Free National Movement Deputy Leader Brent Symonette believes that the Progressive Liberal Party is spreading hatred and he expressed disappointment that the fact that he is a white Bahamian continues to be the source of widespread debate.
“As we led up to the whole question of whether I would run for the leadership role in the FNM, we aired this issue throughout a very long period of almost two years over the media,” Mr. Symonette said in an interview with Love 97.
“I would have hoped that we would have dealt with this issue now and what is very off-putting is the degree of hatred that the other side is bringing out in this issue and that’s up to them. I know in my heart that I’m a Bahamian and that’s all that matters.”
Mr. Symonette is the son of Sir Roland Symonette, who headed the United Bahamian Party (UBP).
The FNM has been running advertisements accusing the government Progressive Liberal Party of spreading “hatred and division”.
But such claims put PLP Chairman Raynard Rigby on the defensive.
Mr. Rigby said it appears that the present commentary has been fueled by the fact that some speakers at the recent Progressive Liberal Party convention took the liberty to speak to the history of The Bahamas and the days of the minority government when only a select few white Bahamians were given the opportunity to steer the direction of the government and the country’s political and commercial interests.
“The use of the phrases that conjure in the minds of the listeners that we will not allow our country to drift backwards is not a racist statement nor can that statement conjure up any image of racism,” he said in a statement.
“The sentiment expressed in that statement is purely historical and beckons the people to simply remember the advancements that have been made in this country post the 10th of January, 1967.”
Mr. Rigby added, “There has been a recent tendency, particularly post August 1992, for some members of this society to attempt to rewrite history and to try to reverse the situation that existed in The Bahamas prior to the downfall of the minority government.
“The facts cannot change and they all point to a situation where there existed not only racial discrimination, but also class discrimination.”
Following the recent election of Mr. Symonette as deputy leader of the FNM, several senior government officials have spoken about what they see as the danger of taking the country back to the days before Majority Rule.
“The Bahamian people ain’t going back there,” Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Local Government V. Alfred Gray charged in his convention speech.
“Could you imagine, God forbid, that they should win and something were to happen to [FNM leader Hubert Ingraham] that we would be back in the hands of the UBP? Please don’t let me imagine that.”
In his newly released statement to the media, Mr. Rigby said Bahamians of all colours understand that the PLP is the party of inclusion, where one’s views and input are welcome and taken as seriously as they are given.
“For the life of me, I cannot understand why it is a dirty thing to talk about the history of The Bahamas without someone from the former class of exclusively privileged white Bahamians or their revisionists suggesting that it is a racist slur,” Mr. Rigby said.
“This is utter nonsense and is nothing more than a psychological attempt by them to rewrite our history so as to erase the days of the minority government and to put forth an image as if there always existed in this place racial harmony and unity. Nothing can be further from the truth.”
He assured that the PLP has no reason to use racism as a political ploy or to incite a return to the racist past.
“The majority of the Bahamian people fully understand that racism existed in this country and that the black Bahamian was the victim of this discrimination,” Mr. Rigby said. “By referring to the past and to what the past truly means and symbolizes cannot amount to racism nor can it have as its end result the incitement of racism.”
Article from The Bahama Journal
