There was much more than a little irony in the recently published letter by a Democratic National Alliance (DNA) supporter on Monday, October 31 in which the writer gleefully delighted in the quality of our democracy, acknowledged that it was not always so, then referred to his struggles to fall asleep.
The truth is that he seems to have sleep-walked through the past many decades of Bahamian history and political life and the real struggles for genuine democracy in this country.
As I struggled to connect the dots in the letter, the writer went on to thank the DNA leader for the selfless sacrifice he made for this country and all Bahamians. He went further, thanking the DNA leader for inspirational leadership.
It was then that I came to better appreciate the curious insanity that flourishes in a small quarter within this country.
What for the life of me was that writer talking about? What selfless sacrifice and inspirational leadership does he find represented in a preening, self-absorbed man given to studied gestures and bombastic rhetoric, and who was virtually unknown before a real leader he now vilifies persuaded the Free National Movement (FNM) to nominate him for a safe seat and then appointed him as a junior minister?
The great irony is reflected in the fact that the depth and richness of this democracy is the consequence of the commitment to political pluralism of a real leader this DNA leader now tries to demonize.
This includes the opening of the broadcast airwaves to ensure the freedom of expression for every imaginable political view, which freedom had eluded us for the 19 years since independence, was an early action in the new FNM administration.
It also includes a continuing commitment to enriching our democracy that has been the hallmark of each FNM administration under the leadership of the person this DNA leader seems most determined to demonize, even to the extent of threatening to conspire to cause the loss of his seat in the House of Assembly, at the expense of losing his own.
One can only conclude that the few who find the DNA leader inspirational are not listening to a word he says and are instead caught-up, at least temporarily, in the theater of the absurd that is his endless profiling. Perhaps they may see in the DNA opportunities for the realization for their own personal agendas? Perhaps, we can even call it a form of temporary insanity, as the facts don’t bear out their murky reasoning. The writer stupidly attributes a mission to this movement on the order of what is being called the Arab Spring.
This is where the insanity becomes worse. It may be that his struggles to fall asleep were only imagined and in fact he had fallen asleep. Thus he is now really dreaming.
When the ‘Bahamian Spring’ for majority rule, independence, and the securing of democracy was taking place, some of today’s key DNA supporters never came forward to do the heavy lifting. Now that democracy has been secured, these same self-serving individuals are talking up a storm about democracy. Too bad they just woke up. As for the letter writer, he is living in a dream world of his own making. Maybe if he really gets some good sleep he can at least snap out of his delusions.
By: Livingston Gray
