(EDITOR’S NOTE: I had to share this excellent Letter to the Editor of the Nassau Guardian that was published on November 14, 2023, as a Guest Commentary with readers of my online publication, BAHAMAS CHRONICLE. It was written by Sean McWeeney, KC., a former Attorney-General of The Bahamas.)
GUEST COMMENTARY: BY SEAN MCWEENEY
NASSAU, Bahamas. — The Guardian’s article this morning about Davis’s leadership of the PLP being in trouble because of how well Robin Lynes did against his anointed candidate in the chairmanship race is grounded in historical ignorance. The fact of the matter is that there is a long history of this kind of “democracy-in-action” in the PLP. Indeed, unlike last Friday’s victory for the Leader and his candidate, there have been occasions when the Leader and his candidate got shot down in flames, but with no real damage to the standing of either in the Party or the country.
I am a case in point. In 1983 – exactly 40 years ago – I was the hand-picked candidate of Sir Lynden to run against the incumbent Chairman, Brenville (Bulla) Hanna. I was vigorously and openly supported by Pindling and his minions who were all over the convention floor noisily talking about how “the word come down” and how important it was to elect me because I was the one who Pindling wanted and needed, and how he couldn’t and wouldn’t work with Bulla. Sounds familiar?
Pindling himself worked the phones and personally met with delegation after delegation to push my candidacy. But he was massively opposed by A.D Hanna (his own DPM and Deputy Leader) and a host of others, including Hubert Ingraham and Perry Christie, who openly and vociferously campaigned for Bulla. The result? I was trounced! Bulla beat me 2 to 1 despite the open backing I had from the Maximum Leader.
In fact, even that experience was hardly novel. Otis Brown, A.D. Hanna’s man, had similarly trounced Pindling’s candidate in the race for chairman a few years before, in the late 70’s when Pindling was at the height of his popularity in the country and Party.
Other historical examples in the PLP are legion.
Indeed, only outsiders — those unfamiliar with the dynamics and idiosyncrasies and history of PLP politics — would interpret such events as evidence of erosion of support for the Leader. One has nothing to do with the other and one does not translate into the other. PLP leaders, from Taylor to Davis, have consistently allowed the Party’s internal democratic processes to work themselves out, have abided the result, and then – win, lose or draw – have then moved on to deal with the next day’s news.
So it was then. And so it is now.
(For the record, I came back the following year and beat Bulla nearly 3 to 1 and ended up being elected annually at Convention for five consecutive terms as Chairman. So, all’s well that ends well!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Sean McWeeney, QC, served as Attorney-General of The Bahamas from January, 1989 to August, 1992. He also served as a Senator from 1985 to 1992, and Leader of the Government in the Senate in the latter part of his parliamentary tenure. Concurrently with his service as Attorney-General, he acted on numerous occasions as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Mr. McWeeney was called to the Bahamas bar in 1978 and was admitted to the Inner Bar as Queen’s Counsel in 2009. He is a senior partner in Graham Thompson, one of the nation’s largest and oldest law firms.
Mr. McWeeney’s political involvement dates back to 1969 when, at the age of 16, he was elected the President of UNICOMM, then the leading pro-Independence/radical leftwing pressure group which famously burned the Union Jack on Clifford Park during the Queen’s Birthday celebrations in 1969 as a protest against colonialism. In 1970, Mr. McWeeney again became embroiled in major public controversy when he was expelled from Queen’s College following an inflammatory public address as Head Boy, criticizing the lack of Bahamianization of both the school faculty and curriculum.
Mr. McWeeney was elected the National Chairman of the governing Progressive Liberal in 1984. He would be elected for five consecutive terms in all (1984-1989), resigning, however, upon his appointment to the cabinet as Attorney –General in 1989.
It was during Mr. McWeeney’s tenure as Attorney-General that important innovations aimed at expediting the delivery of judicial services were introduced. These included the introduction of computerized court-reporting systems, the inauguration of night courts, and significant increases in the number of judges, magistrates and prosecutors. It was also during his tenure that the laws for the financial services sector were modernized, thereby enhancing the international competitiveness of the nation’s second major industry.
In 1998, on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of Bahamian Independence, Mr. McWeeney was recognized by the Ingraham Government for Outstanding Contributions to National Development in the area of Law, and awarded the Silver Jubilee Medal.
