A Progressive Liberal Party Member of Parliament has accused the new leader of the Free National Movement Hubert Ingraham of political trickery and questioned his integrity, but an FNM official shot back, saying that the PLP administration is not qualified to slam anyone over political integrity.
“Political integrity really is the true question, whether in fact what has happened is the proper kind of thing when you look in the political sphere,” said MP for Mt Moriah Keod Smith, who defeated former FNM leader Tommy Turnquest in the 2002 general elections.
Mr. Smith, who was a guest on the Love 97 programme “Jones and Company”, which aired Sunday, was speaking about the fact that Mr. Ingraham had told Mr. Turnquest last Sunday that he did not plan to run for leader, but still allowed his name to enter the nomination on Tuesday.
The former prime minister won the leadership election over Mr. Turnquest and Dion Foulkes. In 2001 he had supported them for leader and deputy leader respectively.
“He’s on record as saying if he were to be nominated he would decline the nomination- when you have a man who served the highest office, second only to the governor general of the country, then you would have thought that his word to the Bahamian public would hold water,” Mr. Smith said.
“It appears on the face of it that there was never the intention at all for Mr. Ingraham to stay out of frontline. He always intended to come back. He said so in the House of Assembly on more than one occasions and he’s said so obviously through his actions.”
Mr. Smith also pointed out that there was a whole lot of paraphernalia as a part of Mr. Ingraham’s campaign for leader. He said that it would take weeks to organize such paraphernalia.
But Mr. Ingraham told reporters on Tuesday night that he did not campaign and he had nothing to do with the T-shirts, posters, buttons, fliers etc. that had been created.
Mr. Smith questioned: “If Sunday was the day you said [you weren’t going to run] then how is it that all of a sudden these things show up? And so I think that is where the unfairness comes – if I can say – to Mr. Turnquest because here it is that he would be moving in earnest-thinking that this man who served as prime minister is actually going to step down, but he didn’t. It is duplicitous and actually is the kind of trickery which ought not be tolerated in The Bahamas.”
But the Mount Moriah MP said, “I am not surprised on the basis of what I know and so this whole trickery that [I] talked about certainly is there. The political integrity is far from the mark.”
Godfrey Eneas, who co-hosted the show with Wendall Jones, picked up on the point, saying, “We need to really as a people look at this issue of political integrity.”
But Vice Chairman of the FNM Michael Scott said he laughs when any member of the governing party lectures anyone in the FNM on political integrity.
“The record of this government on that score is appalling,” Mr. Scott said.
“When you look at ministers like Trade and Industry Minister Leslie Miller and his almost buffoon like performance in public and at various international organizations or you look at [Works and Utilities Minister] Bradley Roberts, what qualifies anybody in the governing party to lecture anybody in my party about political integrity?
“At least our process – as flawed as it may be sometimes – is transparent and it’s open. You can see what’s going on. It’s democracy at work.”
But Mr. Smith suggested that the process of the FNM leadership election held last week was so manipulated that it took away from the results.
“You have a man who stands now as the leader of the FNM who never declared that he would want to be the leader of the FNM until the last minute, but there is everything which suggests that he had every intention all along,” Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Jones also asked Mr. Scott whether Mr. Ingraham blind-sided Senator Turnquest.
“There is that perception out there,” Mr. Scott conceded.
“I’m sure there are some bruised and hard feelings. But the fact of the matter is that the FNM isn’t at this stage interested in simply electing a leader. It is looking to the future; it is looking to 2007-and it’s looking at finding leadership that it believes is capable of enabling the FNM to successfully contest the next poll and become the next government of this country.
“And for whatever reason, rank and file FNMs took the view that they required someone with a charismatic touch who could in fact connect with the soul of the Bahamian public and many felt that Tommy and perhaps other members of our leadership in the FNM weren’t doing that effectively.”
Mr. Eneas said some people see Mr. Ingraham’s entrance into the leadership race two days after he said he would not, as “a gross act of political treachery.”
“I really believe that Mr. Turnquest was of the view that Mr. Ingraham was not going to run and I verily believe that. I don’t think Mr. Turnquest is as naive as some people may make him out to be,” Mr. Eneas said.
“I think he took that as an individual’s word and I think [Mr. Ingraham] went back on that word and I think [Mr. Turnquest] was deceived.”
Mr. Scott said he does not believe that Mr. Ingraham – as he himself said – had any intention of running for leader before Monday.
“There was a huge outpouring clamoring for his return. I like Tommy Turnquest; he’s a really good man – a good and decent man – a very able person, but one of the difficulties that Tommy had to face is that he is leader out of the House,” Mr. Scott said.
“And let’s face it: not the Senate, not the airwaves, but the place to really make your mark, the place to capture the public’s imagination, the place to be seen to be doing the business of Her Majesty’s loyal Opposition is in the House and so he had a number of hurdles in his way.”
Mr. Scott also said the country appears paralyzed by a slew of commissions and committees.
“The rank and file persons on the street-wants to see dynamic governance,” he said.
“They want to see things happen. They want to see things take place. Let’s face it, both parties are essentially centrist. So in the minds of the average Bahamian person, the only democracy that is meaningful is a democracy that is seen to be functioning-and people are looking at the present government and saying ‘we have a government of inaction. We want robust leadership. We want leadership that actually functions and makes a mark.'”
Source: The Bahama Journal
