EDITOR, The Tribune
Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Leader Philip Brave Davis’ motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis met its expected outcome in the House of Assembly. With the defection of Centreville MP Reece Chipman and Golden Isles MP Vaughn Miller, the Free National Movement (FNM) still maintains a lopsided majority, with 33 MPs to the PLP’s four. At the centre of this latest brouhaha is St Anne’s MP Brent Symonette, former Cabinet minister. Symonette is the son of the late United Bahamian Party (UBP) leader and first Bahamian premier, Sir Roland Symonette. With the merger of the FNM and UBP in the early 1970s, the former became a viable option to the PLP on the political landscape. For all intents and purposes, the junior Symonette is the face of the defunct Bay Street Boys within the governing party.
Consequently, Symonette’s strategic importance to the FNM cannot be overstated, even to the extent of FNM hierarchy being willing to lose an election.
With the awarding of lucrative contracts by the Water and Sewerage Corporation and the Nassau Airport Development Company to Bahamas Hot Mix (BHM) in 2019, in addition to the relocation of the General Post Office to the Town Centre Mall, Minnis apparently viewed the foregoing transactions as being worth the risk of a potential political fallout. In fairness to Mr Symonette, he doesn’t own shares in BHM, his children’s trust does. To the Bahamian electorate, however, this bit of information will do little in reducing tensions among those hellbent on continuing their age-old class conflict with the Symonette clan. The BHM issue seems to repeat itself in every FNM administration. It happened in 2001, when Symonette resigned as Airport Authority chairman; and again in 2011 -- both under former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham. Ironically, the FNM would go on to lose in 2002 and 2012 respectively. Is history repeating itself? Whatever happens in 2022, the Symonette family will be fine.
With a population of only 400,000, The Bahamas is relatively small. This can help to explain why Symonette’s business tentacles are so ubiquitous. Even though conflicts of interest dilemmas are hard to avoid in The Bahamas, Symonette could’ve helped matters by remaining out of frontline politics.
Symonette is a shrewd businessman and a massive financial benefactor to the FNM. However, the PLP will once again argue, during the 2022 election campaign to disgruntled working-class Bahamians, that the FNM is all about advancing the interests of wealthy Bay Street elements such as Symonette. These are the pros and cons of Symonette being in the FNM.
KEVIN EVANS
Freeport
Grand Bahama
December 12, 2019
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