The Tribune

By SIMON

The best politicians demonstrate a powerful mixture of national purpose and personal ambition. Those with purpose and good ideas absent steely ambition often fail in the rough and tumble world of politics.

Those given mostly or overwhelmingly to ambition and personal greed are typically a danger to the polis, emphasising their desires and lust for power over the greater good.

While ambition is necessary, it is best when tempered, honed, carefully calibrated. Ambition without prudence, judgement and restraint leads to hubris.

In the Western classics from Icarus to Oedipus, Antigone, Macbeth, King Lear, Cleopatra, and others, excessive pride or hubris, “a belief that [one] is somehow above the fates, or in control of destiny” typically leads to failure, as one is ensnared by one’s own unbridled arrogance.

Minister of Energy and Transport JoBeth Coleby-Davis is clearly quite ambitious. It is good to see ambitious women like her in the frontline of politics. Women are often reticent to offer as candidates for election to the House of Assembly.

At home and abroad there is an ingrained misogyny that seeks to restrict the ambition of women in politics. It is often not only men who think that women should only rise so far. Many women also believe that only a man should be party leader or prime minister.

If Mrs Coleby-Davis has the ambition to eventually lead her party and become prime minister, good for her. However, along the way, the 40-year-old, who will turn 41 in July, might want to consider the nature, pitfalls and stratagems of ambition.

She might recall the Greek myth of Icarus and his father Daedalus, who warned his son not to fly so close to the sun that his wings would be destroyed. Which is exactly what happened with Icarus who fell into the ocean and drowned.

So seized by giddiness, hubris and overweening ambition, the boy simply wouldn’t listen. He was not as clever as he assumed. Right before he fell, “Icarus kept flapping his wings but soon realised that he had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms.”

The Icarus-like characters in politics often think they can defy the laws and physics of political gravity.

The thrills of power as minister, with the luxury travel, the obsequiousness of some officials, the headiness of sitting at the cabinet table and in parliament, and all of the other trappings, can mesmerise and send one into a drug-like euphoria.

It is difficult to keep ones feet on the ground and out of the clouds, and to remember that it is all fleeting. Vanity induces blindness, deafness, and magical thinking, all resulting in some politicians crashing and burning like Icarus.

There is considerable chatter that Mrs Coleby-Davis wants to be deputy leader of the PLP, a coveted post now held by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation, Chester Cooper.

The two cabinet colleagues share a birth month. They also appear to share a burning desire to be prime minister. Cooper will be 55 this year and is 14 years older than Coleby-Davis. So, what are some of the realities of political gravity facing the latter?

Chester Cooper is not universally loved in the PLP. Some see him as an interloper who delights in grandstanding and public relations hoopla.

Though he regularly touts the number of tourism arrivals, he has failed to increase the number of stopover visitors. He has his strengths along with a number of political weaknesses. He also has his avid supporters.

He has served his time in a political party that prefers orderly succession and for potential leaders to wait their turn. Then there is the misogyny resident in the country and in the major parties.

Former Long Island Member of Parliament Loretta Butler Turner experienced this misogyny, though in the end she may have been undone by not playing the longer game and remaining as an FNM candidate in the last election in a seat she would have won handily.

Had she remained she might currently be leader of the opposition and on her way to being the country’s first female prime minister.

Perry Christie knew he had to wait his time to be PLP leader. So did Phillip “Brave” Davis, who may have preferred if Christie stepped aside early in the former’s favour.

Mr Davis had a long game: he won his seat, raised considerable funds for the party, schmoozed colleague and party grandees, and kept his proverbial powder dry. He is also an affable and likeable figure who knows how to deploy charm even as he is acting ruthlessly in a given situation.

Those whose ambitions get way ahead of the moment tend to pay a heavy price. In a sexist Bahamas, with an uneven playing field, women often have to couch their ambition even when men are allowed free rein.

Former Democratic National Alliance (DNA) leader Branville McCartney demonstrated appeal and talent when serving in the FNM in a Hubert Ingraham cabinet.

Blisteringly annoyed that he was not promoted to his own ministry when the late Charles Maynard was promoted, McCartney seethed. He eventually launched his vanity party, the DNA, which is now moribund.

Had McCartney not behaved like Icarus, and played the long game, he would have won his Bamboo Town seat, and likely become leader of the opposition and prime minister.

But the ego and hubris of the relatively young McCartney in a hurry could not discipline his overweening ambition. Yet another shooting star, he failed at being a fixed, steady, and ever rising star in the political firmament. He politically flamed out.

At the beginning of this year, there are two blunders that have seriously harmed Mrs Coleby-Davis. An advertisement in this journal appeared to tout her as a leader in waiting. She denies any association with the ad.

If it was concocted by any of her supporters, it backfired spectacularly, annoying many within the PLP, including supporters of the deputy leader. If the ad was done in mischief by political opponents to harm her, it succeeded.

Either way, the ad exposed her purported ambition and seeming rush for leadership positions coveted by others. When your ambition becomes too glaring too quickly, one’s opponents will pounce.

Meanwhile, a video went viral of her showing off cum modelling a variety of luxury goods, collectively worth more than many of her constituents may make in a year. If the ad was unfortunate, the video was a disaster.

First it demonstrated stunningly bad judgement. Leaders are only partially elected or appointed for their skills. In the end, it a leader’s judgment that will have lasting consequences. In this social media age, why would she allow herself to be in such a video? It is the most amateurish of mistakes.

Further, what is the mindset that would brag about living in such luxury during one of the worst cost of living crises in an independent Bahamas? She played to the stereotype of a reality show celebrity enthralled with material goods.

Mrs Coleby-Davis apologised for the terrible judgment. But the fact that she was confronted by the mistake and had to apologise on a news programme means that considerable damage has been done to her politically within the county, the PLP, and her constituency.

Mrs Coleby-Davis may want to ponder the reality that the PLP may be yet another one-term government. This means that she has to win her seat.

If the FNM wins in a landslide, she might lose her seat and be out of the running for more senior leadership in the next political cycle.

Mr Cooper and the PLP remain the favorites to win Exuma. The Deputy Prime Minister is working diligently to recapture the seat. This includes work on a new international airport for the island and other projects. He will raise considerable money to win Exuma.

The cabinet ministry one has plays a role in political failure or success. As Minister of Energy and Transport, Mrs Coleby-Davis will have to bear some of the burden for high electricity costs and the problems at BPL, the lack of transparency on energy reform, and the problems at Road Traffic.

Despite queries about the reality of tourism numbers, Mr Cooper can associate himself with good news in tourism, investments, and aviation.

There is no certainty that Chester Cooper will ever become PLP leader or prime minister. Still, thus far, he is a playing a longer and better game than others. Others with ambition may also be in the long game.

If Mrs Coleby-Davis wishes to rise and not burn out like Icarus, she must conceive and demonstrate a more sophisticated and better game, temper her excesses, and study more in-depth the laws and physics of political gravity and ambition.