Hard-pressed to present a sellable and convincing record to the electorate — due in part to unprecedented crises, inherited fiscal challenges and a slow start off the block upon assuming office — it is clear that the Free National Movement (FNM) intends to run a campaign with parallel themes: The go-to previously successful message that the other party is corrupt to the core, and its recurring and disingenuous claim that the opposition, had it been the government, would have instituted policies to cause more Bahamians to die in the pandemic and greater economic suffering across the country.
In announcing the ratification of eight more candidates — all incumbents — on Monday night, these themes were underscored in the FNM’s press statement.
The FNM declared that the Minnis administration’s “proactive response” to the COVID-19 pandemic “is allowing our country to maintain relatively low case numbers while enabling our economy to gradually and safely open”.
The FNM contended: “What is most unfortunate is that those on the opposing side of the aisle have adopted a different approach – using this serious health crisis as an opportunity to sow division and launch partisan attacks.
“Those same individuals are preparing to turn back the clock, ratifying many of the same corrupt MPs that brought down our economy and left our fiscal house in shambles; our FNM government is proud to ratify a diverse mix of young leaders and trusted incumbents who continue to work tirelessly to create a prosperous future for the next generation of Bahamians.”
While the FNM has so far given 25 candidates the nod for the next general election, the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) has ratified 18.
Only two are former MPs — Alfred Sears, who was attorney general and minister of education in the first Christie administration (2002-2007), and Michael Halkitis, who was minister of state for finance in the second Christie administration (2012-2017).
Sears, a Queen’s Counsel, has to date had a stellar political career, runs a successful law firm, is a noted intellectual and culturalist, constitutional scholar, human rights advocate, regionalist and former professor, who left public life in 2012 with his reputation unblemished.
Halkitis, though he had struggled miserably and embarrassingly to explain how the PLP government had spent our value-added tax (VAT) revenue, was also without scandal or any stains to his personal brand when he was voted out of office in 2017.
The talents of both Sears and Halkitis (who has sound experience in financial services and public office) would be assets in a Davis administration should voters give the PLP their blessings once again. Most of the candidates the party has announced so far are not household names and their contributions not widely known to voters.
Neither Sears nor Halkitis could be characterized as being among “the same corrupt MPs” the PLP is supposedly ratifying. Again, they are the only two former MPs chosen by the PLP to date.
But who needs facts when one is trying to fool voters by promoting damning perceptions and pushing ugly mistruths?
It is obvious why the floundering FNM is digging so deep in its bag of dirty tricks.
This same corruption theme featured prominently in the FNM’s 2017 campaign.
It was a winning strategy.
Not surprisingly, the PLP-funded post-election report, completed by Maureen Webber, a Jamaican social development practitioner, determined that in addition to Christie fatigue, corruption perceptions were a major reason for the PLP’s blistering defeat in the 2017 election.
Similarly, in the PLP’s post-election survey in 2007, conducted by international research group Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, 47 percent of respondents said they did not vote PLP because of corruption and scandals. (Former Prime Minister Perry Christie’s perceived ‘weak leadership’ was the number one reason they decided not to vote PLP.)
Fortunately, and a fact to be celebrated to this day, Christie is long gone off the political stage, so Christie fatigue — listed by Webber as another primary reason for the 2017 loss — is no longer relevant in FNM campaign messaging, although the fact that Philip Brave Davis was his deputy prime minister will no doubt give some voters pause.
With another election looming, the FNM is determined to do all it can to further ingrain in the psyche of the electorate those views that PLP gangsters parading as upstanding politicians are preparing to empty the little left in the proverbial cookie jar. That might deepen fears among some voters with significant worries about their future and the kind of Bahamas that will be left behind for their children and grand children.
With little substance to go on, Dr. Hubert Minnis and the FNM will continue to play on those fears, hoping the old corruption trick works once again.
While preparing for an election, they have thus far spent no time outlining any comprehensive plan to bail us out of the economic doldrums, but are instead warning that if the PLP is elected, our fiscal and economic fates would be even more grim due to a lack of competence and a propensity to wheel, deal and steal.
Demonizing its opponents might not have the same impact for an administration that has failed to prove credible its “people’s time” declaration.
The FNM came to power promising to prosecute “corrupt” members of the previous administration and pledging to tighten the country’s anti-corruption regime through legislative change.
It has so far been unsuccessful on both fronts.
In a circus-like atmosphere, three former PLP parliamentarians were taken to court and charged with corruption-related offenses early in the new term — a move the opposition characterized as witch-hunts.
Former Senator Frank Smith and former Labour Minister Shane Gibson have both since been acquitted. The case against former Environment Minister Kenred Dorsett has not yet been heard.
Still, the so-called ratification of “corrupt” (former) PLP MPs will likely continue to be a key talking point for the FNM, which we predict will become increasingly desperate as it gets closer to the looming political dogfight, and the odds against the Minnis administration continue to mount.
Accountability
Let’s consider the other theme — that of accountability and transparency — being adopted by the FNM as it seeks to make a case for re-election.
In its statement on Monday night, the party said its ratified candidates will be a part of the team “challenging the status quo through transparency and accountability…”
That statement is sadly laughable and shamelessly brazen, however.
As it prepares for an election, the Minnis administration nearly four years in, has failed to fulfill an important pledge — that of fully enacting the Freedom of Information Act, which was passed under the former administration.
It also continues to block Opposition Day in Parliament — which would provide an opportunity for opposition members and backbenchers to ask questions of ministers — doing so most recently one week ago.
The irony is that on the same day, the prime minister tabled three bills, which he declared will deliver on his government’s promises of accountability and transparency.
While we are told the lie that “corrupt” former PLP MPs are being ratified, and while the FNM continues to portray itself as the only party with a genuine commitment to these sacred principles of democratic governance, the attorney general has repeatedly refused to reveal to the public how much the government paid British QCs to defend those failed cases against former PLP parliamentarians.
Without a doubt, there remains a lingering perception that the PLP is a party of corrupt players. We have no doubt that this will inflict some harm to its campaign ahead of the next election, but the jury is out on whether that harm would be so great that Davis and the PLP will fail in their bid to unseat Minnis and the FNM.
The attorney general and the prosecutors in his office have thus far been unable to prove a single case of corruption against the PLP.
The government, meanwhile, has also failed to deliver on promised anti-corruption legislation. It introduced the Integrity Commission Bill to repeal the antiquated Public Disclosure Act, and also tabled the Ombudsman Bill, but shelved them as quickly as they were tabled.
Political fates
It is against this backdrop and the backdrop of failed election promises that the FNM has started rolling out its candidates, much earlier than usual.
Given the widespread unpopularity of the Minnis administration, there was no dynamism or excitement surrounding the ratification of the named incumbents — Michael Pintard, Frankie Campbell, Iram Lewis, Pakesia Parker-Edgecombe, Reuben Rahming, Adrian Gibson, Shanendon Cartwright, and Rickey Mackey.
In a statement that did not seem too convincing, the FNM said this group will be among those at the forefront with Minnis “in promoting world-class education for future generations of Bahamians and revamping infrastructure to support additional industry and investment, which will ultimately lead to more new jobs and opportunities for Bahamians”.
In the last four years, we have not seen these previously made promises come to fruition. Many voters will likely be reminded of the adage, “A promise is a comfort to a fool”.
As we previously observed in this space, by the time the twin crises of Dorian and COVID-19 barrelled in, the FNM had already significantly squandered the tremendous goodwill with which it ascended office and was off to a shaky start after setting expectations unrealistically high in its bid to win an election.
The trust deficit only widened as the government bungled certain aspects of hurricane recovery and restoration management, and as Minnis, the competent authority, instituted an uneven application of emergency rules put in place to fight COVID-19.
As the personal economic circumstance of significant numbers of Bahamians worsened over the last year, numerous businesses were shuttered and government finances reached a critical state; disenchantment grew.
As he seeks to weather this perfect storm and salvage what he could of the goodwill that was once in historically significant abundance, the prime minister and his party continue to push the disingenuous notion that PLP policies would have killed many more Bahamians in the pandemic, and that the PLP has fought against life-saving measures.
While we still believe that two of the impediments to our nation’s progress have been blind political allegiance and the changing of administrations every five years, we understand why voters in the last 20 years have rejected incumbent administrations.
Neither Minnis nor Davis are exciting options for national political leadership at this particular juncture in our country’s development.
Platitudes and rehashed pledges do nothing to replenish depleted political stock.
In an atmosphere of critically eroded credibility and widespread political cynicism, history has shown us that the incumbent is always at the greatest disadvantage.
And so, those incumbents given a lifeline by the FNM during its recent ratification process, will meet a climate much less favorable than they found four years ago when disgust toward Christie and the PLP had reached boiling point and voters in very large numbers were hungry for change.
It truly is incredible how dramatically and how swiftly political fates could change.
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