitchell said that the demonstration had put "young PLPs in a tizzy" but insisted that the march wouldn't change "diddly squat."

Mr Mitchell described the list of demands presented by organisers as "pedestrian", noting that the campaign was not special or revolutionary. 

Moments before leading protesters on the highly-anticipated march, lead organiser Ranard Henfield laid into the the four government members for showing up to the event. 

"To now look around and see the ministers of government who were just blasting us on the airwaves and in the papers for the last few days, now standing with us in black, thats' a political ploy, we're not interested," he said. "Every time they have walked up to me I've turned my back to them. I have no respect for what I see happening here today. 

"And it's clearly their way of trying to hijack this and make it political and to come off to the people as if they stand with us when we know they don't stand with us. Because if you can stand with Sandals, who fired 600 Bahamians, and you can still meet at Sandals this week, and wine and dine and shake hands with (Sandals owner Gordon 'Butch' Stewart) after he had 600 families losing their homes, kids being pulled from school, you're not a friend to the people, you're not a friend to us. 

"So I have no respect for what they stand for."

Mr Henfield later made an impassioned speech to the thousands of participants after they had gathered in Rawson Square, cautioning them to "turn their back" to politicians when approached by them, charging that they all have "empty promises".

However, in his initial interview with The Tribune at Arawak Cay, Mr Henfield hit back at Mr Mitchell's suggestions that the protest would be for naught, and asserted that via their actions on Friday, the protesters would prove Mr Mitchell wrong. 

"I heard the voice note from Fred Mitchell this morning and I thought it was too funny," Mr Henfield said. "To hear Fred Mitchell say no matter what we do today it won't change anything. You have the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the member of Parliament for Fox Hill, saying to the Bahamian people 'I don't care what you do, you ain't going to change nothing, the status quo will remain'. 

"And what you see here is those of us standing out here saying we're tired of the status quo. We will show him we will change the status quo. We will change him."

Mr Henfield also dismissed Prime Minister Perry Christie's Thursday night letter to the march's organisers, which stated that he is "painfully aware" that the country has suffered tremendous setbacks and extended an invitation for a meeting. 

"If the Prime Minister is not in Rawson Square by 2pm to address this today, I can assure you this country will stop today," Mr Henfield said. "But the Prime Minister asking to meet now at the ninth hour; we have no interest in meeting the Prime Minister. We will meet the Prime Minister when he tables the legislation we have asked.

"We will meet the Prime Minister when the Attorney General has drafted the court actions we've asked for. Until then I have nothing to meet the Prime Minister for."

Meanwhile, Mr Dorsett told The Tribune that his reasons for showing up to the protest was because he, like all Bahamians, "all support change".

"I didn't get involved in public office four and a half years ago because I was prepared to accept the status quo," he said. "I got involved and offered myself for public office to facilitate change, and to do it from the political directorate's perspective. 

"And over the last four and a half years we have seen evidence of some of the foundational work for that change, be it energy sector reform, be it educational reform, be it change in fiscal reform, be it change in social reform, the safety net, and all the rest of it. 

"And so the concept of change is not something I don't think any Bahamian is averse to. And with the advancement of the National Development Plan, which was advanced on a bi-partisan approach, it has given Bahamians from all walks of life, far and wide to make a contribution to what we all want for out country."

However, Democratic National Alliance Leader Branville McCartney claimed that the presence of Mr Gibson, Mr Fitzgerald, Mr Dorsett and Ms Hamilton was an attempt by the government to "show face" and sarcastically chided them for not adhering to Mr Mitchell's admonitions. 

"They came out to show face, but they gone contrary to what Fred Mitchell said," Mr McCartney said. "Fred Mitchell told people not to come out. Fred Mitchell encouraged people not to exercise their constitutional right to demonstrate, their constitutional right of assembly, their constitutional right of freedom of speech, and I find it amazing, because it used to be the PLP who supported those kind of rights."

He added: "This shows that the Bahamian people are fed up. Something similar happened a few years back with the BTC sale, and a few months after that the (Free National Movement) was gone. A few months from now the PLP will be gone. This is the memorial service for the PLP. May they rest in peace."