The Tribune

By STANLEY CARTWRIGHT

Today in Parliament the Free National Movement (FNM) will have to answer some serious questions.

Over the past few days the party’s reputation has been dragged through the mud and shot. One revelation after the other, one more shocking than the next, and everywhere you turn, the story gets worse.

Throughout the country, Bahamians have been calling for the resignation of the FNM’s chairman, Michael Pintard. If he does not resign, he should be fired.

Mr Pintard’s actions as a paid member of the Save The Bays organisation has left many Bahamians shocked and horrified. How can the chairman of a national political party be a paid proxy for a local pressure group, they ask? We agree.

One has to question how accommodating Mr Pintard was in carry out his duties as chairman. When he spoke, whose interest was he serving? The FNM, his own, or Save The Bays? What other arrangements has the chairman made that we the Bahamian people do not know about? And besides from the leader of the FNM, who else knew about this special arrangement that the chairman enjoyed?

Let’s face it, Save The Bays is, and has always been, a front in this trivial feud between Peter Nygard and Louis Bacon - nothing more, nothing less. But as fate would have it, this little feud in Lyford Cay could possibly destroy any chances the FNM had of winning the 2017 general election.

We say this because the FNM, via its leader, has been running a campaign of anti-corruption and openness in governance. They have pointed to the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) and repeatedly echoed the sentiment that unlike the governing side, the FNM does things “the right way”.

Well let us make it very clear right now: this new low that the FNM has found itself at is not the right way to do business.

You do not compromise your party for money. You do not sell out your party’s interests for money. You do not get to hijack legitimate issues, concerns, or tragedies and use them for the narrow interests of others for money. You do not get to do that and claim the moral high ground.

Because you know what you’ve made yourself; a lobbyist. Pure and simple. They get paid to do a job, and that’s fine. But what they don’t do, is hop on their high horse and tell you or me that what they’re doing is in our best interests.

Dr Hubert Minnis had promised the Bahamian people that when the entire sordid affair about this ‘murder for hire’ scheme is revealed, the Bahamian people will be proud of the FNM’s involvement. We find this very hard to believe.

As we sat and listened yesterday to the latest audio recording floating around on social media of the meetings between Mr Pintard and the would-be criminals, one has to question how Mr Pintard can remain in his post, not only as National Chairman of the FNM, but also as a Senator. To say that he exercised poor judgment in this whole affair is an understatement in the extreme.

Hypocrisy

On Saturday the FNM’s leader claimed that his party was not afraid of the government’s appeal for US law enforcement to help in the Peter Nygard-Louis Bacon affair. These are brave words, very brave indeed when one looks at the fact that many of Dr Minnis’ colleagues have already publicly started to distance themselves from the matter.

Neko Grant, Loretta Butler-Turner and Hubert Chipman have all denied ever meeting Bacon, or being involved in anyway with this fiasco.

As a matter of fact, Mr Chipman caused quite the stir last week when he expressed “concern” about the allegations that some members of his party have been intimately involved with Save The Bays in its alleged efforts to “destabilise the government”.

Here is what Mr Chipman had to say in his own words to the press on March 17: “I’m in total shock as to what these organisations were supposed to be, as far as Save The Bays is concerned. I’ve never met Mr Bacon, never met Mr Nygard. I don’t know these people. As far as Fred Smith and Save The Bays, I know he was a part of Save The Bays.

“I did not know the other players until they were mentioned in the House of Assembly … I listened with interest and suppose we as a party will have to meet and consider our next steps. To be honest with you, when I really look at it, I don’t like what I’m hearing, that politics in this country is being influenced by foreigners, particularly when it comes to Mr Nygard or Mr Bacon.”

We have to say kudos to Mr Chipman for speaking up because it takes a certain amount of guts to do so; particularly when you are contradicting the words of your own party leader who only three days earlier said that the FNM had “always been made aware” of the relationship that its chairman Mr Pintard has with Save The Bays.

On March 14, Dr Minnis said in a statement: “The FNM has always been made aware of the relationship that Mr Michael Pintard, national chairman, has had with the Save The Bays organisation (a genuine Bahamian environmental group) as a member thereof from its early days, also with the Bahamian law firm of Callenders & Co, who have retained his professional services for the past four years. So far as the FNM is aware there is nothing untoward in the party chairman’s involvement with a non-profit environmental group and their firm of Bahamian attorneys.”

Dr Minnis’ statements as usual do not line up with reality because clearly some members of his party take issue with Mr Pintard’s ‘extra curricular’ activities.

Confusion

Another issue of concern in this whole affair is Dr Minnis’ staunch defence of Save The Bays.

When the organisation was being questioned in the House of Assembly by the Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald, Dr Minnis personally vouched for their authenticity. He told the Parliament that the PLP only appears to be upset with Save The Bays now that they were in office. He claimed that the organisation had also hounded the then Ingraham (FNM) administration (of which Dr Minnis was a part) during their last term in office from 2007 to 2012.

But that seems rather far fetched to say the least and let us tell you why.

You see, because Save The Bays, by their own admission on their Facebook page, was launched in March 2013 - a whole year after the FNM would have been out of office. So what in the world is Dr Minnis talking about?

We thought to ourselves, they had to have made a mistake. Dr Minnis would not be intentionally misleading the House of Assembly. So we checked again.

According to an article printed by The Nassau Guardian on March 18, 2016, entitled “Diane Philips: My Hands Are Clean”, Ms Philips, a director of Save The Bays states: “… I have worked with Save The Bays to promote environmental awareness. I think Save The Bays has done a tremendous job with that in less than three years since the organisation was launched.”

Three years.

So what exactly was Dr Minnis talking about? Why such a passionate defence? Could it be he was confused with the Coalition to Protect Clifton Bay (which eventually became Save The Bays)? Well, even that was formed on March 25, 2013. So again, what was he talking about?

We will leave the readers with this last thought.

We note that Dr Minnis’ personal email address was listed on those threads of emails tabled in the House of Assembly by Minister Fitzgerald last week. Unlike his colleagues, Dr Minnis has not publicly distanced himself from Mr Bacon or Mr Nygard. He has not disclosed whether he has met with either person or their surrogates in an effort to solicit their support ahead of the 2017 elections - be it financial or otherwise.

As the debate around this matter will no doubt continue in the House of Assembly today, we will be tuning in to hear the FNM’s answers to these burning questions. The people of the Bahamas deserve to know on whose behalf their elected officials are working.

We shall watch and see.

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