The Tribune

By NICOLE BURROWS

Immediately following the slaughterhouse general election, I felt a little sorry for Perry Christie, who, if the widely-shared photos were genuine, was captured on camera looking quite melancholy in the election aftermath.

Then I - quickly - got over it.

I can’t say that Christie was ever at the top of his game, so I also can’t say that there was ever a high note for him to leave on, but he really should have exited frontline governance years ago when his disapproval rating wasn’t so ... conclusive.

I’m a pretty compassionate person, although most times people think I’m rowdy. I’m certain that my rowdiness is attributable to the fact that I just don’t like being taken advantage of, I don’t like feeling taken advantage of, and I don’t like to see others taken advantage of ... and after many years of experience of dealing with two-faced, ill-intentioned, pretentious people who take advantage, my default setting is ‘self-preserve’. At my core, I’m rather a softy, but once you’ve done me wrong I have zero ability to sympathise or empathise with you, even though I won’t ever hate you.

And so (borrowed that from guess who) I can feel nothing tender for Christie, because this is where he led me, where he led us, and where he brought himself to be, where the first memory I have when I force myself to recollect anything Christie-positive is of him shuffle-hopping across a stage like an itching, seizing man.

Notwithstanding his illustrious, vociferous, pontiferous, 40-plus years of experience in public life, Christie’s legacy is now that of a man who achieved too little in too long a time. I can’t even fully analyse the official election results to write this article on this post-election weekend, because we the official results have been so slow in coming out. Add that to Mr Christie’s legacy.

But as pitiful as Christie and his Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) are today, the Free National Movement (FNM) should not read too much into the fact that they now hold office.

The FNM didn’t win the general election because they had a good plan or the best plan for the country. They won because they had a foothold in the process, as the only other political party Bahamians were going to use to rid themselves of Christie and his PLP.

And while I’m disappointed that the Bahamian people aren’t more courageous than they are, to see that both the FNM and PLP parties offer mostly the same things and almost identical methods of governance, I am less horrified by the outcome of the election than I would have been had the PLP won it.

The FNM can’t be too comfortable with their success, because if it wasn’t clear before it is more than obvious now that if Bahamians are not happy with your party’s governance they will swap you out for the only other one they’ve ever had ... it’s the Bahamian love triangle. The Bahamian people, the PLP and the FNM.

Unfortunately, the Bahamian people have been and generally are accepting of and satisfied with their government, and their relationship with them, no matter how dysfunctional it becomes. Only once in a while, the people will act out to show the government they still have what the government needs and wants from them.

Still, evidently, for Bahamians, if it ain’t the PLP, it must be the FNM. And if it ain’t the FNM, it must be the PLP. It could only ever be one of two things. Bahamians say they want different, but they don’t really like to make different choices. They prefer if you keep giving them what they’re used to. And they will likely do this until the day The Bahamas is so consumed by another more powerful national entity that it no longer matters.

We can safely expect that, in the next five years, we’ll be on this merry-go-round again. If the Bahamian people are sufficiently mad at the FNM in 2022, or if the FNM can fix no/too few problems in the country, they’ll be out the next time and Bahamians will vote back in the PLP... assuming that party is still a going concern.

And speaking of going concerns, if the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) stays around, the party has to decide if the people who voted for them in 2012 did so because they just couldn’t bring themselves to vote PLP as an alternative to the FNM they wanted removed from office, or because they really believed in and wanted to realise the vision of the DNA.

Someone in an election broadcast made the comment that the FNM “touched the hearts of Bahamians” and therefore they won the election. I doubt that completely. The FNM did not win because the FNM, or Hubert Minnis, was/is politically loved by most Bahamians. The FNM won because the PLP, and Perry Christie, was/is politically despised by most Bahamians. Bahamians weren’t voting for candidates; they were voting for the party they needed to take the (PLP) government out - this time.

Case in point. In Centreville, Reece Chipman won that seat in Parliament by the skin of his teeth. The final count, last I checked, put Chipman at a win over Christie by four votes, three if you accept defensive, ballot magician Grimes’ comment that one of those four votes was a protest vote. And the PLP pushed and pushed until Christie got beat by only four votes. I have to ask - how much better does that feel?

So, really, in the Centreville case and perhaps a few others, the FNM needs to eternally thank their lucky stars for the DNA candidate, the Bahamas Constitution Party candidate and all those individuals courageous enough to go up against Christie in his 40-plus-year-old, desperately-in-need-of-large-scale-renovations, constituency. Because, without those other candidates, Christie could have easily won/kept that seat, and the joy the FNM now has in retiring Christie from leadership of the country and simultaneously deny him a seat at the parliamentary table would not have been realised.

Some of the FNM candidates who won seats in this election really only won them by default of voters voting for the FNM - they are virtual unknowns to many. And that’s not to say that they can’t make positive contributions to their country in Parliament, but they have to and will be watched closely. Even those more well-known have to and will be watched closely. A few of the candidates already have negative associations as corrupt business people, even as United States tax-evaders. Be these claims true or not, they precede the people associated with the claims and Bahamians should be observing every one of these newly-elected parliamentarians with watchful hawk eyes.

There’s been much talk about term limits for Prime Ministers of The Bahamas. Many people are in favour of a maximum of two terms in office. I say there should only be one term - for all persons elected or appointed to leadership. And it’s not as radical as it sounds.

We know the problems we face with corruptible politicians and political processes. If you want to prevent these things from taking hold, or if you want to flush them out sooner, no one, no Prime Minister/party leader, no Deputy Prime Minister/deputy leader, no member of Parliament, etc, should be allowed more than one term in office.

As old-time Bahamians would say, “ass in, ass out.” Get in there, do what you have to do, and get out. From the highest to the lowest elected or appointed office in the country, a person should never serve in public office for more than one term. There is no real justifiable rationale for more time than one term. Any argument made in support of more than one term could conceivably be made for ten more terms. And the longer it goes, the more comfortable those in office will become, and the more they will (passively or actively) resist being removed. They will always say they couldn’t get everything done. But that will be true no matter how much time passes, whether it’s one year or 100 years.

Ergo, if you mean business about helping your country, then you get in, and you get out. You mean to do good for your people? Well, you bust your ass and get it done in one term. And what you don’t achieve in your one term in office, the next iteration of government will. The true measure of your capability and commitment should be how well you use the time you have to achieve what is most important, not spend more than half your term in office thinking about how to be re-elected.

There should be no such thing as an incumbent seeking re-election. Eradicate the possibility of career politicians and those who seek positions of governance to milk the coffers and realise their own private agendas.

There should always be a refreshment of good quality leadership to ensure that the young people are constantly engaged in the process and that the most modern or advanced society possible is re-enabled at every election.

Though, admittedly, he has been improving, Hubert Minnis still doesn’t speak well. But since he has the role of leader now, I would offer him one - albeit unsolicited - bit of advice: get a speaking/language coach, even for training in the task of reading from a script. Or, if it’s easier, just go ahead and speak broad Bahamian English one time. We, those who care very much about competent communication, would feel less dread if you speak just as you are instead of trying to be who you definitely aren’t, especially when trying too hard every time causes you to fail every time.

I didn’t vote for him, but I do wish Minnis the best in his new job, because I still love my country. It will not be easy for him. In fact, we will make sure it is not easy, for him and all of his party’s representatives. Because more than anything, the Bahamian people know, without a doubt now, we simply cannot afford to cut anyone any slack.

Fixing a broken country is a gargantuan task, and anyone in a position of leadership or influence in government who does not have their shoulders to the wheel in this mammoth repair job needs to be removed swiftly and unapologetically from the vehicle of governance.

There is an entire, bleeding nation with multiple traumatic injuries to save. Bahamians will help their new government to save our nation, if those in governance show they mean to save it, with all their heart and spirit and strength, in the time gifted to them by Bahamian voters in this most recent general election.

• You can watch and listen to Nicole Burrows talking through this article and other thoughts on fb.me/PolitiColeTV. Comments and responses to nburrows@tribunemedia.net. This is the last in the PolitiCole series so thank you for reading.