WHEN IT’S  TIME TO MOVE ON IN POLITICS

Former Prime Minister Perry Christie tells the press that he disagrees with party policy on Wednesday 11 October 2023

The former Prime Minister Perry Christie lost the leadership of the PLP following the general election of 2017.  That should have been the final curtain, at least as far  as the public stage and the public policy is concerned.  This past week, we learned that the Bahamian saying “ every goodbye is not gone” is more true than ever.

There is a spirited debate, not so secret, going on with unseemly haste about who will succeed Obie Wilchombe following his untimely passing on 25 October 2023.  The vultures were busy picking over the bones, before the body was under the ground. One of them is a former Member of Parliament who until recently was nursing the MICAL seat, of a sitting PLP Member of Parliament.

The Party issued a statement saying that the Leader’s position on the West Grand Bahama and Bimini seat was that of no former Member of Parliament was being considered for the seat. In another PLP dispensation, under Pindling, under Christie, it would have been unthinkable that this would be publicly contradicted by one so prominent in the party. That is the kind of stuff you whisper in the king’s ear. Yet, there it was in stark relief in the  strap line of The Nassau Guardian, the former Prime Minister Perry Christie, contradicting the Leader of the Party.  This was the very thing that the PLP was trying to avoid, an unseemly fight over a seat that was not yet officially declared vacant.

In 2002, the very same man, then Leader of the PLP said that he would not run Whitney Bastian because of a background of allegations. He did not.  The PLP lost the sea.  He said that he would rather lose doing  the right thing than win doing the wrong thing.  That was a point of principle.

Now that Philip Davis is the Leader of the Party, that principle seems to have been forgotten and yes  it appears that there is a spoil for a fight, when  clearly the principle of when it is time to move off the stage is one which should be embraced. This is Davis’ time.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 14 October 2023 up to midnight: 373,983;

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