OSWALD BROWN WRITES
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 4, 2019 – Prior to the historic change of government in The Bahamas following the January 10, 1967, general election, the political divide in the country was very well defined along racial lines, with the minority white United Bahamian Party (UBP) government imposing its will on the majority Black population of The Bahamas.
Under the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), which established the country’s first Black-majority-rule government in this former British colony, the political demarcation remained firmly rooted between Blacks and whites for more than two decades, even after eight top-ranking members of the PLP government —known as The Dissident Eight – broke away from the PLP in 1970 and subsequently joined forces with supposedly liberal members of the disbanded UBP to established the Free National Movement (FNM).
Following the death of FNM leader Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield, who was a member of The Dissident Eight, in May of 1990, Hubert Ingraham replaced him as leader and led the FNM to a landslide victory in the August 1992 general election, winning 32 of the then 49 seats in the House of Assembly.
Ingraham had been expelled from the PLP in 1984, and there is no question that his dynamic style of leadership was heavily influenced by the lessons he learned under the late Sir Lynden Pindling, the leader of the struggle for majority rule that culminated with the PLP’s historic January 10, 1967 victory.
Ingraham’s first five-year term as Prime Minister was an unqualified success. Consequently, voters rewarded him with another five-year term when he once again led the FNM to victory in 1997. However, the PLP returned to power with a stunning victory at the polls in 2002, and the three general elections that followed have also resulted in changes of government — with the FNM returning to power in 2007, the PLP regaining power in 2012, and the FNM returning in 2017.
Meanwhile, during the process of two predominantly Black-controlled political parties “alternating” as the governing party, the political divide in The Bahamas long ago ceased to be based on race, so much so that there is a body of opinion that it is difficult to differentiate between some of the policies of the FNM and PLP.
However, it would seem as if there are partisan operatives in both political parties who are inclined to exacerbate political differences to an extent that could be far more damaging to political homogeneity than the racial divide was in this country during that disgraceful period in Bahamian history when, as late as the 1960s, Black Bahamians could not go to the all-white Savoy Theatre on Bay Street and the only Blacks working in banks were as janitors.
That’s a conclusion I reached after reviewing the daily newspapers in The Bahamas online this morning, thanks to Barbara Wilson, a trained nurse by profession, who is currently one of the most effective disseminators of information on Facebook, primarily in support of Prime Minister the Most Hon. Dr. Hubert Minnis and the FNM government. On a daily basis, Barbara provides her followers on Facebook with a collage of the front pages of the daily newspapers – and on Mondays and Thursday, also The PUNCH – as well as some inside pages that I have become accustomed to looking forward to each morning.
Virtually all of the newspapers in this morning carried a story on a release issued on Sunday by PLP Chairman Fred Mitchell, in which Mr. Mitchell excoriated the government for its “persecution” of former Member of Parliament Frank Smith.
In his release, Mr. Mitchell noted that on October 16, 2019, the Government “without making a formal announcement to the Bahamian public filed directly with the Privy Council an application for leave to appeal the acquittal of former Senator Frank Smith.”
“In doing so, they have let go of the first Q C who was unable to secure a conviction and have now hired yet another high priced Q C named Peter Knox. They have not disclosed how much the previous Q C cost the Bahamian taxpayers and they have not disclosed how much the new one will cost. Our information is that the going rate is at a minimum of 20,000 dollars per day,” Mr. Mitchell claimed.
He added: “In appealing to the Privy Council, they have to get over the law which says that the decision of the Court of Appeal is final. The decision therefore appears to many as a persecution of Frank Smith by the FNM in pursuit of victor’s justice.”
What makes Mr. Mitchell’s claims even more troubling is the fact that the initial appeal was thrown out by Chief Magistrate Joyann Pratt Ferguson and it was subsequently rejected by the Appeals Court in a final decision.
Clearly, if Mr. Mitchell is correct that the government is prepared to spend $20,000 a day to take this case to the Privy Council, here is a question that begs an answer: “What is the government’s motive for so doggedly pursuing a different decision in this case than has already been reached by the judicial system in The Bahamas?”
For what it is worth, I have personally concluded that the answer to this question is in some way related to the fact that Frank Smith is the son-in-law of Sir Franklyn Wilson, who from a humble beginning as a young boy growing up Over-the-Hill is today one of the most successful businessmen in this country. But why target Sir Franklyn? Other than the fact that he can afford to pay his son-in-law’s high legal costs, would the government still be pursuing this case to the Privy Council if this were not the case? This makes absolutely no sense to me.
There are numerous outstanding examples of remarkable achievements Blacks have made in The Bahamas as a result of the political changes that “opened doors” to equal opportunities for all Bahamians, but Sir Franklyn’s achievements surely are a source of tremendous pride to myself and all my contemporaries who likewise grew up in one of the most impoverished areas of New Providence.
If there is one iota of truth to my speculation that our justice system is being used in this manner to satisfy the capricious whim of a political operative simply because they have the power to do so – or even more alarming because of political vindictiveness – the Bahamian people should denounce this blatant abuse of power with all the vim and vigor they possess and through all the avenues available to them.
