The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Free National Movement Senator Carl Bethel yesterday took aim at the strategy of the party’s seven rebel MPs, claiming that the absence of a coherent message from the group showed that their actions were guided by personal agenda.

Mr Bethel said that the shock move, which saw FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis ousted as leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament, emerged from an environment of political inexperience and intense ambition.

Insisting that the FNM was no longer fractured, he forecast that the upcoming elections would be determined by the Bahamian economy and distrust in the government.

He added that voters will not be looking to take chances at the polls on a “fly by night” campaign.

“This FNM will prevail despite what you see going on,” Mr Bethel said on a local radio talk show. “Those Egyptians, you ain’t gonna see no more because their only basis of action is the fact that they were elected to the House of Assembly. How were they elected? On an FNM ticket.

“It was in the pursuit of their own personal agenda because I do not see a coherent message from them as to what they sought to achieve.

“Having done what they’ve done, what are they doing now to try and fix the problem that they’ve caused? I heard something about a coalition and then I heard another person say I don’t know anything about a coalition.

“It’s an abuse of an accident of circumstance that they got FNM tickets and ran in safe FNM seats.”

Last month, Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner was appointed leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament after she and Central Grand Bahama MP Neko Grant, St Anne’s MP Hubert Chipman, North Eleuthera MP Theo Neilly, Central and South Abaco MP Edison Key, Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn, and Fort Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins sent a letter of no confidence in Dr Minnis to Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling and House Speaker Dr Kendal Major.

Those seven MPs face expulsion, suspension or a fine from the FNM.

Following the move, Mrs Butler-Turner appointed Democratic National Alliance Leader Branville McCartney as leader of opposition business in the Senate.

At the time Mrs Butler-Turner said the move was evidence that her team was willing to put the Bahamian people first to move forward to defeat the governing Progressive Liberal Party.

Mr Bethel reflected on the FNM party’s trajectory post the 2012 general elections as a guest on KISS 96.1 FM talk show Ed Fields Live.

“[2012 elections] left you with three former cabinet ministers,” he said, “all with one term experience in Cabinet, no experience in opposition except Neko Grant, that long road of opposition, and so you had a comparative lack of the full political experience.”

Mr Bethel said: “They say anyone who get elected believe they’re a king or queen I suppose, so you had combination in my view of political inexperience, unfamiliarity with the norm and the conventions and the unwritten rules and a lot of ambition. That’s why we are where we are.”

Mr Bethel acknowledged that while there may be people in the party that still did not support Dr Minnis, they were not prepared to throw away all of their hardwork “to go on a frolic”.

He argued that without the pressures of public speaking, Dr Minnis was an extremely intelligent and articulate communicator. He added that every leader had to “grow into his leadership”, pointing out that early criticisms of former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham disparaged his manner of speech.

“Is the desire of those who are all about in the press attacking Minnis,” he questioned the show’s hosts, “and doing all sorts of things abusing the constitution is that coherently being addressed?”

 “A lot of the criticism of Dr Minnis is unfair and directed,” Mr Bethel said.

“Dr Minnis has shown the same kind of dogged determination and commitment principles that I saw first of all in Cecil Wallace Whitfield … I also see it in Ingraham. I see the same determination.

“What I don’t see is the glibness, the ease of address, and we are a very vocal, very oral, society.

“In terms of the other qualities I rate Minnis very, very high. He is not the easiest person in formal speech giving circumstances.”

Speaking to Dr Minnis’ qualities, he continued: “Hardwork and commitment, and an essential quality, the quality that counts, he’s trusted by your grassroots voter. He’s trusted by voters who desperately need to know that the government, the Prime Minister that they vote for, is going to be batting for them, not the elite, not even the upper middle classes.”