The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

A shotgun political marriage of convenience has now ended in a very messy public divorce of necessity.

Inagua native Dewitt Halson Moultrie took a very circuitous route to the Speaker’s chair. Upon donning the Speaker’s robes, he immediately and repeatedly proved that a leopard cannot change its spots.

Ever since 1729 when John Colebrooke became the first Speaker of our Parliament, successive Speakers have tried to delicately thread the needle of impartiality while being careful not to openly waltz with the political party that nominated them for the job.

Not so the 54th Speaker. Moultrie proved from jump street that he was an equal opportunity offender, lobbing grenades from the Speaker’s chair at both the government and the opposition.

And therein lies the man behind the Speaker’s mask. Moultrie is neither fish nor fowl, FNM nor PLP.

In his mind, perhaps, he was never just a backbencher elevated to the Speakership. He was a member of an exclusive club open only to the leaders of political parties.

He may have symbolically joined the FNM and rode that ticket to Parliament, but he was first and foremost the leader of the Bahamas Freedom Alliance (BFA), an obscure political party on the fringe of the arena.

So, deference was always going to be due to him not because of the power of the Mace, but more importantly because he was a party boss.

He is not alone in having been, at one time, a member of the PLP and of the FNM. He appears to treat political parties like socks, changing them when it suits him.

When he ran for office in the past as a PLP it was the FNM that brought suit claiming he was ineligible to run because of a residency technicality. Interestingly, it was the leader of the PLP, Brave Davis who represented him in that action.

Somehow and for some reason he soon kicked the PLP to the curb and used the guise of the BFA to stay in the arena and lob shots at both FNM and PLP.

Then in September 2015, a stealth courtship with Hubert Minnis, then in opposition, led to Moultrie formally joining the FNM.

Then Prime Minister Perry Christie and his deputy Brave Davis must have cracked open the Dom Perignon champagne that night, so relieved were they to be rid of him.

Moultrie became Minnis’ problem and whether by design or happenstance, the now PM came to rue the day he made him head of one chamber of the legislative branch of government.

Like a sniper, the Speaker laid in wait before unleashing parliamentary fury on the PLP. When he saw that Englerston MP Glenys Hanna Martin was made of lignum vitae and was never one to back down, Moultrie suspended his fire.

By then the FNM became the new target. Moultrie saw the executive as impinging on the authority of the House of Assembly. He was especially mad that he had to go, cap in hand, to the Minister of Finance, a mere front bencher who he looked down on from his Speaker’s perch, if he wanted money to purchase so much as a single toothpick (his words).

This Speaker was out of order many times and it is only because of a quirk of the Constitution that he gets to stay in the position though now as an independent member of the House.

What seems to have gotten up his nose was an ill-kept secret that the FNM nominating committee tasked with preparing candidates for the next election had quickly crossed off his name last summer.

For seven months (co-incidence?) the Speaker says he was ruminating on whether to tough it out with his now despised FNM until the next election.

With the veneer of partisanship now removed, it remains to be seen how he will preside over the chamber. He may be content to let the FNM Rottweilers clash with the PLP Pit Bulls as he did in a recent sitting of the House.

On the streets of Nassau Pit Bulls look menacing and they don’t back down from a fight. But the Rottweiler is agile and once they bite, they don’t let go.

Very few of these dog breeds are found on Inagua, home to the stubborn donkey. And you never know what a cornered donkey is going to do next.

THE GRADUATE

Nassau,

February 7, 2021