WASHINGTON, D.C., August 5, 2012 – Nassau Guardian Executive Editor Candia Dames wrote a brilliant NATIONAL REVIEW commentary that raised some legitimate questions about the campaign tactics being employed by both the governing Free National Movement (FNM) and the Opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) leading up to the upcoming general election in The Bahamas.
Aside from the journalistic excellence Ms. Dames exhibited in the well-crafted article that was published on Wednesday, August 4, she uses some corroborative examples of claims made by both political parties to back up the assertion made in the article’s headline that both parties are “playing dirty” politics primarily in their campaign advertisements.
In her NATIONAL REVIEW commentary, Ms. Dames makes this very compelling observation: “In the absence of political rallies – which traditionally have drawn large crowds of enthusiasts and have been a hallmark feature of the Bahamian political season – the major political parties are still expected to spend top dollar on political advertising with the governing Free National Movement (FNM) attempting to portray Dr. Hubert Minnis as a strong and decisive leader in these unprecedented times.”
To be sure, no matter how much money the FNM spends on advertisements leading up to the next general election, it is virtually impossible for the party to convince the Bahamian electorate that Prime Minister Minnis has been “a strong and decisive leader in these unprecedented times.”
Strong? Absolutely not. Decisive? Total nonsense. Over his past four years as Prime Minister, Dr. Minnis has convincingly demonstrated the exact oppositive of these two descriptive adjectives.
Clearly, The Bahamas is in deep, deep trouble in a number of areas because of a lack of good governance by Dr. Hubert Minnis and his FNM Cabinet and other governmental decision-makers.
Dr. Minnis may be a good gynecologist, but he has been an abysmally awful Prime Minister over the past four years, and he has increasingly demonstrated that he is incapable of dealing with the serious problems that have engulfed The Bahamas.
For example, when Peter Turnquest was forced to resign from his cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance because of a scandal that is still simmering, rather than seek advice from a well-established financial expert like Sir Franklyn Wilson or Anthony Ferguson of CFAL, he chose to “roll the dice” and gamble with the ongoing stability of the country’s economy at stake by making a series of missteps in trying to find a suitable replacement for Mr. Turnquest.
At first, he announced the appointment of Senator Kwasi Thompson, Minister of State for Grand Bahama, as interim Minister of Finance – presumably until a competent replacement for Mr. Turnquest could be found. However, after he was unable to find someone from among the many first-rate financial experts in the country who was willing to accept a Senate appointment and join his cabinet as Minister of Finance, he assumed the responsibilities of the Minister of Finance, even though he reportedly has confided to some political colleagues that he “has never been good with numbers.”
Given the dire states of the country’s economy, it is now crucial that Prime Minister Minnis abandon his approach to governance and use the inducement of patriotism in seeking help from known financial experts, no matter which political party they support. That’s how serious the economic crisis is in the country.
Sir Franklyn Wilson and Anthony Ferguson of CFAL were the first two persons who crossed my mind in this regard because over the years they have irrefutably demonstrated that they are two of the country’s preeminent financial experts. However, there are a number of qualified financial experts in the country who love The Bahamas and will be willing to put love for country above politics.
An even more critical and urgent problem facing the country that the Prime Minister must take responsibility for is the increasingly deadly consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in The Bahamas. Indeed, it is mainly due to his government’s mismanagement of the crisis and his personal involvement in creating an atmosphere for it becoming more severe that a growing number of Bahamian lives are in jeopardy.
As I noted in a previous article, the country would not now be like a dinghy adrift in a storm during the current healthcare crisis if at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in The Bahamas, Prime Minister Minnis did not nonsensically decide to pick a “political fight” with Minister of Health Dr. Duane Sands, whose medical credentials are impeccable and who was unquestionably one of the most effective Ministers in his cabinet.
To be sure, if Prime Minister Minnis were not so suborn and politically naïve, he would have quickly recognized his mistake once the COVID-19 pandemic became a serious problem in The Bahamas and apologize to Dr. Sands and beg him to rejoin his cabinet as Minister of Health.
Instead, he chose to gamble with the healthcare of hundreds of thousands of Bahamians by appointing Renward Wells as Minister of Health, notwithstanding the fact that historically Mr. Well’s nomadic political resume is more reflective of a political wheeler and dealer, with no medical experience and, indeed, no “executive management” experience on the scale of what is required at the Ministry of Health.
There is no question that Mr. Wells is “out of his depth” as Minister of Health, and as the spectre of the Delta variant of COVID-19 looms menacingly as a serious problem in near-by Florida — which many Bahamians consider to be an “extension” of The Bahamas — Prime Minister Minnis should move expeditiously to replace Mr. Wells with someone more competent in matters related to healthcare and save Bahamian lives.
As of today, “The global tally of confirmed cases of the coronavirus-borne illness COVID-19 topped 200 million on Thursday (August 5), reaching a milestone that the World Health Organization had predicted just a day ago would come by next week in the latest sign of just how far and fast the virus has spread,” according to one published report.
“The official death toll, as recorded by Johns Hopkins University, stands at 4.26 million, although the WHO and other agencies have said the actual numbers are likely much higher given shortages of testing in some places and discrepancies in how countries record their numbers,” the report noted.
Surely, considering this grim forecast, the Competent Authority in The Bahamas should heed the advice proffered above to save lives in The Bahamas because it is almost a certainty that the Delta variant of COVID-19 will very soon begin to spread among The Bahamas’ more than 350,000 population – actually more than 400,000, if the estimated 50,000-plus illegal Haitians reportedly living in the country are included.
