Three giants of Bahamian politics yesterday expressed their views on whether the country is ready for a white prime minister.
The announcement by Brent Symonette, MP for Montagu, that he is seriously considering running for leader of the FNM once again captured the imagination of the public.
The Tribune put the question to some of the key political figures of a pre-majority rule and post-independent Bahamas.
Arthur D. Hanna, the country’s first Deputy Prime Minister, said he believed that there is a new generation, who are not looking at the sins of the past, in making their decisions. He said he believed that Mr. Symonette had overcome the sinss of his father and was not considered to be a “Bay Street White Boy”.
Sir Clement Maynard, the country’s second Deputy Prime Minister, said that Bahamians have tried to enforce the concept of “One Bahamas” and that should extend to politics.
“As far as I’m concerned everyone is accepting of One Bahamas and being treated with equality. I don’t think that we should discriminate when it comes to leadership.”
He said the elecetion of a white Bahamian would not be a step backward for the country because the Bahamas constitution allows for any Bahamian who is qualified to run.
Dr. Elwood Donaldson was a former PLP MP for Kilarney district and one of the ‘dissident eight’ who split from the party in December 1970 and became the Free-PLP. The group later went on to merge with the United Bahamian Party (UBP) to form the Free National Movement (FNM). He was also a member of the Concerned Citizens Association.
Yesterday, Dr. Donaldson told The Tribune that while the country may be ready for a white prime minister, he is not. “We have not gone through the psychological adjustment which is necessary,” he said. Dr. Donaldson said the country has barely scratched the surface of economic reversal, noting that there has not been any single large black investor to the country post independence.
Dr. Donaldson said a white leader would not be psychologically good for the country at this particular juncture in Bahamian development. “I am dismissing it in the future but there would have to be a lot of psychological rehabilitation to regain confidence in that.
Source: Cara Brennen, The Tribune
