More than 20 years after joining the Free National Movement, Independent MP Pierre Dupuch officially resigned from the party yesterday, citing a lack of principle and trustworthiness in the leadership of the FNM.
In a letter addressed to party chairman Desmond Bannister, Mr. Dupuch said that when he joined the FNM there were leaders like Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield and Sir Kendal Isaacs who were men of stature and “whose word you could trust.”
“They believed in honour, integrity and trust-worthiness; they were men of principle and conviction who never put either the party or position before principle,” said Mr. Dupuch. “I could work with men like that; we could move forward together, never once having to feel my back for blood dripping from a dagger wound.”
But FNM officers said yesterday that under the party’s constitution, Mr. Dupuch’s official membership in the party was in effect rescinded when he ran against Loretta Butler-Turner in the 2002 general election.
Mr. Dupuch told The Bahama Journal yesterday that the “final breaking point” came when he realised that the people who he had started with were no longer in the FNM.
“I think that the way (Hubert) Ingraham got to be leader of the party was disgraceful and it undermines the very principle of our society, and I don’t want to be associated with that,” he said.
It is no secret how Mr. Dupuch feels about FNM leader Hubert Ingraham, but the independent MP had always maintained that he was a member of the Free National Movement, even after he was fired from the Ingraham Cabinet in December of 1999.
Mr. Dupuch was asked to resign his Cabinet post after “campaigning” in Abaco for his colleague Tennyson Wells who was trying to secure the party’s leadership post. When Mr. Ingraham did not receive Mr. Dupuch’s letter by the specified time he was fired.
Mr. Dupuch said that he had served his country for many years, through the FNM and that when “the rocks were flying and the blood splattering, I was there.”
He told The Journal that there was no possibility that he would join forces with another political party because he does not intend to contest his seat in the next general election.
“I am 67, and I have told people, and you see I am a person of my word, I am not running again so there’s no reason for me to be a member of any political party,” he said. “I will help individuals, if I fool with (politics) at all.”
He said that it was now up to the people to decide the future of the FNM.
“I don’t know the future of the FNM. The people will decide that. I’ve already decided that as far as my future is concerned,” Mr. Dupuch said. “The people will have to decide if principle means more to them than position or party.”
Mr. Dupuch said that he did not believe that the “end justifies the means.”
“I think we have to have some foundation on which we base everything, what (Mr. Ingraham) did before that leadership race was just unacceptable,” said Mr. Dupuch.
“If he had gone out and campaigned, in the open and won the election fairly and squarely I would have no problem with that. I wouldn’t like the selection but that is what democracy is all about.”
However, Mr. Ingraham has maintained that his return to lead the party was not planned and his decision to run was made at the last minute following thousands of calls from FNMs and Bahamians for his return.
Mr. Wells, who was also asked to resign from the Ingraham Cabinet in 1999, told The Bahama Journal that he tried to persuade Mr. Dupuch not to resign and he thought that it was sad that a long-time member of the FNM who had put so many years into the party was now leaving the organisation.
Said Mr. Dupuch: “What happened the other night, I don’t believe people have had time to sit down and think about what they’ve really done.”
By: Erica Wells, The Bahama Journal
