People should be offended by comparison to North Korea in Nassau Guardian… Who writes that stuff?

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Offended by North Korea comparison

Dear Editor,

The Nassau Guardian’s Editorial of Friday March 28th 2014 must have left intelligent Bahamians everywhere wondering about the intellect, integrity and substance of the Nassau Guardian’s Editorial Board and or writers.

While I do not subscribe to being “a party supporter” that is PLP or FNM and hold no brief for the PLP, I do vote in every election for the Candidate whose views I feel best represents my vision. I am troubled and insulted that your Editorial would attempt to make some illogical comparison about the occupants of post of Leader of the Progressive Liberal Party to North Korea, a totalitarian and rogue state.

With the highest echelon of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association meeting in our country in seminar with our parliamentarians on the same day as this editorial, I wonder if it occurred to the Guardian’s Editorial Board that the Bahamas has one of the oldest elected Parliaments in the western hemisphere – 285 years old – in line with those of Barbados, Bermuda and the Commonwealth of Virginia, one of the states of the United States of America. Meeting for the first time in 1729, the parliament of the Bahamas, the highest symbol of its democracy, pre dates the independence of the United States.

Surely this Editorial must have raised a plethora of red flags about the Editorial board’s motives and competency. Here we are with every reason to be proud of our democracy and the Nassau Guardian’s Editorial Board suggests that the party which introduced Majority Rule and led us to independence can be likened to North Korea, a pariah among the free world. While the intent of the editorial might have been a political attack on the PLP, such an inappropriate comparison causes collateral damage to the reputation and proud democratic legacy of our beloved Bahamian state. This is most unfortunate.

Further, these clumsy and uninformed irrational conclusions insult the heritage and sensibilities of the Bahamian people.

Does the Publisher even read these commentaries before they go to press?

Why would this Editorial go to such an extreme to demonize the leadership of the PLP by equating it to North Korea?

Despite the institutional slant always associated with editorials in other publications, I would venture to say that none of them would ever reduce themselves to being the laughing stock of the enlightened world by publishing the atrocious miscalculations contained in this Nassau Guardian piece.

The editor further asserts that Henry Milton Taylor was never leader of the PLP because Taylor used the title chairman to hold office. Only a little child with hapless crayon could assume that.

Using the silly logic of the Nassau Guardian Editorial on Mr. Taylor’s Chairmanship of the PLP, one wonders what they would say about Sir Roland Symonette and Sir Lynden Pindling using the then accepted title of Premier as head of government in a British Colony before the new title of Prime Minister was allowed. Is the editor implying that Sir Roland Symonette never led The Bahamas?

It has always been understood in this country that Mr. Jones and Mrs. Dupuch-Carron vigorously trained and prepared their journalists for the challenges of 21st century mass communications. The Nassau Guardian on the other hand has given itself away to sensationalism, reckless witch hunts and provocative misuse of legal terms. Case in point I am still wondering how Ishmael Lightbourne, despite not having paid his taxes, can be classified as a Tax Dodger. Only the minds of the people at the Nassau Guardian have this answer. Is there no dictionary or qualified proof reader in their office?

Or is the Publisher too busy in the counting room counting out his coins to recognize that his character and integrity are now on the line as to the modus operandi of what appears under his masthead.

I would suggest that the publisher of the Nassau Guardian invest some monies in re-training and re-tooling his staff. Given that the College of the Bahamas is right on their front lawn, their reporters can do classes throughout the week so they can polish their skills.

I am also sure that Historian Franklyn Ferguson would be available to come into the Nassau Guardian news room and provide them with some lectures on the political history of the Bahamas.

The Nassau Guardian should get serious about its reputation.

Signed,

Charles David Rolle