On the Editorial page of The Nassau Guardian Thursday, 14th February edition, appeared a letter to the Editor under the caption “Branville McCartney is Bahamian Sarah Palin” by a writer under the pseudonym grateful to Mr Ingraham.
First of all dear grateful one, let me say that you should have found some other way of showing your gratitude to Mr Ingraham for whatever favour or favours that he may have bestowed upon or given you. To compare a young, vibrant, energetic and intelligent up and coming Bahamian political star with the likes of Sarah Palin is denigrating and disingenuous of anyone claiming to be a Bahamian. I am only presuming that you are, but I could be wrong.
For over two weeks now since Mr McCartney made the remark that Mr Ingraham has or shows no compassion, a number of persons have been writing to the press condemning and taking him, McCartney to task for his remarks. This young man is simply exercising his constitutional rights not only as a citizen; but an elected representative of a constituency in a democratic society. You dear miss or mister grateful, would be surprised to know how many of us out here in John Q public, including me, are in full agreement with McCartney and give him credit for his testicular fortitude.
You and others, in disagreeing with McCartney, which is your constitutional right in the democratic process, went on record as saying that the paying of electricity bills, cash handouts to straw vendors, hiring people to sit down under trees holding garbage bags and watching a few more raking leaves on the side of the road, the paying out of millions of NIB monies to thousands of persons, many of whom only buy grass and rum, and paying lawyers to represent persons committing criminal offences in a foreign country are acts of compassion, if you are saying that that is good news, then here are some bad news.
Mr Ingraham is, first and foremost a politician and if I may say so a good one. He was trained by a master politician, Lynden Oscar Pindling.
All that money that was so generously given away was not Mr Ingraham’s own to give, it is the people’s money and at some time in the not too distant future he has to give account for his stewardship. One cannot, willy-nilly, give away or misuse public funds without proper authority there is a process that must be followed according to law. Did it ever occur to you, dear grateful and others that what you perceived to be acts of compassion could have really been acts of vote-catching? To say that McCartney was only grandstanding while in charge of immigration, is complete rubbish. I was floating around in this archipelago long before party politics, party government, majority rule and all the other trappings that we now enjoy, So I am now telling you, dear grateful, that there has been one and only one other minister of immigration that did a better job than Branville McCartney and that was Loftus Roker who like McCartney, did not have to depend on Haitian votes.
Branville McCartney, like any other member of the Free National Movement, has the God-given right not only to aspire to the leadership of the party, but to fight through the legal process of the party to attain it. Ingraham did not have to fight to become leader of the FNM, it was handed to him by the then leader Cecil Wallace-Whitfield who was also co-founder of the party. Cecil, who sought my advice on the matter six weeks before his demise, (I was the other co-founder) had his reasons that were many and real, for making the choice, but that does not mean that Ingraham must do likewise. As long as he is at the top he is the main target for all and sundry that has ambitions in aspiring for the top of the ladder. I say to Branville, ignore the critics, keep focus on your goal, put first, your trust in God and keep faith with yourself. Put not your trust in princes for they shall deceive you and be assured that what is out there for you, you will get.
ERRINGTON
W. I. WATKINS
Nassau,
February 14, 2011
