The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

IN A YouTube video spanning over two hours long, Coalition of Independents Leader Lincoln Bain did a presentation on the alleged corruption within the Free National Movement. The video is also posted on his Facebook page and has garnered thousands of views. Bain obviously has the FNM in his crosshairs, as he touched on the Immovable Property Act and aragonite - claiming of the latter, without ironclad evidence, that foreign entities are making billions from this natural resource. For these two weighty issues alone the COI leader and his rabid supporters are annoyed with the FNM.

My understanding of the Immovable Property Act of 1981 was that it was implemented by the Progressive Liberal Party government under Sir Lynden O Pindling to preserve land for future generations of Bahamians. Since it was repealed by the Hubert Ingraham administration in 1993 with the International Persons Landholding Act, there have been hundreds of foreign investors banging on our doors for investment opportunities. While this has spurred economic growth, it has driven up the cost of land for the average Bahamian. Today, most Bahamian adults living on New Providence have little to no prospects of ever being a homeowner. They’re doomed to be tenants for the rest of their lives. The time has come to put a moratorium on the amount of land foreigners can purchase.

The core base of support for Bain seems to be among generation Z Bahamians. This demographic was born between 1997 and 2012. Some have undoubtedly overlapped with the latter part of the time frame of millennials, which would be in the early nineties up to 1996. My point is that these youthful Bahamians are not old enough to fully appreciate the sorry state The Bahamas was in when the FNM assumed office in August 1992. The country was near bankrupt and few, if any, major foreign investors were interested in coming here. At the time the Ingraham administration did what it did to woo much needed investors to the country in order to put Bahamians back to work.

For much of the eighties, the illicit drug trafficking trade was keeping the Bahamian economy afloat. I am not saying that I fully agree with the repealing of the Immovable Property Act. But I do understand why such a drastic measure was taken. Lacking objectivity, Bain wouldn’t dare mention this. He needs to present the FNM as anti-Bahamian to his base.

But discussing the matters of aragonite and real estate is the not the purpose of this write-up. Bain’s nearly two-hour talk was prefaced with a discussion on the United Bahamian Party. It was important for Bain to highlight the corruption within the UBP, as he sought to link the defunct party with the FNM. It is here that I suspect that COI supporters underestimate the influence and popularity of the UBP in its heyday. It would probably be a source of surprise to COI members to learn that the UBP won the popular vote in the historic 1967 general election, winning 45.05 percent to the PLP’s 42.83 percent. The UBP won 19,408 votes to the PLP’s 18,452 votes. In 1962, the UBP gained 26,500 votes to the 32,261 for the PLP. What the results of the general elections of 1962 and 1967 show is that tens of thousands of Black Bahamians supported the UBP.

Attempting to link the party to the FNM is really a moot point to those who know Bahamian history. If Bain is going to berate the FNM for accepting UBP elements within its organisation, he then needs to berate the tens of thousands of ordinary Black Bahamians who supported that party. In addition to discussing the alleged UBP corruption, Bain would utter what I consider to be slanderous assertions about six members of the FNM Dissident Eight being corrupt.

Without citing any reputable sources, Bain alleged that while only two Dissident Eight members left the PLP over disagreements they had with Pindling, the remaining members were marred in corruption. In fact, Bain would further allege that one Dissident Eight member was convicted of a drug matter. Titled The Truth About The FNM: The Most Corrupt Party in Bahamian History, Bain’s broadside cannot be taken seriously by students of Bahamian history.

The Free-PLP was initially composed of Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield, Sir Arthur Foulkes, Maurice Moore, Warren J Levarity, James Shepherd, Curtis McMillan, Elwood Donaldson and George Thompson. These men made a tremendous sacrifice in standing up to a leader who was viewed as a political messiah by thousands of Bahamians. The violent assault on Sir Cecil in Lewis Yard, Grand Bahama in 1970 underscores how dangerous it was to stand up to the chief. The animosity between the PLP and Free-PLP was due to the fact that each Dissident Eight member was a staunch member of the PLP. In fact, Sir Cecil, Sir Arthur, Dr McMillan and Levarity were Cabinet ministers.

Consequently, it is historical revisionism to claim that the UBP is the foundation of the FNM. It is really the PLP. Yes, Sir Roland Symonette, Norman Solomon and other UBP members joined the fledgling FNM as allies against the PLP. Bain conveniently ignored the episode about the UBP faction that broke off from the FNM to form the Bahamas Democratic Party ahead of the 1977 general election. The relationship between Sir Cecil and the UBP elements was not as cozy as history revisionists such as Bain would have us believe. In closing, with only two remaining Dissident Eight members with us today, I believe that it is all the more important that the COI leader retract his slanderous allegations regarding that august group of men who changed the course of Bahamian history in 1970. He should also issue an apology. Six of the FNM founding fathers are no longer with us. They cannot defend themselves. Their names should be honoured, not defamed.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, Grand Bahama

February 4, 2025.