The Tribune

The Black Friday march shows how an out-of-touch government is still badly misreading the signs, Malcolm J Strachan says . . .

When over a thousand Bahamians from all walks of life took to Bay Street on Black Friday, they changed the face of this country for the better.

They demonstrated to an out-of-touch government that they have had enough.

They have had enough of not being listened to. They have had enough of being lied to, day in and day out. They have had enough of feeling frightened in their homes while criminals run amok in our country. They have had enough of the empty promises and political rhetoric. They have had enough of being overlooked for opportunities in their own country while the Chinese reap the rewards.

They have had enough of this Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) and their bumbling Prime Minister, Perry Christie.

Having “just” gotten the message that the people were sick and tired, Christie had his foreign consultants/public relations firms pen a five-page letter to the organisers of the march. The point of the letter, we imagine, was to deflect attention from the groundswell of support the event was attracting, and re-direct attention back to our Prime Minister as the Alpha and the Omega. After all, the letter had the sanctimonious gesture of inviting the organisers of the event, Ranard Henfield and John Bostwick, to a meeting with the Prime Minister at his office. The organisers, in their wisdom, declined the offer publicly, much to the shock and horror of sycophantic PLP supporters.

We could hear their cries now. “How could they turn down a meeting with the chief? They don’t know who he is, eh? And he was trying to speak to their level ya know, inviting them in to deal with their ‘little concerns’. They so ungrateful!”

On the eve of the march, PLP operatives were online sowing seeds of confusion and misinformation. Their objective was simple - disrupt and hinder the effort however you can. That objective failed.

The day of the march, the PLP had changed their tactics from being the gracious and benevolent overseers to the dictators in chief. This new architype was seen manifest by the infamous voice-note sent out by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fred Mitchell, who lambasted the organisers as being Free National Movement front-men, who were promoting the concerns and issues of the people, issues the Minister described as “pedestrian”.

Foot, meet mouth.

In one audio clip, Mitchell had set the cat amongst the pigeons. The people were livid! The voice-note was shared around the country, and citizens were alarmed at the high-handed, holier than though, flippant approach of their chief foreign diplomat. After all, Mitchell himself was a demonstrator extraordinaire in his own right. Surely he should see the irony in what he has done? But alas, no such introspection occurred, only the dismissiveness that comes with age.

Which turns us to the march itself.

We were horrified to see PLP Ministers and PLP Members of Parliament, dressed in black in attendance at the starting site. Many people questioned why they would attend an event that was largely organised to protest actions they had done or failed to do in this term in office. The answer is simple: they were there to hijack it.

But what they did not bargain for was the resolve of the people. The organisers called for their supporters to “turn their backs” to them - and that is exactly what they did.

Moments before leading the protesters on the march, lead organiser Ranard Henfield laid into four of the government members who showed up to the event. Those PLP members were Shane Gibson, Jerome Fitzgerald, Cleola Hamilton and Kenred Dorsett.

Henfield: “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, that’s 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.”

Bravo, Mr Henfield! Bravo!

As for the PLP MPs, they bandied out their canned political answers which they were no doubt supplied by their consultants - “we are here because we support change”. What utter garbage.

This from a grouping who have had four and a half years to effect real change but have done nothing but make life harder for the people of this country.

Instead of implementing policies and plans that would benefit Bahamians, they have bowed to the will of the Chinese and sided with foreign interests time and time again.

So, no Minister Dorsett or Fitzgerald, we don’t care to hear what you have to say any longer. You’ve had your chance to govern and we have seen what you’ve done with it. You should be ashamed of yourselves. But as you have no shame, we will have to remove you from office, and bring good governance to this country once again.

The Bahamian people deserve it, and they are tired of waiting. They have had enough.

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