The Tribune

THERE is a particular line in the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls that goes like this: “The world is a fine place and worth fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.”

The Spanish Civil War story on which the book is based is brutal but the underlying message is hauntingly clear – the desire to hold on to life erupts like an internal volcanic explosion, growing fast and furious when the possibility of losing it stares you in the face and you know you have one chance before the church bell tolls for you, taking you from all you loved, fought for, risked your life for, to carry you home.

Yesterday, Dr Hubert Minnis rang that bell himself, not for being called home, but setting the stage for the political fight of his life. No one doubts he knows the depth of the battle, though he may feel history is on his side. In 2017, he outwitted an attempted coup for leadership of the FNM once before, demonstrating political mastery.

It feels like a million years ago when troubles seemed so minor by comparison to what we face today. This time Minnis is not fighting a few dissenters. He is battling to remain commander in chief in a local regiment to wage war against a disease that in less than two years has turned the world as we once knew it upside down.

The question voters will have to answer is a straightforward one. It’s the same question football teams and school board districts and corporations large and small every day ask: Is he the best person for the job or can someone else do it better?

Of course, there will be other discussions that will rage and range from ‘Why now, did he want to avoid an open sitting of Parliament?’ to ‘Did the news of the nurses’ sick-outs and the hospitals on verge of collapse drive the decision?’ If so, taking a chance and getting re-elected, he will feel entitled to introduce stricter measures, closer to the New Zealand model where one new case was cause for a national three-day lockdown.

If he is not re-elected, the whole situation will be someone else’s problem and he can say he did all he could to balance economic survival with essential health needs.

I was out of the country yesterday on a family medical matter, far from the minute-by-minute news, the dozens of opinions, the analysis of pundits and predictors. Just viewing it at a slightly greater distance, knowing that in The Bahamas we are patient about standing in line when we shouldn’t be and impatient when it comes to governing. In The Bahamas, I know that we are more likely to vote people out than vote them in.

In The Bahamas, we forgive those who trespass against us, including our own kin, but we have little forgiveness in our hearts for those who don’t do right by us or we think don’t do right by us in a position of power.

We have a right to question what about those who did not have a chance to register. Well, the signs were there for months if we had paid enough attention. We have a right to ask what happened to Freedom of Information, and promises of transparency and accountability. And if we vote because of those things, we are doing what responsible voters do, consider the issues, the system and make the best decision.

But if we cast our votes based on the lack of a cure for COVID-19 and its impact on a country still reeling from the insidious, ever-changing and evolving disease that has stolen too many lives and left too many families in emotional and financial turmoil, then we are the fool for whom the bell tolls. We know far less about this disease than we know of it. The science changes and the recommendations about safety protocols change as data is collected, research expands, more options become available.

Voters have a right to judge the FNM administration under the leadership of Dr. Hubert A Minnis on a myriad of matters and weigh the good and the bad, or the achievements and disappointments, but no one in either major party or any of the splinter parties that are likely to form a coalition and could well end up surprising everyone should be judged on the slaughter that COVID- 19 has wreaked on The Bahamas. In this, we are not alone and all of us need to find the strength and humanity to come together as one, even in the heat of the political season.