A new day has dawned, pt. 1

“Today represents a new day for The Commonwealth of The Bahamas.” — Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, on May 11, 2017

The general election was held on Thursday, September 16, 2021, and is now one for the history books.

The Bahamian people have spoken, the political storm is over, and so is the government led by former Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis for the last four years, four months and five days.

The unofficial results of the election are 32 seats for the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) and seven seats for the Free National Movement (FNM).

This week, we would like to consider this — as a consequence of the 2021 general election, can the Bahamian people anticipate that a new day has dawned?

What happened?

The question that will long be studied about the 2021 general election is: what happened?

Why did the Bahamian people vote so resoundingly to remove the FNM from office? Several reasons immediately come to mind.

First, former Prime Minister Minnis quickly lost the confidence of the Bahamian people.

Many of the reasons for this were of his own making. Bahamians lost their belief that he was faithful to his campaign promise that “it’s the people’s time”, a pledge that ushered him and his party into office four short years ago.

There were too many instances where Bahamians wondered which people he was talking about?

It quickly became patently clear that one particular Lyford Cay family was included in “the people” description, almost to the exclusion of many others.

It also became clear that friends and lovers of the FNM were included, often and repeatedly, excluding the vast electorate who mistakenly thought the former prime minister and his team had been referring to them.

The betrayal of that promise was costly.

Secondly, the former prime minister was too dismissive of our accepted political norms and practices.

Although he promised to do so, he refused to regularly meet with the media to report on national issues and developments.

In the few press conferences that he held, he derided and dismissed the Fourth Estate, sometimes accosting them with complete disgust and disdain, and, at other times, insulting them outright.

On one occasion, when asked to explain a policy decision, he responded: “What about that you don’t understand? If you look at the alphabet, A is A, B is B, C is C; that don’t change. 1, 2, 3. I gave the answer. Bye-bye.”

How downright insulting, rude, unresponsive, and unstatesmanlike.

The former prime minister led a government that initiated political prosecutions against three former political adversaries for the first time in our history.

Two of those cases ended in an embarrassing – and very expensive — loss for the government, and the third has not yet been prosecuted.

This was an abuse of our practices regarding how former politicians are dealt with. It was also a fundamental abuse of office and due process because the third prosecution has been delayed for more than four years, totally ignoring the precept that justice delayed is justice denied.

The former prime minister totally ignored the practices regarding our general elections.

He refused to allow the Constituencies Commission to report to Parliament. That report could have changed the constituencies for the recent elections.

As it turns out, the Bahamian people sent an unmistakably clear message that it did not matter. They were prepared, in any event, to vote Minnis and his colleagues out of office no matter how the boundaries were drawn.

Lack of accountability & transparency

The former prime minister also failed in his pledge to be accountable and transparent in public affairs.

He failed to provide full details about the contract for the new post office at the Town Centre Mall.

He never explained why Minister Lanisha Rolle suddenly resigned from her ministry.

He failed to report on investigations he launched into the unwarranted terminations of the chairman and board members of Bahamas Power & Light.

The scurrilous and unfounded claims against those well-intended, law-abiding citizens unjustifiably sullied their reputations without any supporting explanation or apology.

Former Prime Minister Minnis promised to report on that disgusting fiasco. The report was never delivered.

The former prime minister never accounted for the government’s money and contracts awarded in connection with Hurricane Dorian.

The former prime minister never accounted for the billions his government borrowed in the last four years, the most of any government in the nation’s history.

The former prime minister never accounted for the money received from the health visas Bahamians paid for to re-enter their own country.

Despite his repeated ill-founded and unsupported claims about PLP corruption, the former prime minister never explained the jaw-dropping, shocking charges against the former executive chairman of the Water & Sewerage Corporation or the alleged contracts awarded by the Ministry of Works.

Over the last four years, Bahamians came to appreciate that whatever the former prime minister accused the PLP of doing, the FNM was equally or even more guilty of such offenses. He sought to deflect attention from the FNM government by painting the PLP with that same FNM-tainted brush.

In the final analysis, the deafening silence by the FNM government on issues that required greater transparency and accountability sealed its doom.

Mismanaged the
COVID-19 pandemic

It became obvious to many Bahamians that the FNM government grossly mismanaged the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only were too many households affected by the pandemic, but too many Bahamians were — and are — dying in rapid succession.

But that was not enough. Despite the exponential spike in positive cases and daily reported deaths, the former prime minister stupidly called a snap (surprise) general election at the pinnacle of the pandemic in August, eight months ahead of its constitutionally required deadline.

This was the height of folly by a prime minister who had long lost his way, was totally out of his depth, and deeply ensconced in a blinding bubble from which he operated. He had completely lost touch with reality and with the people.

The snap general election had the effect of disenfranchising many Bahamian voters.

It also created the real possibility of exacerbating the pandemic effects by becoming a superspreading event. Consequently, many Bahamians did not go to the polls for fear of literally placing their lives at risk.

No friend of democracy

The former prime minister has proven time and again that he is no friend of democracy or the democratic process.

This was evidenced, as already stated, by ignoring the Constituencies Report and the repeated renewals of the emergency orders during the pandemic that enabled him to act without accountability and transparency.

The snap general election reduced the numbers that could have registered to exercise their democratic right to vote.

The knowledge that the general election was to be held during the pandemic and the associated COVID-19 fears also contributed to more people forfeiting their right to vote.

Another example of his natural penchant to hold power at any price was demonstrated after the former prime minister and his party received a resounding defeat on September 16, 2021.

It is customary in our Westminster system for the leader of a political party that loses a general election to resign as leader.

Instead of resigning as the party leader, he boldly announced on election night, while conceding defeat, that he will lead his vastly diminished caucus into Parliament as leader of the opposition, without confirming whether or not this was the wish of his political colleagues.

This is the same kind of unilateral decision-making that prompted his parliamentary caucus the last time he was the leader of the opposition to advise the governor general to replace him with another, more democratically inclined leader in the person of Mrs. Loretta Butler-Turner.

National embarrassment

During the election campaign, Senator Fred Mitchell said that former Prime Minister Minnis was an embarrassment to the St. Augustine’s College Class (SAC) of 1971.

Mitchell said that SACers and many others recognize that the Class of 1971 has produced many outstanding graduates.

When Dr. Minnis was elected, many of his classmates hoped for a dramatic improvement in our political culture. Most of us were terribly disappointed.

As it turns out, Senator Mitchell was right.

As events developed, we were repeatedly embarrassed by our classmate.

Minnis was also an embarrassment to many FNM supporters, thousands of whom could not even bear to vote to give him a second term.

He also became a national embarrassment.

We will never forget how former Prime Minister Minnis, early in his term, announced on the sidelines of an OAS summit in Peru that he wanted to stamp out corruption in The Bahamas.

Now, having served for little more than four years, perhaps he will explain how he has not been able to stamp out corruption in his own government that was turned out of office this past week, partially because of that corruption.

Bahamians had enough of Minnis, his arrogance, his entitled ministers and their disingenuous antics.

If history has shown us anything, it is this: when the Bahamian public is tired of its politicians, they simply vote them out, often in grand style.

This is precisely what happened this week.

Conclusion

On Thursday past, Bahamians demonstrated that they were not impressed with the Minnis administration, removing all but four of its Cabinet ministers.

It revealed that the people were not impressed by the lies, nasty, vitriolic, vicious, unfounded comments and smears that the FNM hurled at the PLP, none of which stuck.

Bahamians also demonstrated that they are concerned about the issues, and what they can expect from their elected officials.

The PLP’s message was clear, specific, and realistic.

Its campaign was not derailed by the negative ads and filthy FNM invectives.

The PLP remained on the high road, always addressing how it would usher in a much-needed “new day”.

In the end, the electorate believed the PLP and rejected the FNM.

It now remains for the PLP to understand that its shelf life is only five years, which will pass rapidly.

If it hopes to stay in office, it must remain faithful to the promises it has made to the Bahamian people.

It is truly ironic — on May 11, 2017, after taking the oath of office as prime minister, Dr. Minnis said: “Today represents a new day for The Commonwealth of The Bahamas.”

Four and a half years later, he was unceremoniously removed from office for many of the reasons outlined above and because people still want that new day.

Each day, the PLP must demonstrate how its promises of a new day will benefit the Bahamian people if it wishes to avoid a fate similar to that experienced by the FNM this past week.

Next week, we will conclude this series as we consider whether a new day has dawned.

• Philip C. Galanis is the managing partner of HLB Galanis and Co., Chartered Accountants, Forensic & Litigation Support Services. He served 15 years in Parliament. Please send your comments to pgalanis@gmail.com.

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