The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

MOVED to action primarily because of the ongoing issues plaguing the New Providence Landfill and surrounding areas, about 200 We March Bahamas protesters marched to the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday, calling on the nation’s leader to “bring some resolution” to their concerns.

Clad in all black and armed with placards, the protesters marched from Scotiabank in Cable Beach towards the Sir Cecil Wallace Whitfield Building on West Bay Street, waving signs that read “Jubilee Lives Matter”, “Our Lives Matter”, “Rights Delayed is Rights Denied” as well as sporadically chanting things like “Kill the Bill,” referring to the government’s proposed Interception of Communications Bill.

Ranard Henfield, We March Bahamas lead organiser, said at the end of the march that he, along with his daughter, would be leaving the country on Sunday, after having sent his pregnant wife overseas a month earlier.

He said he has “no idea” when he plans to return. However he said he would be willing to return to the country to take part in organised protests.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Perry Christie told The Tribune in Rawson Square shortly after the march that despite all of his efforts, including the movement’s ‘Black Friday’ protest in November, Mr Henfield “started off on the wrong foot” with his demands to the government and charged that the group would “never be able to get things done the way they’re trying to get it done”.

Mr Christie also accused Mr Henfield of seeking to present his concerns from “the outside”, based on We March’s actions towards him. “I could only assume that you don’t want the outcomes you’re arguing for, because you can’t force anybody to do anything,” Mr Christie said.

Nonetheless, Mr Henfield maintained that yesterday’s march was key to demonstrating that the We March movement was influential enough “to inspire Bahamians enough to have the audacity to march to their Prime Minister’s Office as opposed to simply marching to Pompey Square or marching to Rawson’s Square”.

“I think what this shows is that we, as a people, are no longer afraid of our politicians nor even our Prime Minister,” he said. “But it also shows that, like I’ve been saying for the last few weeks, democracy has changed. It’s no longer where we just sit down and accept whatever our politicians say and do. We now see Bahamians, for the last few months since Black Friday, standing up and demanding to be included in the national conversations, the conversations in Parliament, the conversations in Cabinet and the conversations with political parties at their private meetings, saying it’s time you put the people’s voice in the room.”

Mr Henfield also refuted claims that he was in talks to join one of the country’s political parties, revealing that he plans to leave the country within the next week.

“I am not in conversations with any particular party, or any party for that matter,” he said. “I moved my wife out of the country a month ago, and if you noticed today you’ll see me and my daughter. My wife is eight months and about two weeks pregnant, our baby is due in another week or two.

“I will leave the country this Sunday. I am not interested in running; you won’t see my name on a ballot. You won’t see me at any campaigns or any rallies, you won’t see me endorsing any parties, nor will you see any party saying ‘well, Ranard is now a part of us’.”

When asked when he plans to return, Mr Henfield said: “Well, I have no idea when I intend to return to the country. But I can tell you this much - that I am not going to be on any ballot for any party. I’m not in conversations with any party about running for any party or taking any postings for any party. I’ve had those offers and I think I’ve made it very clear to every single party that I’m not interested. I’ve always been anti-parties, and that is because I believe once you swear your allegiance to a party, you can never be neutral.”

He added: “At some point in time if the country decides they want to march again, based on who takes the government, I’ll be glad to fly back in and lead that march as well. But I’ll be leading that march from inside or from the back of that march.”

Concern

Meanwhile, other protesters, like Melissa Allen-Maynard, a concerned Jubilee Gardens resident who has been negatively impacted by the most recent fire at the New Providence Landfill, called on the government to address the suffering she and other Tall Pines residents have had to endure as a result of the March 5 blaze.

Four weeks after the fire started, some residents of western New Providence were still complaining about lingering smoke over the weekend.

“We, the Jubilee Gardens residents are here because we have been affected for the last month,” Ms Allen-Maynard said. “We have reached out to the government, we have reached out to Environmental Health, we have reached out to (the National Emergency Management Agency), we’ve reached out to the Prime Minister. We need some resolution. We are still underneath smoke. It is really bad for us.”

Also present at the march was Fred Smith, president of the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association (GBHRA), who called on Bahamians to “get the crooks out of Parliament”.

“All these PLPs who’ve been messing up this country for the last five years need to be kicked out,” Mr Smith said. “Now I don’t know what the next crew are going to do; whoever comes in, maybe they’ll do better, maybe they’ll do worse. But we’ll march and continue to march until we kick out all of the crooks who are stealing so much of what the Bahamas has. Our freedoms, our clean air, our clean environment, our right to a job, our opportunities. Everything is just being wasted by this crew.”

Mr Christie, speaking with The Tribune on the sidelines of a World Autism Day candlelight ceremony in Rawson Square less than an hour after the protest, said while demonstrators were well within their rights to protest, the movement, and in particular its leader Mr Henfield, handled the situation regarding their concerns incorrectly.

“They have a right to demonstrate, whatever the issues are, if they feel that’s the way to get things done,” he said. “I told him a long time ago, if you really want results, you’ll sit and talk about them, but when you try to talk from outside, I could only assume that you don’t want the outcomes you’re arguing for, because you cant force anybody to do anything. You have to sit and persuade and discuss and negotiate.

“And one of the things that is very clear in the country, when it came to VAT, I negotiated and worked with the private sector and the private sector as a result, helped me to implement VAT. That’s how you do things in the Bahamas I believe, and I think he started off on the wrong foot and you can never be able to get things done the way they’re trying to get it done,” Mr Christie said.