THE RUMBLINGS IN THE POLITICAL FIRMAMENT
viagra doctor times;”>
discount viagra salve times;”>Putting two and two together and making it five…
A photograph was taken at the airport on arrival of the Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis in Georgetown, Exuma on 10 September. At the airport to greet him as is the custom when a senior political figure arrives and the junior in status is present was the Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell. On board the plane with the Deputy Prime Minister was Anthony Moss the MP for Exuma. Mr. Mitchell was there attending for the second time the annual convocation with the community of Exuma on the future of their community and the question and answer period with Ministers of the Government. Some 300 people attended the meeting. That was the purpose and intent. No more no less.
The reason this becomes important is that the times being what they are, people started putting two and two together and making it five, at least as far as Fred Mitchell, the MP for Fox Hill is concerned. Not that it matters in its essence but it is annoying when so much has to be done in this country, when the fortunes of the PLP are to quote the brother of the Prime Minister Gary Christie “soft for the PLP”.
As Obie Wilchombe MP likes to say, the truth is there is a convention coming up. The players are lining up for the stage with their backers and each is acting out their own strategy. The rumblings are for a leadership contest. This columnist will believe it when it happens. Not before. The PLP does not seem to us to be that kind of organization. It must be careful that it does not have the frog in the warm water problem. If you put a frog in hot water, it will jump out immediately but being cold blooded, if you place it in cold water and gradually raise the temperature to boiling it will stay right in the water and die not realizing that the temperature is too high to sustain its life.
What are intelligent men and women to do, when they have a concern for the fate of their party and government? The answer for some is to clearly sit and say nothing. The status quo must be maintained at all costs.
When Michael Heseltine, the former Defence Minister in Margaret Thatcher’s government, decided at the height of her primeministership to challenge her for the leadership of the party, he knew he may have been writing a suicide note politically and he was. He ran and lost but in the end the leadership fight was so fractious that it broke the spirit of Mrs. Thatcher and she resigned and another election was called. She gathered her forces behind John Major and defeated Mr. Heseltine when he ran again. But change came.
In Jamaica, in Canada, we have examples where Prime Ministers decided in midterm they had had enough and arranged for their successor to be chosen and to have a decent period to put his or her stamp on the government then call a general election.
In Singapore, the great and admired Lee Kwan Yew stepped down and served in the Cabinet under his successor as the Senior Minister for a period before stepping out of public life. It no doubt helped to cement his legacy and stabilize the government.
Then there is Robert Mugabe, who at the age of 89 ran for another six year term as President of Zimbabwe and won. He is still serving today. There is John Compton of St Lucia who came out of retirement as a former Prime Minister, took over the party and won again at the age of 83 but died three years later from a stroke.
In our own experience, Hubert Ingraham the former Prime Minister under the FNM, said he would leave after serving ten years or two terms. He campaigned on it because he thought Sir Lynden who he retired at the age of 62 was there too long, twenty five years. When the time came up so soon, he wanted to change his mind and tried every machination in the book to stay on. He arranged a succession after being forced to do so, leaving a lame duck Tommy Turnquest as Leader elect. The FNM went to general elections shattered by the fight and lost the general election.
Young Brent Dean, the Publisher of the Nassau Guardian, who is not Candia Dames, no FNM ideologue, who is from a PLP family, his grandfather being the late Frank Edgecombe former PLP MP writing in the Nassau Guardian in The National Review that Ministers of the government are on their knees in front of the present incumbent and no one will challenge him and that in the end, the incumbent will be there until he goes to the grave. The piece was thoughtful and interesting.
You have Raynard Rigby, highly educated and well trained man with a family of his own and his own business. He says he wants a chance. You have Obie Wilchcombe, a Minister of Tourism, who has been waiting in the wings since Sir Lynden Pindling died. He says he wants to have a chance. You have Philip Davis who says he wants to have a chance. He has been the go to man for everyone and anything for the PLP. There is no intrinsic reason that disqualifies him. He is waiting in the wings.
There is the pressure from the endless speculation, the protestations of Leslie Miller, the MP for Tall Pines who is PLP and who told the press last week that he is bothered that the incumbent wants to stay on. You have Philip Galanis, a former PLP MP and Senator; you have George Smith, the former Minister. Then you have the FNM. You then have the country.
Right now this country is being cheated and distracted by this endless shouting and protesting and speculation. There are miles to go before we sleep. We are being done a great disservice by this public rowing and we need someone big enough to set the House back in some order.
The PLP has to win this general election. The enemies of the PLP are vicious. If we lose, we are all sunk. No jobs for PLPs. Those who just got them will be fired. Those who have contracts with the government be terminated. Those who have been promised land and businesses will all have them cancelled. That is the cold hard reality of the FNM coming to power. They are vicious and will not blink one second after they take over including moving to ruin the reputation and legacy of the PLP and its incumbent with a vengeance. Keep fucking around and the PLP will find out the hard way.
This column is PLP. Not an enemy of the PLP or the Prime Minister. It can only go so far with trying to indicate the warning signs of disaster looming on the present course.
Will some sane person please help?
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 12th September 2015 up to midnight: 252,300;
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