(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is such powerful commentary published in The Tribune on Monday, February 6, 2023, we decided to share it with readers of BAHAMAS CHRONICLE.)
By MALCOLM STRACHAN
NASSAU, Bahamas –Talking politics can be a passionate business. When I sit down and talk politics, it can get heated. People believe strongly in their viewpoints. But at the end of the day, we win or we lost at the ballot box. How did we get to a place where death threats are part of our new political landscape?
On Friday, the Prime Minister’s office received two anonymous calls making death threats against the incumbent Philip “Brave” Davis.
An urgent briefing was called, with Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander in attendance. He said there were not one, but two calls, shortly after noon, about 15 minutes apart, threatening to kill Mr Davis.
He was blunt and clear in his assessment, saying: “We, as Bahamians, it shouldn’t happen. When you’re talking about threatening the nation’s leader and we as Bahamians, how we got to this level in threatening individuals, and you can go beyond the Prime Minister and individuals and we take this very seriously.”
Was this out of the blue? Well, it might not even have been the first threat to the Prime Minister last week.
During a protest outside Parliament with members and supporters of the Coalition of Independents in attendance, a man in the crowd can be heard shouting about the Prime Minister, and using the word assassinate.
What does the Coalition of Independents leader, Lincoln Bain, say about that? He went on a livestream on Friday on Facebook, during which he noted the incident and said: “He made some comments that were to the effect of … all of these police out here for Bahamians, it’s like they want to kill us, they need to go kill them. He did not say who the them was or identify who the them was.”
I sat and listened to the video and the words Mr Bain heard are not the ones being shouted. Granted, quite what the person was shouting is a little unclear – but let’s not be making up what was said out of whole cloth, Mr. Bain.
Mr. Bain did find his way to a criticism of threats. He said: “We want to make it categorically clear that we do not condone threats against any Bahamian in this country, especially the Bahamian who is our chief servant and who works for us and on our behalf, or who is supposed to work for us and on our behalf.”
Notice there that even in his condemnation, Mr. Bain manages to undermine the target of the threats by saying they are “supposed” to work for us, implying that they are not. Also, he criticises threats only against Bahamians. Threats should be criticised against anyone. The place of a person’s birth should not make them open to being threatened.
See Mr. Strachan’s compete commentary in The Tribune at http://www.tribune242.com/news/2023/feb/06/insight-death-threats-prime-minister-must-be-conde/
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