The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

The decision of Prime Minister Perry Christie to announce his intentions of running again for the leadership position of the PLP at the party’s imminent convention while at a recent event in North Andros, the site of the highly touted Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute or BAMSI, was a stroke of genius.

Heretofore, Christie’s reticence concerning this matter had obfuscated many within the PLP, who were of the view that this would be his last term.

His announcement was his masterful way of exerting his pound of flesh and undercutting Deputy Prime Minister Philip ‘‘Brave’’ Davis’ rumoured bid to replace him as PLP leader and subsequently prime minister.

Christie is totally convinced that the 2017 election battle will be asymmetrical for his party, due in large part to a misguided perception that the FNM party under Dr Hubert Minnis is feeble and dysfunctional because of a small faction within the party that is constantly bickering loudly over every move or decision Minnis makes.

The similarities between the current intrigue and jockeying among the two main factions supporting Christie and Davis and the scheming and plotting by Brutus, Cassius, Casca, Decius, Cinna, Metellus, Trebonius and Mark Antony in William Shakepeare’s Julius Caesar is indeed uncanny, albeit from a metaphorical standpoint.

Whereas Antony was a loyal and devout ally of Caesar, the others formed a group of conspirators who viewed Caesar’s burgeoning power as a dangerous threat to Rome and its citizens. Caesar had morphed into a dictator.

In Act 3, scene 1, Caesar asked Cinna: “Hence, wilt thou lift up Olympus?” In Greek mythology, Mount Olympus was the abode of the pagan gods. For what it’s worth, Caesar, who had accrued immense power, saw himself as omnipotent. He saw himself as a god.

PLP Chairman Bradley Roberts, one of Christie’s staunch backers, has said that now is not the time for Davis to challenge a man who will be six years shy of the ripe old age of 80 in 2017. The PLP is deeply fractured.

The writer may be stretching this analogy a bit. However, when one analyses the current situation within the PLP, one is left with the uncomfortable notion that Christie believes or thinks that the prime ministership and the PLP leadership belongs solely to him. It seems as if he would begrudge anyone succeeding him as PLP leader and prime minister.

Christie could have made his announcement for the PLP leadership bid in Farm Road, his constituency. But he chose instead North Andros, of all places, the location of BAMSI –  a project Davis is responsible for. It was an ominous move.

As prime minister in the Westminster system of government, Christie is a de facto dictator, who has taken it upon himself, I believe, to issue a mild threat to Davis, Obie Wilchcombe, Fred Mitchell and any other Cabinet underling eyeing his post. What’s more, Christie will not hesitate to fire anyone in his Cabinet whom he perceives as attempting to remove him as leader. He has a track record of being ruthless with dissenters within the PLP.

Before he first became prime minister in 2002, Christie engineered the defeat of Wilchcombe in the chairmanship contest at convention after the former publicly declared that he would like to one day lead the PLP. Bradley Roberts succeeded him.

When it comes to his position as PLP leader, Christie can hardly be considered a wuss. If English words have meaning, then Christie’s stern admonishment to Davis and Co was nothing more than a threat, notwithstanding PLP stalwart George Smith’s valiant attempt at language gymnastics by asserting that Christie’s words are being interpreted wrongly. Smith and other high ranking PLP officials have a habit of underestimating the intelligence of Bahamians.

Due to the unflinching support Christie currently enjoys from hundreds of devout PLP stalwarts and hardliners, his position as PLP leader is impregnable. Due to his immense power as prime minister and PLP leader, most, if not all, of his PLP underlings are scared stiff to publicly challenge him, seeing that they serve him at his pleasure in the Cabinet and are beholden to him for a PLP renomination.

If Davis wants to keep his Cabinet job and receive a renomination, he must abandon any and all thoughts of openly challenging Christie at convention. He cannot win. Christie, for all intents and purposes, is the modern day Julius Caesar of the PLP.  

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, GB

September 23, 2015.