EDITOR, The Tribune.
I am a sitting member of the FNM’s executive committee. I am an FNM of long standing and I do not owe my position to Hubert Minnis.
For obvious reasons, I have to remain unknown. In due course I will reveal my name but now is not the time.
Sadly, the recent rant by our first born, Maurice Moore is only the tip of the iceberg. Mr Minnis has created an FNM where anyone who does not pucker up and do the right thing is attacked publicly and privately by a group of political hacks he has hanging around him.
I was a long-time supporter of Dr Minnis, but as of now I cannot in good conscience support him any longer. Every time I think Minnis cannot get any worse, he does. I keep thinking, if Dr Minnis is this horrible as leadership of the opposition who cannot maintain the support of his own handful of MPs, what kind of Prime Minister will he be when he leads a cabinet and carries the weight of the country on his shoulders? All I see ahead is disaster.
I have watched with pain as my party has been torn apart over the last three years. It is not surprising that this has happened but I am disappointed that it has.
Hubert Minnis is Public Enemy Number One. Everyone who wanted the best for Minnis was hoping for the best. Actually we were praying day and night for it. It was clear to most FNM leaders fairly early on that in putting confidence in Hubert Minnis we had all made a grave mistake.
People who are now vested in the FNM and the country’s success are ready to find another leader. The people who are still pushing for Minnis want everyone else to ignore reality. These people are no longer vested. Their glory days are over. They are “has beens”. The CA Smith, Maurice Moore, and Carl Bethels can take it or leave it.
If Minnis continues to destroy the FNM and its hope of becoming the government, it means little to them. If he wins by some miracle, they figure they will be made in the shade for backing the right horse. Sadly, Minnis is no Sea biscuit.
The FNM needs a convention to put the party out of its misery.
Several past and present FNM people have called for a convention, including Brent Symonette, Phenton Neymour, Darren Cash, Dwayne Sands, Brensil Rolle, and now Richard Lightbourne. These people are right to call for convention.
The common response from supporters of Hubert Minnis is that we already had a convention and Dr Minnis won. Did he really win? No, he did not. The system was rigged from the beginning.
Then Howard Johnson said recently on the news that constituency associations select the candidate they want, so he does not know why anyone mad that Minnis stabbed Monique Gomez in the back and selected him. But did the association select him or did Minnis select him?
Supposedly, Mr Johnson had already withdrawn himself from consideration when Mr Minnis put his name forward. Johnson had already gone on public radio to declare that for financial reasons he wasn’t running. Just like Dr Minnis does not know what a conflict is, Mr Johnson does not know what an ultimatum is.
Here are further reasons why a convention is needed. When Minnis was elected at the one-day convention, his election was as a result of a corrupt system that he corrupted.
Firstly, he very early on took steps to undermine Loretta Butler-Turner by having his people tell stories about how she was going around campaigning for leader. Then he himself travelled around the country campaigning to constituency associations. By the time branch elections were held, he had already orchestrated the moves to elect the branch leaders he wanted. This was slick politics but still, in my opinion, corruption.
Then when convention was called, he made sure that the national party would not pay any expenses for family island delegates.
This gave him the chance to pay for delegate expenses and make them loyal to him.
So in reality, Minnis is a fruit from the poison tree. Many of the so-called majority of people who elected him were themselves selected in a way that fell far short of the FNM I knew when Cecil and Ingraham led the party.
As an older man, with children who will vote in the next election, what troubles me the most is the reality that in addition to being clueless about policy and governing, Dr Minnis lacks principles. I am writing this just after reading a letter to the editor that suggests that Minnis is all talk. So true.
The saddest thing to watch over the last few weeks was to see how Minnis suddenly fell in love with Renward Wells and called him a man of honour after questioning his integrity for almost two years. Minnis’s calculation was that no one would notice how he was prepared to sacrifice what we assumed were his own principles for the sole purpose of saving his hide in the House of Assembly. Principles were out the door.
Bottom line, Minnis is no better than Christie and under his “leadership” the FNM is no better than the PLP.
So go ahead Brent Symonette, throw your weight around and lead the charge for a convention. Minnis is a clear and present danger to the long-term survival of the FNM and the Bahamas.
A FORMER HUBERT MINNIS SUPPORTER
Nassau,
January 20, 2016.
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