The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

There is no such thing as a PLP Governor General or FNM Governor General

It appears that the Bahamas is the only Caribbean country that has customarily accepted the tradition of changing Governor General synchronised with the political outcome of a General Election. From 2009 the Island of Jamaica had one Governor General when compared to the Bahamas who by the end of June would have reached four in the last decade.

An office independent of partisanship is embattling with the adopted notion that both political parties would like to appoint their own Governor General once elected. Despite the possibilities of eroding the constitutional premise of the Office of Governor-General by the wrongheadedness for the political directorate to be promoting a particular candidate for a post that is supposed to be politically neutral. There is a financial burden on the taxpayer who is left with the financial tab of paying the pension of five living former Governor Generals, including Lady Pindling and particularly the incoming GG CA Smith’s salary.

This practice has given the appearance that a political party favours a sitting Governor-General and that's the very wrong impression that we are creating by publicly lobbying for replacements. There was no reason to change Sir Arthur Foulkes in addition to it being no reason to change Dame Marguerite Pindling. If continued this will be an affront to the constitutional convention by making a partisan issue of the Governor-General's appointment. The blanket nakedness of the issue exposes a fundamental problem of our nurturing democracy over our inability to resist the temptation of politicising the constitutional tenets of our democracy. Leave somethings above politics for the good management of the affairs of The Bahamian people.

LATRAE RAHMING

Nassau,

June 16, 2019.