By: Staff Writer
August 20, 2021
The Bahamian parliament was prorogued on Wednesday and officially dissolved the day after. This means that elections must be held shortly thereafter and in this case, the date has been set for September 16, 2021.
What’s at stake for Bahamians is really simple and they are no different than any other Caribbean country- economic empowerment for the Black masses, just that in this time the political parties are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic?
The incumbent government has gotten their hands on a healthy supply of vaccines, starting with the Oxford/AstraZeneca that was the first down the pike. Then followed by the Pfizer vaccines that came about a week ago and now the Johnson and Johnson one jab vaccine came into the country yesterday.
All it takes is for now for people to take the jab and get on with their business. But taking the jab is not that easy as it sounds as vaccine hesitancy has gripped the people and they have not been lining up in droves to take the vaccine, particularly the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine that has been tainted by Western media as inferior to the other vaccines for various reasons.
In addition, Bahamians understand that the large, developed Euro-centric countries try their medicines un them in real time, with ill-regard for the consequences for all human life. So there is a healthy fear and scepticism about taking the vaccine and a general election, where information will get muddied, is certainly not going to make vaccination uptick any better.
But observers had guessed that an election would be held before the constitutionally mandated May 2022 date where elections must be held, but they weren’t sure exactly what date was bouncing around in Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’s head. You see, for those that don’t know, The Bahamas doesn’t have a fixed date for elections. It can be called at anytime the Prime Minister sees fit during his five year term, thus making their politics a little interesting to say the very least about it.
Also with the matter of a fixed election date, a campaign promise from the 2017 general election that clearly was not kept, there were promises for a fully operational Freedom of Information Act with the regulations to boot- That has not happened.
The incumbent government also promised proper procurement legislation and financial management reform, both were muted as gestures were made on both and a nipping around the edges on what appeared to be procurement legislation and financial management reform, but nothing has been concretized to the point where it is working to the degree people feel is worthy of appreciation.
The incumbent Free National Movement has promised nothing substantial, delivered a lot less all at the same time pissing off hundreds of Bahamians as unions from all over the country have been gathering in force to show their strong disapproval of the FNM administration led by Dr Minnis.
But before you say the incumbent FNM is gone, wait until you get a load of the Opposition Leader, Philip “Brave” Davis and his team. While not as dim-witted and a little more classier and graceful than the rude and crass Dr Minnis, he has massive flaws. For one, if anyone could be a worse communicator that the seemingly borderline illiterate Dr Minnis it had to have been very hard to do so. Being a communicator is a pre-requisite for the job and if you can’t get your words out effectively with poise and grace then who are you going to order around and motivate to get things done?
Mr Davis stutters and loses his speaking rhythm like it’s the first time he has been in front of a microphone, unsure of what to say and how to say it. Leaving younger voters a bit frustrated who have seen American politicians on CNN and MSNBC deliver off the cuff rhetoric with ease. It crushes your spirit if you want a faster moving, up and coming Bahamian country. You don’t feel it with Mr Davis at all. In addition, he is fighting an uphill battle with his Progressive Liberal Party who has been branded as “notoriously corrupt.”
Worst of all with Mr Davis is that he is a criminal lawyer. A drug lawyer to be frank. People are cautious of these types of lawyers, because they have obvious connections to the underworld. In fact, Mr Davis’s cousin who he represented, Samuel “90” Knowles, is locked up in a US Federal prison for drug trafficking- a lot of island sip-sip and street talk flowed about what actually happened for 90 Knowles and his money, but everyone is pretending as if they don’t see it.
But before we turn this election into who has more, or less, morals. The incumbent Dr Minnis is no paragon of virtue either. Along with being mean-spirited, spiteful and dim-witted (a dangerous character to have as a leader and God know how he actually won the hearts and minds of the FNM party first before he won the election in such a landslide in 2017) he is an alleged whoremonger with whores all over the country. His whores control his time and how he dictates policy, people in his inner circle understand that.
So this election in The Bahamas, Bahamians are stuck between the degenerate and the drug lawyer. We think it may come down to who promotes a better team this time. That and who is more likely to be a little nicer to them for five years.
We will watch the charm offensive as it progresses.