The Tribune

POST-CONVENTION fallout continued for the Free National Movement yesterday as Deputy Leader Peter Turnquest clashed with former chairman Darron Cash over the latter’s claims that leader Dr Hubert Minnis ran a racially-divisive campaign.

Mr Cash made the claim as a guest on radio talk show Let’s Talk Live with Carlton Smith.

“We heard it in the advertisements,” Mr Cash said, “we heard it in the platform speeches, we heard it from Dr Minnis’ surrogates. This idea that the white people supporting Loretta [Butler-Turner] is something that is so grotesquely a violation of the core principle of the FNM that I think it is going to do damage to Dr Minnis and his reputation and potentially even the FNM.”

He continued: “This not so subtle campaign against the haves and the have nots was clearly racially charged and directed at dividing FNMs against the white Bahamians who were perceived as supporting Loretta Butler-Turner.”

Firing back as a caller to the show, Mr Turnquest challenged that it was Mr Cash’s camp – by extension Mrs Butler-Turner’s campaign – that have been race baiting in the lead up to last Friday’s convention.

“I think that the course that he is on at the moment,” Mr Turnquest said, “and the course that this campaign leading up to this convention has been on, is a very, very dangerous thing because they have been race baiting all along it is very very irresponsible of someone of his stature.

“Never. Never has the FNM or its leaders said or done anything to encourage or to support anybody’s view that there are two separate classes of people in this country. I challenge him to prove it he cannot say at anytime that Dr Minnis or the FNM has had anything to say about race.”

Mr Cash referred to The Nassau Guardian’s National Review editorial, which he said highlighted the various times that the issue of race had been “injected” into the campaign.

However, Mr Turnquest interjected: “You must be careful now, you must be careful, you must make sure that you attribute any comments with respect to race to where you have tried to attribute it.”

Mr Cash also accused Mr Turnquest of inciting the crowd to shout Mrs Butler-Turner off the stage with a chant of “Roc Wit Doc” when she over-ran her time on the convention’s second night, a claim that Mr Turnquest outright rejected.