The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Everywhere I go here in our beautiful capital island, I am besieged with questions as to my political allegiance by all and sundry. They, obviously, have nothing better to do. We have recorded close to 70 alleged homicides, so far, for this year. It is estimated that 35 per cent of our younger people are unemployed or under employed. 18 per cent of the general population is also in that same boat.

The economy is anaemic and almost on life support. Teenage pregnancies abound. We are faced with an assortment of societal and domestic ills. Yet, my brothers and sisters some ask: “Ortland where is your political allegiance?” They are not even considering more important things and issues. Is it any wonder that our erstwhile politicians run roughshod over you all? Your focus, such as it might be, is in the wrong place.

I am an original supporter of the Progressive Liberal Party, pure and simple. I am not always happy with some of the antics and posture of our current leader, the Rt Hon Perry Gladstone Christie. I make no secret about this. Too many of the party’s initiatives are politically driven to the detriment, sometimes, of those who might not support our agenda at any given time. This is dead wrong and I have often said this to the faces of my party’s leadership cadre.

Having said the above, however, it pains me when I observe the disintegration and rapid meltdown of the official opposition, the Free National Movement (FNM). It is almost as if that entity has a morbid desire to remain in opposition until the anticipated Rapture. The leadership appears to be convoluted and out of step with the unwashed masses.

In recent months, the dissatisfaction of sitting members of parliament with the bumbling leadership troika of: Minnis; Sidney ‘Moon Beam’ Collie and Carl Wilshire ‘Goose Stepping’ Bethel is now legendary. Following a badly thought out revolt against Minnis, the magnificent six folded and crumbled the minute the political dogs were let loose. They have all been relegated to the back of the FNM’s omnibus and one or two of them have actually been rolled over. The dance of the macabre has begun.

I ran across Sidney Collie and his lovely wife, Mavis, the other evening at RND where my own wife and I had gone to enjoy a movie. Lo and behold, while minding my own business in the concession area, I felt a hand rubbing my bald head! When I turned around, guess who it was? Sidney Collie. I upbraided him and asked him if he was a Bill # 4. He ran right out with some grossly stupid remarks and then launched into a tirade about my political stance!

The FNM is doomed to electoral failure with Sidney Collie as Chairman. He does not have what it takes to be a successful national chairman and, it is clear to me, that he is simply a stop gapped party official. The FNM had to scrape the bottom of the barrel, in my considered view, to pull up a known politically inept former cabinet minister and a totally useless member of parliament, and jettison him into the doll house role of national chairman. Hubert Ingraham got rid of him, right away, when he botched local government elections some years ago. Sidney never caught himself after that and still appears to be shell shocked!

Collie God bless him too, might be a good husband and father but he is ill suited to organise and galvanize the rank and file of the FNM. He simply does not have the charisma or persona to take on this task. He reminds me of Carl Bethell and, sometimes, Michael Pintard. Dr Nigel Lewis was the first and last serious national chairman of the FNM. The dance of the macabre has become.

Instead of projecting an image of unity and solidarity the FNM, as a party, comes across as disjointed and a literal doll house inhabited by imaginary people; glass houses and fake furniture. Looking though an open and unglazed window, the other day, I was shocked to see a Papa Doc-styled individual, not a fake one, bespectacled, looking back at me. Was it Minnis or was it Duvalier himself?

At the very time when all should at least appear to be well within the FNM the dance of the macabre has begun. Several partners are to be seen waltzing across the checkered dance floor but they, decidedly, are out of sync and are dancing to music which, to me, is inappropriate. I am reminded of the shrouded zombie-like figures in one of the late Michael Jackson’s videos.

Richard Lightbourne (FNM-Montagu) is a good man whom I have known all of my adult life. He and one of his wives used to own and operate Boneville Bones many years ago. He is a reasonably good litigator and lawyer. While he was dead wrong to publicly make that now infamous speech at the doll house convention of the FNM, he deserves a renomination by the Candidates Committee of his delusional party. It is too bad that there is now public manoeuvring and gross posturing by potential rivals to wrest that constituency from him.

Andre ‘3000’ Rollins, the interim Member of Parliament for Fort Charlotte is history and has been rendered emasculated politically speaking. His days in the house are numbered. Rollins, as far as I am concerned has always been a prima donna and a bogus politician with absolutely no convictions or loyalty. He is a mere clog in a badly broken down FNM wheel. He cannot return to the PLP and, for sure, he would not even dare to join yet another doll house party.

Hubert Chipman (FNM-St. Anne’s) is not a natural politician and lacks even more charisma, if that were possible, than Sidney ‘Moon Beam’ Collie. What did he bring to the table in parliament as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee? I submit that he did not do a damned thing except to titillate and waste the public imagination and time. He was incapable of leading a single investigation into Urban Renewal. He is a chartered accountant but......he should not be renominated and it has absolutely nothing to do with Minnis.

Theo Neily (FNM-North Eleuthera) was always in over his head as a member of parliament. I am of the view that he was a mere number in the grand plan hatched by former PM Ingraham. Theo is, I am sure, a good man but he’s proven to be a lousy and useless representative and national advocate. He’s not been able to conceptualize and move a single Bill in the House in almost four years. It is time, as he himself has conceded, for him to pick up his three marbles and go back home. The dance of the macabre has begun.

Loretta Butler-Turner (FNM-Long Island) is under siege and her days in the House are coming to a rapid close, save and except she eats humble dirt pie and kisses the political posterior, as large as it might be, of Minnis. This is so sad but she and Duane Sands made a serious miscalculation when they abruptly withdrew from the charade of the FNM’s leadership race. In politics, it has often been said that to the victor goes the spoils.

The upcoming general elections will be the PLP’s to lose. We alone, are able to defeat ourselves. The FNM, as it is now, and the DNA, as it continues to gyrate and pontificate, are unable to rise to the level of maturity and seriousness to take us on. I submit that we (PLP) will capture a minimum of 28 seats.

It is regrettable, however, that Alfred Sears, who abandoned the PLP just before the last general elections, because he had to make extra money to send his children off to college! Now, five years later, after people like PGC and Brave would have done the heavy lifting, Sears wants to waltz his way back into the House of Assembly and, even before being re-elected, if at all, he has declared that the “Christie era is over” and that he, the great pretender, is best suited to take over the PLP and the nation!

The dance of the macabre extends even to the PLP and people like Sears are, obviously, politically delusional and full of it. The PLP will go into the general elections with PGC and Brave. Alfred can travel with us or he can go his merry way. There will be no coupe in our party. Toe the line; fish; cut bait or get the hell out of the way of the collective agenda.

Yes, there will be a few casualties not because of the party but because of the lousy and insensitive representation of a handful of our current incumbents. The dance of the macabre has begun.

ORTLAND H. BODIE JR.

Nassau,

October 23, 2016.