The Tribune

By STANLEY CARTWRIGHT

The Free National Movement (FNM) needs to make up its mind if it wants to be a serious contender for the next general election and stop engaging in petty political games.

There have been meetings called in constituencies without notification of the sitting MPs, fights at FNM headquarters with police called to intervene, accusations of racism among supporters and allies, and MPs outright campaigning in their colleague’s constituencies with the apparent support and blessing of the party leadership.

This is not the FNM that any of us know. This is nothing like the FNM of yesteryear - an organised party of morals and principles.

Today, we have a party that functions and operates on its own accord, that could care less about what even its own members think. The actions of its leadership have placed an almost irreparable strain on its support base, with party supporters forced to find excuses for the inexcusable.

Those who cannot muster up any excuses have committed themselves to abstaining from voting in the next general election. In a country with one of the highest voter turnouts in the region, this level of voter apathy should not be ignored.

This is the startling reality in which the FNM finds itself.

With the election season heating up, why are senior FNM officials so quiet? Where have the battle-scared warriors of yesteryear gone? Are they satisfied sitting back and watching the party they have helped to build and lead implode?

We know of any number of prominent party leaders who cringe when they read the papers. They desperately want to see a change in the leadership, but hope against hope that the party will get its act together.

Alas, grumbling behind closed doors is not enough - not when the stakes are this high.

Some have stepped up and written to the press under the cover of anonymity, leaked documents to the media, held private meetings and done whatever they can. We encourage them to keep it up and do more. Their party needs them more than ever.

Case in point: to create some excitement around itself, the FNM has gone on a spree of candidate announcements. Each of them have fallen as flat as the Democratic National Alliance’s candidates in 2012. Many of them will be lucky if they get their deposit back.

But such is the state of the FNM; negative traction, no imagination, secrecy, lies, manipulation, denial and no strong leadership at the helm (despite Dr Hubert Minnis’ overwhelming self-stated charisma). It looks like the FNM has taken a page from George Orwells’ “Animal Farm”.

We’ve heard it been said that this upcoming general election is the FNM’s to lose. Those in complete denial believe that come 2017, the Bahamian people will show the Progressive Liberal Party the door and usher in the FNM on golden wings.

If the FNM believes they don’t need to put forward a competent opposition, good candidates, an effective marketing campaign, real strategies and plans, then they should continue giving Minnis his third, fourth and fifth chance.

Meanwhile we will sit back and watch as the 73-year-old Perry Christie walks in to what will likely be his easiest victory to date.

Traditional seats that have historically gone to the FNM could be in jeopardy if the party continues to play games.

Last week we saw how newly-minted FNM MP Dr Andre Rollins was in Long Island going door-to-door campaigning in Loretta Butler-Turner’s constituency. He, like his party chairman Michael Pintard, was asked about these planned meetings on the island at which Rollins was supposed to be introduced as the prospective candidate. For his part in the affair, Pintard said there was no truth in the rumours. He declared that Mrs Butler-Turner had the party’s full support.

Forty eight hours later, Rollins was in Lower Deadman’s Cay, under the guise of visiting with “friends and family”.

He was picked up and paraded around the island, but according to reports, he was not well received. Some residents were outright hostile toward him, with some questioning why he was on the island without his colleague Butler-Turner. Others urged him not to enter their establishments.

There is one thing you can say about Long Island people - they are not afraid to tell you how they feel. Rollins got a good dose of that this weekend.

There is one lesson in all of this. However despicable you might find Rollins’ actions, this trip could not have occurred without the explicit blessing of the party’s leadership. No MP, let alone one who recently joined the party, would be so brazen as to outwardly campaign in his colleague’s constituency if he did not have the backing of his party leader to do so.

Again, these are the petty games of which we speak.

This was the FNM of the 70s and 80s - the pre-Ingraham era. Isn’t it sad after all the time that has passed, that it finds itself back here once again?

So what is the FNM to do?

Clearly a full convention is needed, sooner rather than later. These issues and petty internal games can not continue to go unchecked.

The party deserves the right to reorganise itself for the better, and lead with its best foot forward.

To deny this right is tantamount to a betrayal of the organisation, and what it stands for. Its chances of winning the next general election will depend on it. Perhaps its very existence also hangs in the balance.

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