Former Free National Movement Leader Senator Tommy Turnquest has assured that he is ready to serve new leader, former prime minister Hubert Ingraham, and he said there is no malice between them.
Mr. Turnquest – who spoke during a Love 97 live broadcast of his party’s convention on Friday night – also revealed that he had offered to give up his seat in the upper chamber, but Mr. Ingraham asked him to stay on and lead the FNM team in the Senate.
On Friday night, the former prime minister also announced that Carl Bethel, the former chairman who lost the deputy leadership post to Brent Symonette, will become a senator.
“I was very proud of Mr. Ingraham,” said Mr. Turnquest following Mr. Ingraham’s speech to a packed ballroom of party supporters.
“What Mr. Ingraham did tonight in a half an hour speech was not only to electrify our Bahamas, but to unify our party. Totally unexpectedly he asked me to join him on the stage as he did with Dion Foulkes, Carl Bethel and newly-elected deputy leader Brent Symonette to indicate in a word that we must be united to defeat the common enemy.
“[He reminded] that we are not enemies among ourselves and that we must work together. I was extremely humbled and appreciative of the kind words. Mr. Ingraham has been a political mentor to me and I hope I’ve been a worthy protege. I’ve tried always to serve him well.
“He knows that despite the fact that he and I were competitors in the race for leadership, now that he is the leader of our party, he never needs to look over his shoulder at me or any task he has given me. He [would not] need to turn around and look at his back. I have served him well and to the best of my ability I have given 100 percent in the past. He can be assured that this day onward he has my 100 percent support and I will serve him well.”
Mr. Turnquest, whom Mr. Ingraham supported in the 2001 FNM leadership race, suffered a blistering defeat last Thursday when FNM delegates delivered a wholesale rejection of him – in favour of the former prime minister.
It came just days after Mr. Ingraham had called Mr. Turnquest to tell him he was not going to run in the race.
After casting his ballot on Thursday, Mr. Turnquest told The Bahama Journal he was disappointed that Mr. Ingraham had not kept his word.
Asked Friday night how he felt about the whole situation, the former FNM leader said, “I learnt a lot from it, but I know Mr. Ingraham well.
“You know, it brought me back to when I was a parliamentary secretary in Mr. Ingraham’s office and one day he scolded me for something and I was really mad at him and you know, about half an hour later, he called me into his office and asked me to do something else and I was still mad and he had forgotten what he had scolded me about and moved on.
“Mr. Ingraham has never been a person to hold grudges and I’ve tried to emulate that-Those things that are behind, I’m forgetting.”
He added, “The first thing I did was acknowledge the fact that I do not hold Mr. Ingraham responsible for many of the things that were said and I know that he does not condone some of the things that were said and so there has not been any malice between him and me.”
Mr. Turnquest was responding to a question regarding how he was able to “hold up” in the face of calls for his defeat and claims that the FNM would not be able to win the government under his leadership.
“Let me say that I’ve been really buoyed by the prayers, the words of encouragement, and expressions of support by so many and what I found very, very reassuring was while I thought that my wife would be devastated by much of it, she has been a great source of strength and inspiration for me and I’m very grateful to her for that,” he said.
While on stage with Mr. Turnquest on Friday night, Mr. Ingraham suggested that Mr. Turnquest’s time may have come too soon and he said he had no doubt that the former FNM leader had a bright future.
Asked what he thought his future in the FNM would me, Mr. Turnquest said, “I can’t answer that question today. The question that I can answer is Mr. Ingraham has given me a mandate to win the Mount Moriah constituency for the FNM. I have given him the undertaking that I will do that.”
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
