By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 11, 2023 — Thanks to the excellent live transmissions of the Progressive Liberal Party’s convention on Facebook, I had a front-row seat watching the convention on both Thursday and Friday night from the living room of my apartment here in D.C.
It was unquestionably an exceptionally impressive convention. Indeed, all of the speakers were absolutely fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed their riveting speeches as well as the interspersed entertainment.
Having been actively involved in Bahamian politics for more than 60 years on both sides of the political divide — as an activist in the PLP during the struggle for Majority Rule in the 1960s and as the founding editor of the Free National Movement’s newspaper, The Torch of Freedom, after the historic split in the PLP in 1971 that resulted in the establishment of the FNM – I can unequivocally state that in my view the political future of The Bahamas governmentally may very well have outstanding leadership under the PLP for many years to come.
This was clearly confirmed in the outstanding speeches given by Prime Minister Philip E. Davis in his keynote address on Friday night and Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper in his keynote address on Thursday night.
Prior to both keynote addresses, an array of young and talented “new generation” politicians underscored my conclusion about the governance of The Bahamas political future by delivering electrifying speeches enumerating the accomplishments of the PLP government in the slightly more than two years since the party won a landslide victory in the September 16, 2021, general election
Among these “new generation” PLP politicians who had convention delegates in a state of euphoria during their addresses were a collection of women who were elected to the House of Assembly for the first time on September 16 and since then have served notice by their performances in their various governmental assignments that the once heavily lopsided male-dominated House of Assembly may be a thing of the past.
It was indeed a phenomenal two-day convention, as the PLP noted in the following narrative that accompanied a group of fabulous photos on Facebook on Saturday, November 11:
“The curtains have closed on our 55th Convention, but the energy remains uncontainable! We are humbled by the spirit and unity shown throughout. This is the fuel that will drive us toward a brighter future. Thank you, PLP family, for making it phenomenal!”
I absolutely had to share some of the photos with readers of my online publication, BAHAMAS CHRONICLE, which has a huge following among the Bahamian diaspora across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom as well as in The Bahamas and the wider Caribbean.
