The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

This, like every other election before it, is supposedly to secure our future. The FNM platform leans into the future. The PLP dreams of a new day, asking voters to gaze into a crystal ball.

The FNM’s future has a rainbow but its present is awash in covid, anti-vaxxers and economic hiccups. The PLP’s future whitewashes a past that is drenched in corruption, cronyism and men behaving badly.

As the country contemplates tomorrow, we must navigate the landmines of today. Luckily, the wind is at our backs with regard to vaccine supply, thanks to PAHO, COVAX and lately the US Government.

The FNM says that everyone who wants a vaccine can get one. The PLP exploits the reality that way too many of us still refuse the jab and that the hospitals continue to creak under the strain of the unvaccinated.

Prime ministers sometimes call early elections when they perceive an advantage that would not exist if they ran out the clock on their term.

We don’t know what current circumstances may be at play but it falls to voters to pick the next government to deal with this once in a lifetime pandemic.

It would behoove many to swear off social media for the next month less they be swamped with tweets and blogs about politicians doing and saying stupid things. Sadly, it will also include massive fear-mongering, dumb conspiracy theories and flat out lies.

People who don’t hold a single BJC in any subject will opine on why they think Dr. Anthony Fauci or Dr. Mercline Dahl-Regis are wrong and they are right about vaccines.

Brave Davis, the man who was robbed at gunpoint in his own home while he was the sitting Deputy Prime Minister, will whine about today’s crime rate. He will lament the hospitals not being able to cope with the covid surge while not a peep about how he high-tailed it to the US for treatment during his brush with covid.

Like leaders in every corner of the globe, covid gave Minnis a basket to carry water. Every government in the world put its foot wrong on a few occasions because there was no pandemic playbook to work from.

Minnis made unpopular decisions that saved lives. A vocal band of anti-vaxxers seemingly getting their marching orders from Fox News in the US and are resisting every public health measure.

The next government will be decided by a slither of the population who likely won’t make up their minds about who to vote for until election day. These voters live mostly in New Providence.

So, without the song and dance of large public rallies, much of the noise of this electronic campaign will be for their ears. In the end the math is simple. The FNM can afford to lose as many as 15 seats and retain the government.

To overcome a 15-seat deficit the PLP will need to hope for a tsunami much like the FNM got in 2017. Not impossible, but herculean.

Students of data will note that history overwhelmingly favours prime ministers who called snap elections.

We must decide if we want the same stuff, different day or if we want to go back to the future.

THE GRADUATE

Nassau,

August 23, 2021.