By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 21, 2021 – The gender imbalance in the male-dominated Bahamas House of Assembly is about to drastically change after the upcoming September 16 general elections when all seven of the Opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) women candidates win seats in their respective constituencies.
Patricia Deveaux, PLP candidate for Bamboo Town, will easily defeat the scandal-tainted incumbent Renward Wells, and I predict that Lisa Rahming will win in Marathon, Pia Glover-Rolle in Golden Gates, and Leslia Brice in Seabreeze.
Of course, the Grand Dame of the PLP, incumbent Glenys Hanna-Martin, will be returned as MP for Englerston; Ginger Moxey is a shoo-in to win the Pineridge seat in Grand Bahama; and Senator JoBeth Coleby-Davis – thanks to Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis’ humiliation of incumbent Dr. Duane Sands – will easily win in the Elizabeth constituency.
Quite possibly, after all seven of the PLP female candidates win seats, when six of them speak for the first time in the new session of the House, they will begin their addresses by saying, “Madam Speaker…”
I’m speculating that one of the seven victorious PLP female candidates will be Speaker of the House, assuming of course that Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis follows the script as I see it.
This election has certainly ushered in “A NEW DAY” in The Bahamas, as the PLP’s election slogan proclaims.
Make no mistake about it, the long political nightmare over the past four-plus years under the inept and incompetent governance of the Free National Movement (FNM) headed by Prime Minister Dr. Hubert A. Minnis is about to come to an end.
In his address to the nation on Thursday night, August 19, PLP Leader Philip “Brave” Davis, who is poised to replace Dr. Minnis as Prime Minister of The Bahamas, enumerated a litany of reasons why Dr. Minnis should not be given another five years as Prime Minister of The Bahamas.
Outlining what he described as his “vision for a new day in The Bahamas,” Mr. Davis said this “coming election will be an historic one” and “likely the most consequential election since Independence.”
“This election is about so much more than a choice between the PLP and the FNM: this election is about our country’s survival,” Mr. Davis declared. “Everywhere we look, we see chaos and collapse and crisis.”
This additional excerpt from Mr. Davis’ powerful and comprehensive assessment of the current FNM government’s stewardship of this country speaks volumes about the failure of the FNM to provide The Bahamas with good governance over the past four-plus years:
“Our hospitals are stretched beyond capacity, affecting not just our ability to treat COVID patients but everyone else, too.
“Our economy is stuck, with too many Bahamians still left out; for those lucky enough to have jobs, wages are often too low to keep up with the cost of living.
We are seeing armed robberies in broad daylight, as desperation increases.
“The same handful of wealthy families keep getting wealthier, while the doors of opportunity are slammed shut to everyone else.
“In the midst of this suffering and tragedy, the government is asking you for a new mandate. They are asking you for a vote of confidence.
“But the Prime Minister cannot solve the crisis – his incompetence is the crisis.
Any responsible government would have spent the last few months preparing for a surge of COVID cases, as the more transmissible Delta strain became dominant around the world. But that’s not what this government did. They were too busy preparing to campaign.
They didn’t listen to Bahamian doctors and nurses; they allowed travelers in without negative COVID tests; they failed to surge resources to our clinics and hospitals; and until last week, when the US donated millions of vaccines to the entire Caribbean region, we were hundreds of thousands of doses short. They were so inept that we were seventeenth in the region to offer vaccines to our people.
He and his colleagues are shockingly disconnected from the reality on the ground right now.
In the midst of a terrible health crisis and a brutal economic crisis, they are boasting about saving lives and livelihoods.
They are asking you to believe up is down, black is white, terrible is terrific – and their contempt for you is such that they believe you will.
Their failure to acknowledge reality is an admission of failure and defeat. They’ve given up. They’ve given up on the country, and they’ve given on you. They can’t do better than this, and they don’t think you deserve better, either.”
Mr. Davis went on to outline a laundry list of examples of why the FNM should not be given another five years to further mismanage the government of The Bahamas.
