The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I admire that Alfred Sears had the courage to challenge Perry Christie at the last PLP convention. It is sad that the PLP did not have the good sense to get rid of Mr Christie and go into the election with a better leader.

Following Mr Christie was a bad, bad idea. The party nearly lost every one of its seats. Mr Christie even lost his seat, embarrassing himself.

What I liked about Mr Sears was he was talking about reform and changing the party. The PLP has too many stalwart councilors. Mr Christie kept naming them because he wanted to stay in power. He would name people who were loyal to him.

The PLP also needs to think about putting term limits in place for its leaders. In 60 years, the PLP has only had two leaders – Mr Christie and Sir Lynden Pindling. Maybe make it where no one could serve more than 10 years or 15 years as leader?

Mr Sears is the best person to change the party. He is not one of the insiders. If the PLP stays with the same old group of people who have led the party from Pindling’s time, nothing will change and the PLP will lose the next election.

People say Mr Sears can’t be leader because he is not in the House of Assembly. That’s not true. There is no rule anywhere that says that. The PLP could have a leader in the House who serves as leader of the opposition and Mr Sears could be the leader of the party who changes it and makes it more relevant to non-PLP voters.

The PLP can’t win an election with its base alone. It needs to attract swing and independent voters. The party needs a leader who is not linked to PLP misdeeds of the past. Bahamians respect Mr Sears and they do not associate him with the scandalous crew in the PLP.

I hope Mr Sears runs. I hope PLPs give him a chance.

MARTHA S GREENE

Nassau,

August 27, 2017.