by Sir Arthur Foulkes
The tumult and the shouting diminishes but does not die; the captains and the kings do not depart but remain in the arena, albeit in reversed roles. The action in the political arena usually reaches frenetic proportions during an election campaign, but the arena is seldom, if ever, really quiet.
The election just concluded will fade into history like all the others but promises to cast a long shadow for months, perhaps years, into the next term of parliament.
It was the worst election since 1987 when a desperate government, shattered by the damning revelations of the Commission of Inquiry into Drug Trafficking and fearful of possible consequences, pulled every stop and employed every dirty trick in an all-out campaign to win at any cost.
One PLP MP got up in the House of Assembly shortly after that election to proclaim that “all is fair in love and war”. Apparently nobody ever told him that for civilized people there are rules even for war and that in any event politics is the civilized alternative to war.
The election of 2007 was not quite as bad as 1987 but it was pretty awful. A desperate government, riddled by scandals and fearful of being retired as the first one-term administration in Bahamian history, abandoned all pretenses at fair play.
In a number of constituencies from Grand Bahama to Inagua have come reports of all kinds of irregularities including open vote-buying. It was particularly blatant in the West End and Bimini Constituency where people lined up outside a PLP campaign office where money was being handed out.
The crowd was so large that the police was called to keep order. Why this disgraceful operation was not closed down and arrests made on the spot is a matter of grave concern.
It is chilling to contemplate that after the democratic reforms achieved in this country over so many years of struggle that we have now regressed to a level of corruption where such a thing does not provoke outrage.
When former Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe was challenged by a reporter to say that no that money was being given out, he made this incredible reply:
“No, I don’t say that. What I say is this: we don’t buy votes. That’s what you are asking me. I said I assist people, no matter what the circumstances are, and I do it every day of my life”!
The PLP Government’s unfairness with the use of public parks for rallies was scandalous but their abuse of ZNS Radio and Television was an even more shameful attack on our Bahamian democracy.
There was not the slightest attempt to honour the rule of equal time as the PLP hogged up the air waves and Steve McKinney campaigned openly every day on his ZNS talk show. Mr. McKinney’s performance was an embarrassment to fair-minded supporters of the PLP.
The PLP leaders obviously saw nothing wrong with this and may have thought they were hurting their opponents. What they did, of course, was to infringe on right of the Bahamian people to equal access to both sides in an election campaign.
Unfortunately, Wendall Jones launched his new television service in the middle of the campaign and did no better than ZNS. Mr. Jones himself was the host of a programme that was billed as having something to do with business.
His guest was Frankie Wilson and the show was nothing more than an excuse for a vicious personal attack on FNM Leader Hubert Ingraham with no opportunity for response by or on behalf of Mr. Ingraham.
It is clear that the FNM, having opened up the airwaves and having introduced democracy to Bahamian broadcasting in its first term, must now make rules for fairness in political broadcasting. Those rules must have teeth since it seems that is the only way some people will ever be made to do the right thing.
* * *
In spite of everything, the PLP lost the election and the biggest loser was former Prime Minister Perry Christie. Mr. Christie was exposed as an ineffective and weak Prime Minister during the last five years, and now he has the distinction of having led the first one-term administration in Bahamian history.
But more than that, Mr. Christie’s pretense of being a democrat – “a consummate democrat” -- was stripped away by his refusal to do anything about all the unfair practices in the election and his personal participation in the abuse of ZNS.
Mr. Christie did not even have the grace to be a good loser and the remarks he made to his followers Thursday night were deeply disturbing.
He has demonstrated that he is nothing more than an old-style PLP politician infected with the same old PLP disease of entitlement, believing that he and his colleagues have some right to rule, that it is an affront to oppose them and that they can do anything in the service of their perverted assumptions.
The PLP will never be any better as a party until they rid themselves of that affliction and come to realize that they are nothing more than a political party in a democracy and that they have no more rights than any other political party.
* * *
A few radio talk show callers and some of the pundits who have never entered the arena themselves were at it with the usual unfounded complaint that the issues were not being addressed and that there was too much dancing and singing, too much tumult and shouting.
It has become a habit with some pseudo sophisticates to look down from their ivory towers at the common folk and to pontificate on what they think they see and hear when in fact they are merely indulging in the same tired old clichéd thinking.
The most cerebral of them know, of course, that humans are not disembodied spirits but ritualistic beings who find that words alone are not always enough to express adequately what they think and what they feel.
We employ ritual in the service of our most precious values; witness the pomp and circumstance of the opening of our courts and parliament or the contrasting solemnity and passion of our worship.
Someone once said that before we begin to do away with rituals we should carefully examine what values they protect.
The rituals that accompany Bahamian political activity are not exclusive to us. Even in supposedly conservative cultures like Britain, the political process is often accompanied by tumult and shouting.
So why should anyone be surprised that in our exuberant Afro-Caribbean culture we prepare to exercise our most treasured democratic rights celebrating with singing and dancing? Theatre is not just for theatres and dancing is not just for dance halls.
The issues in this election were discussed perhaps more thoroughly than in any other. They were discussed on radio shows, in newspapers, on websites and – in between the singing and dancing -- at every political rally.
Despite the abuse of the publicly-owned electronic news media, those who wanted to hear, heard, and those who wanted to read, read.
* * *
In every election there are victors and vanquished. All those who entered the political arena with pure hearts and with the intention to serve their country are to be saluted, even if they lost.
Some will walk away and never be heard from again. Those who were genuinely committed will more than likely continue to be involved.
To the vanquished of both parties, especially those tasting defeat for the first time, I recommend this reading from Theodore Roosevelt:
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doers of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
On May 8, someone using the name Alison Howard posted a defamatory comment on this article relating to attorney Kenred Dorsett.
We have deleted the offending comment and apologise to Mr Dorsett for the oversight.
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Posted by: administrator | May 29, 2007 at 08:38 AM