ALFRED SEARS

During the past week Alfred Sears, buy viagra the former MP and former Chair of the College of The Bahamas and former Education Minister, viagra    ran one of those expensive full four colour wrap arounds in the Nassau Guardian to promote his candidacy for the Leadership of the PLP.  He answered the questions people are asking about him and his campaign or at least made a stab at it. Why is he doing it?  He is not an MP, so how can he lead?  Is his branch supporting him?  The answer to the last question is yes, he says.

The impression one gets is a man with a well-heeled campaign who has a lot of money to spend. Some argue that he should have the money since he is connected as an attorney to the major numbers boys.  For the record both he and they deny it.   This was not in the establishment’s eyes to have gone this way as a serious challenge, although it was looked at very much from the start with a jaundiced eye.

The establishment is taking it seriously and wondering what the end game is, since in its view and of the general polity there is no rational possibility of winning against the juggernaut.  Whatever Mr. Sears’ end game, for some people this shows that the PLP is a democratic party and can withstand the challenge of leadership without the discombobulation and acrimony just witnessed in the FNM. That they think is a plus.  The fact is that the PLP has taken too long to hold a convention.  The party’s constitution says to have one every year.  But it has been almost a decade since the last one, always being postponed by one excuse after another.  This has caused a breakdown in the actual fellowship of membership. Membership must mean something and the annual get together is a key to that membership and camaraderie. It is simply shameful that a country which was less wealthy in the 1960s and 1970s and 1980s could hold a convention every year and in the years since the election to office in 1997 of Hubert Ingraham, the PLP cannot hold annual general conventions.  This year one is scheduled for November and Mr. Sears has decided to challenge the status quo. Most of the pundits say it can only be to set out the image for a second run.    Win lose or draw, the challenge is good for the party and the country.  But we warn Mr. Sears that this is not a contest for the soft hearted.  The man at the top didn’t get there by being soft hearted and the game is for keeps so expect that the resistance will be stiff and hard.  We also warn you that the odds are insuperable.