Editor,
If there were any doubts about the commencement of the so called ‘silly season’ before there should be none now. A few days ago ads began appearing on social media supportive of the FNM and the interim Prime Minister. One of them featured Minnis walking though a hall way at what is said to be Doctors’ Hospital and chatting with doctors and nurses. I would advise the owners and directors at that establishment, if it was in fact Doctors, to be careful not to be sucked into a political vortex that they might find themselves difficult to get out off.
By allowing Minnis in their establishment to host what was clearly a partisan exercise sends the wrong seminal message to the unwashed masses who are unable in most cases to access the medical services and facilities offered by Doctors’ due to the fees/costs and private insurance issues. It would not want it to be said or opined that that establishment supports the FNM or the reelection gimmicks of the interim Prime Minister. Will Doctors’ now get preferential treatment from this administration in it’s dying electoral days relative to the COVID-19 vaccination?
The interim PM has been a man of action in recent times. He’s been down to Harbor Island to recommission a bridge. He’s been over to Andros to do the same thing. He’s found the time to go down to MICAL to greet and meet administrative staff and stationed police officers. He’s also opened a brand new Passport Office in Exuma. I expect that there will be more and more initiatives in The Family Islands going forward.
I have nothing against infrastructural works in any islands of The Bahamas but it is so cynical and wicked to see them been taken just months before coming back to the electorate as if they are doing somebody any favors. Where did the money come from to fund these last minute schemes? It would seem that the FNM is pinning it’s electoral outcome on the Family Island constituencies because they know that the bulk of the residents in New Providence are no long checking for them, in my view.
It has also been announced that the government is moving to acquire the Freeport International Airport, years after it should have and could have done so. Grand Bahama’s economy has been in the doldrums for at least a decade despite consistently supporting and voting for the FNM. Today, it holds all of the Grand Bahama seats with at least three cabinet ministers. It used to have four before Peter Turnquest (FNM-East End) was obliged to step down as Minister of Finance. He remains, for now, as Deputy Leader of the FNM but his days in that post are numbered.
Another ad on social media is seeking to portray the insurgent New PLP as connected to pedophiles , as they call them, without a single piece of credible evidence. Unsubstantiated allegations, so far, have been made against Mr. Peter Nygard relative to illicit under aged sex with multiple female (thank God not males). None of these voluminous accusations have yet been proven in a competent court of law.
Many people inclusive of Bahamians have already tried; convicted and sentenced Peter Nygard even before the start of a trial. When Nygard was dispensing money like an ATM many of these same people were at the trough slopping up the money like natural hogs. Now, the ads seek to link the esteemed leader of the New PLP, the Hon. Philip ‘Brave’ Davis (PLP-Cat Island), et al, to Nygard in a sinister and smearing way.
The ad accuses the Old PLP under Christie and by extension the New PLP under Brave as having received funding from pedophiles! It is ‘known’ that the FNM also received some funding from Nygard. Were those funds, if any, from pedophiles? Where is the Campaign Finance Act that the interim PM and his crew used to like to talk about? Will the disintegrating FNM ( Fool The Negro Masses) agree to publicly reveal who is funding it this time around? Where is the Freedom of Information Act? How much VAT monies have been collected during the rule of this regime and where is it?
The FNM is under political assault and it is now cherry picking who will be re-nominated and ratified in a spectacular and very brutal manner. Having studied the modus operandi of the interim PM following his unexpected elevation he has never demonstrated appreciation; loyalty and finest. He is uncouth, to be charitable, and wields power nakedly. They sacrificed Turnquest (he was a liability in my view) on the altar of expediency. McAlpine’s days as an FNM and MP are numbered. Some are suggesting that the Hon. Michael Pintard (FNM-Marco City) is next on the chopping block. Pintard has served the FNM well and he was the man with the plan leading into 2017. Now he is disposable and fodder for the political garbage can?
The New PLP is in a good position to sweep all of the seats in Grand Bahama. With 16 almost guaranteed seats in the New Providence column the New PLP could form the next government with a five of six seat majority. No more lop sided super majorities which leads to a potential parliamentary dictatorship. Saturday past I witnessed a monumental waste of taxpayers’ resources and police manpower.
Apparently, the current representative for Mount Moriah who is also parading as Minister of National Security had several lower and up ranking offices staged to meet him at the Stapledon Garden’s Park to conduct a walk-about! Dames has been almost invisible and AWOL in Mount Moriah since May, 2017 Where was he and what was he doing on behalf of the constituents, myself included? Not a damned thing in my opinion.
Now, police manpower is being potentially abused? Acts of desperation and smoke screens will not cut it. Legalize a destructive drug like marijuana to seek, bogusly, the electoral support of younger voters? Expungement of criminal records? All smoke screens; mirrors and gross acts of political desperation. To God then, in all things, be the glory.
Ortland H. Bodie, Jr.
