THE FNM’S TRIBALISM WILL REAP A BITTER HARVEST
A message came through to the Chairman of the PLP Senator Fred Mitchell. The supporter was angry that the party had not yet responded to the attack on the press by Halson Moultrie, the Speaker of the House, on Tuesday 29th October 2019. The event had not happened even 24 hours and usually the PLP waits for one news cycle before responding so that it does not get mixed up in the first rush of responses. That was not good enough. The supporter said that Mr. Moultrie was a jackass and that PLP supporters wanted his head. They wanted him gone. That is the level to which bitterness has creeped into the dialogue of the partisan politics in this country. You have a Prime Minister who has engendered so much hatred amongst the supporters of the other side, that it is difficult to see how Hubert Minnis can continue to live in The Bahamas once he loses office. The same will go for so many of them. The country has an unprecedented level of tribalism, with PLPs being fired from positions, overlooked for positions for which they are obviously qualified and the FNM continues oblivious to the hurt being caused. It will be in political terms a take no prisoners event if Mr. Minnis loses power. He has started the precedent by seeking to slave shame and jail his opponents. That lowered the bar. His successors in office will be bound by their supporters to do no less and that means starting with him, to ensure that he ends up in the prisoner’s dock and in ultimately in jail.