Branville McCartney must be reading from the stupidest political play book in the world.
It is a playbook that says, let enough people blow sufficient smoke up your you-know-what that you start to believe that whatever you do, it will smell like perfume. I hope that he sees the error of his ways because the FNM showed him better.
A friend in the Council of the FNM said to me that while Bran is all over the place ranting and raving about wanting a convention so that he can become leader of the party, he didn’t have the brass enough to show up at Council to make his case. He had his first chance to face head on the man who he says needs to go but he bailed out. Even his poor Council Rep was as silent as a lamb. It was as if the young man believes he can get where he wants to go without the very people who must be involved in getting him there.
Branville’s playbook must also tell him that it is OK for someone to undermine the very thing he wants to lead. He is in the media bashing the FNM’s sitting leader. Unless he is God, there is no way Branville can know that he will become leader of the party in place of Prime Minister Ingraham; in fact, given his actions, I would say that there is little chance he will. So the PM might end up leading the party in the next general election. But Bran has already told the world that the PM needs to go. How can Bran, as a member of the FNM and possible candidate, then be a part of a team led by the same man he says needs to go? In my books, it’s just stupid! Really stupid!
Branville’s stupid playbook must also tell him that ego should matter more than substance.
It seems that because people liked the fact that McCartney talked up catching Haitians and gave the appearance that he was catching more Haitians than anyone else in history, that his already inflated ego grew to super abundant size and now he is ready to lead the Bahamas. Anyone can get out there and talk up “Bahamas for Bahamians”, “Get rid of the Haitians.” Any minister can put on Immigration Fatigues and go out catching Haitians. Loftus Roker and Shane Gibson were both like this. Did that mean they should be leader? What about the rest of the complex issues that national development involves? Beyond catching Haitians, what is Branville McCartney known for in terms of national development and leadership?
I, like so many people, believed that Branville McCartney has something to offer. Perhaps he can still do so but he needs to take a chill pill.
He is on a bad wicket and, in my opinion, he is showing a disloyalty to his party and disrespect to its course that will not bode well for him in the future.
Most of all, he is allowing his ego to damage any semblance of leadership he believes he has. Bran needs to change his playbook. Perhaps he should find a mentor with experience and use his playbook.
He could try Hubert A. Ingraham, who is bar none the most successful politician beyond Lynden Pindling in our nation’s history. But then again, Bran believes Ingraham must go, so this might be a little tricky.
The path Branville is on is, as I see it, political idiocy and perhaps before it is too late, he may correct himself.
CHARLES FERGUSON
Nassau, The Bahamas
October, 2010.
