The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement supporters in Long Island yesterday were said to be in “disarray” after seven parliamentarians petitioned to remove party Leader Dr Hubert Minnis as leader of the Official Opposition in the House of Assembly and replace him with their parliamentary representative Loretta Butler-Turner.

Although Mrs Butler-Turner is considered to be a very popular MP, senior FNMs on the island claim that many Long Islanders do not want her as their candidate and that the sentiment has been amplified by the latest attack on Dr Minnis’ leadership.

The Tribune spoke to Long Island FNMs at various levels of the party, most of whom identified deeply-rooted issues of trust, authenticity and respect as major points of contention with the incumbent MP.

However, Constituency Association Chairman La-sandra Knowles yesterday pushed back against what she described as a pervasive bitterness among constituents, fuelled by the island’s economic ills and youth drain.

Mrs Knowles maintained that the association took a neutral stance towards the political drama unfolding in the capital, and supported Mrs Butler-Turner unequivocally as she remained the party’s candidate.

“The association we are neutral, so whatever she does we support her,” Mrs Knowles said, “so far she still is the FNM candidate. You have the regular persons who probably had the negative talk before, so they would have their negative talk now.”

Mrs Knowles noted that some persons were unclear about the parliamentary system, and did not understand that while Mrs Butler-Turner was leader of Official Opposition in the House of Assembly, Dr Minnis was still the party’s leader.

“We tried to explain that Dr Minnis was still the leader, but they [the dissident parliamentarians] decided they needed some work done in the House. A lot of people are not registering and saying they’re not voting. They want to get rid of the government but don’t see no one to vote for because the Opposition is not doing the work.

“And then people still have that issue of why should you want to be a leader when there’s already a leader, and you’re a woman,” she added.

Responding to criticism of Mrs Butler-Turner’s performance this term, Mrs Knowles said: ‘We can’t get an airport while in Opposition. Everyone is so fed up because of the recession, it hasn’t come back yet. Long Island is economically dead and the government hasn’t even tried to give us a project and they want to put the blame on her [Mrs Butler-Turner], but it’s not her blame.

“She has an allowance and works as best she can throughout the island. Long Island is 80 miles and only one seat, that’s like three campaigns. So she can only do a third of what other MPs in smaller seats with that same amount.”

When asked whether she felt Mrs Butler-Turner could win the seat as an Independent, Mrs Knowles said she did not know but added that it happened before with Larry Cartwright. Running as an independent Mr Cartwright beat FNM candidate James “Jimmy” Knowles handily at the polls in 2002.

The MPs’ letter to the governor general was signed by Mrs Butler-Turner, Central Grand Bahama MP Neko Grant, St Anne’s MP Hubert Chipman, North Eleuthera MP Theo Neilly, Central and South Abaco MP Edison Key, Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn and Fort Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins.

It’s the third time MPs have indicated their desire to forcibly remove Dr Minnis from the post. Earlier this year, six of the MPs - excluding Mr Key - threatened to write to the governor general unless Dr Minnis agreed to hold an earlier national convention. Dr Minnis acceded to this request, and re-emerged as party leader after Mrs Butler-Turner and her running mate Dr Duane Sands dropped out of the leadership race hours before the vote.

Bernard Adderley, 61, said: “The people of Long Island are totally fed up with this woman. Staunch supporters of her said yesterday that the woman is nobody to trust. I don’t know where she going after this all over. She has a couple in the Mangrove Bush area who stand behind her, but they are a small minority.

“It leaves staunch FNMs wondering where they stand in this and it’s a huge embarrassment on real FNMs. Her and the [other] rebels are a party with no name. What they did to themselves [Wednesday] was political suicide and no one did it to them, they did it to themselves.”

Mr Adderley, a former local government chairman, has worked closely with both Jimmy Knowles and Larry Cartwright but left the party to endorse PLP MP Alex Storr in the 2012 elections.

“I told them if they [FNM government] don’t put water in Salt Pond or Clarence Town before five years up, I would not support them in 2012 and they did nothing so I was true to my word. Now I’m back home to make sure we don’t have five more years of the same.”

Mr Adderley said the actions of those seven FNM MPs were particularly unsettling to Long Islanders given the startling disconnect between the public statements and actions of Mrs Butler-Turner, and Fort Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins. Dr Rollins has said that he would challenge Mrs Butler-Turner as an Independent candidate if the voters on the island urged him to do so.

Mr Adderley pointed to the town hall meeting staged by the party on September 19 to endorse Mrs Butler-Turner’s candidacy, as a recent instance of the glaring hypocrisy postured by the pair.

Despite objections, Mr Adderley said Dr Minnis supported Mrs Butler-Turner in a bid to restore harmony - a move he said he warned the FNM leader would blow up in his face.

“Mrs Butler-Turner brought a cake to the podium and said that this is the remarriage of her and Dr Minnis,” he said.

“If you see the show she put on in Salt Pond if you had been here to witness that you’d be in shock. We told him don’t eat the cake because that’s something to hook him, but he gone and eat it.”

Mr Adderley said: “And FNMs have said this, they can’t trust him [Dr Rollins], he look like he don’t trust himself. If he had a ghost of a chance here he destroyed it [Wednesday].

“I’m not sorry for Dr Minnis in a way, but not sorry. He was trying to be a gentleman not knowing he was dealing with a rogue. I can’t see those seven allowing a 78-year-old man [Mr Key] lead them into the pits of political destruction.

Mr Adderley added: “But the one that I felt more concern about was Andre Rollins. He was at the Long Island ratification and he stand there on the side booing her, he was side by side with me. Then you look and he’s front and centre in the ruthless effort to unseat Dr Minnis.

“The PM had it right, he told Dr Minnis you can take him [Dr Rollins], but you will learn him. Well Dr Minnis learn him [Wednesday].”

Long Island is considered to be an FNM stronghold, but in recent months there has been a growing sentiment that disenchanted supporters are looking for an Independent candidate or simply won’t vote.

As voter registration continues to lag throughout the country, on Long Island, less than 20 per cent of eligible voters had been registered up to last month.

Mr Adderley said: “Long Island people found out long time that anywhere in the Bahamas, any government entity, if they have someone they don’t want they send it to Long Island. Long Island is called the dumping ground. [Mrs Butler-Turner] wasn’t wanted in Montagu, so [former Prime Minister Hubert] Ingraham drop her off here.”