Long gone are the days when political parties could expect blind loyalty from the people. Today they have no choice but to win the approval of the people, thus our conclusion that the Free National Movement, the Progressive Liberal Party and the Coalition For Democratic Reform will face unprecedented challenge from an electorate which knows that it can change governments whenever it wishes. Without fear of successful contradiction, we contend that all political parties in The Bahamas are in for an exceptionally rough ride.
Today, the Free National Movement, its arch-rival The Progressive Liberal Party, the Coalition For Democratic Reform and a number of other more ephemeral political organizations are getting set to either commemorate victory or commiserate about the bitterness of defeat.
Within a matter of days, the Bahamian Nation will steady itself as its people look back at a year which meant so much for many. What is particularly interesting about all parties to this business of remembering what was and what might have been, is that practically without exception explanations for defeat or victory are hardly ever dispassionate.
On the FNM side, there are very many people who continue to believe that their defeat was some kind of fluke, some cosmic jock or plain foolishness on the part of people who should have known better. Short shrift is given to arguments which suggest that the Free National Movement, having better undermined from within and battered from without was a disaster waiting to happen.
Conversely on the PLP side of the same street, few of its strategists can bring themselves to contemplate – even for a moment – that their great victory was the result of a confluence of events over which they exerted little or no direct influence.
In the instance of the Coalition For Democratic Reform, their date with destiny on May 2, 2002 marked what seemed the end of the political road for its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Bernard J. Nottage. Having failed to land even one seat, that party might have been expected to have folded after it was so decisively rejected by the electorate.
Now that a year has elapsed between those heady moments last year when expectations were dashed and wildest dreams realized, the Bahamian people have had an opportunity to assess the PLP, the FNM, and the CDR.
By now, we think it would be fair to suggest that the Progressive Liberal Party – in office – has not disappointed the critics who had predicted that Prime Minister the Hon. Perry G. Christie would be laid back and deliberate in decision making. Those who despise this style accuse the nation's chief executive officer of being hopelessly slow. Clearly convinced that he had no choice but to move slowly, Mr. Christie has stuck to his guns.
Here of late, his government is showing every sign that it is going to have a tough time keeping militant workers in line. The only positive dimension in this otherwise troubling picture is that the demands being put by workers have not been politicised.
Clearly hoping against hope that something will turn up to boost the economy and create jobs, the Christie team is apparently getting set for the long haul. Indeed, we have heard commentary to the effect that a one-year assessment is in and of itself of little import.
In the instance of the opposition Free National Movement, their devastating loss to the Progressive Liberal Party left their leadership in disarray and their rank and file dispirited and petulant. With a convention imminent, that party is currently consumed with matters involving its leadership. Calmer heads in that party wisely counsel that the leadership which matters most is the team which will take the FNM into the next general elections.
What is interesting about these intramural discussions in the Free National Movement is the light that their debates throw on the larger issue of leadership throughout The Bahamas.
In a country where big money and family connections count for so much, questions of leadership in most political parties in The Bahamas invariably turns on the names, voices and faces of a relatively tiny number of people, thus the torpor in the PLP, the FNM and the CDR.
In this connection, then, when a review is made of the past year in Bahamian politics, there is a prevailing sense that this has been a time for the recycled, tired and rejected. Of perhaps greatest disappointment is the solid grip the old PLP has on the supposedly 'new' PLP.
Where many Bahamians had expected Prime Minister Christie and his team to be genuinely new, what they have had to contend with is any number of political resurrections and futile rehabilitations.
In the instance of the CDR, that organization has shown that it has some life left and its CEO has clearly demonstrated that he is superbly qualified for real leadership. He is yet to prove, however, that he has the chutzpah needed to go for broke. Always the cautious operative, he is apparently waiting for something big to happen before he makes a decisive move vis-οΎ‡-vis the PLP or the FNM.
Our information has it that he will be received as a conquering hero by whichever party he chooses. His detractors say that all of this is mere idleness on the part of romantics who refuse to accept Dr. Nottage's rejection at the polls.
Where there is near universal approval is the contention that while the past year has not been an unmitigated disaster for any of the major parties in The Bahamas, no political organization has captured the imagination of the Bahamian people.
Editorial, The Bahama Journal
