{"id":41071,"date":"2013-10-15T09:21:35","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T13:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/target\/the-fascist-impulse-in-the-plp"},"modified":"2013-10-15T09:21:35","modified_gmt":"2013-10-15T13:21:35","slug":"fascist-impulse-in-the-plp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/10\/fascist-impulse-in-the-plp","title":{"rendered":"The Fascist Impulse in the PLP"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There is an entrenched conceit and pernicious lie which constitute the PLP\u2019s claim of superior\u00a0nationalism, most recently on peacock-like display over the past few weeks.<\/p>\n

It is at minimum a sort of soft fascism which seeks to divide the country between the PLP, to whom God\u00a0or history apparently bequeathed The Bahamas, and those supposed traitors who left or do not support\u00a0the PLP or who fail to support its policies, or even oppose its wrong-doings.<\/p>\n

There are various degrees of the conceit.\u00a0\u00a0Within days of each other, three of the party faithful gave\u00a0voice to the full throttled, high-pitched, chest-thumping \u201cwe are better than you\u201d nationalism of which\u00a0the PLP self-adoringly indulges.<\/p>\n

Consider this: Nearing the 60th anniversary of the party\u2019s founding, a PLP-leaning columnist suggests\u00a0that the party is the more nationalistic of the two major parties even as he has written of his party\u2019s\u00a0abandonment or mere lip service of certain liberal and progressive values.<\/p>\n

Then, a senior cabinet minister concluded a press statement with a rallying cry to \u201ctrue-blooded\u00a0Bahamians\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0True-blooded is a synonym for full-blooded, which means, \u201cof unmixed ancestry,\u00a0purebred\u201d, which invokes all manner of troubling overtones.<\/p>\n

The most vile and repugnant claim came from junior minister Senator Keith Bell who attacked the FNM\u00a0as treasonous and traitorous for comments the party and its Leader made relative to the Cuban migrant\u00a0affair.<\/p>\n

Dr. Minnis has given considerable public service to the country as both a medical doctor and a politician.\u00a0\u00a0For the sake of his own credibility and decency Bell should apologize to the Leader of the Opposition.<\/p>\n

While Minister Bell is hardly known for intellectual acuity, certainly even he must be aware that the\u00a0charge of treason is one of the most serious that can be levelled at a citizen.\u00a0\u00a0Treason carries with it the\u00a0severest of punishments, even capital punishment.<\/p>\n

LUDICROUS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bell\u2019s claims are as ludicrous as they are malicious.\u00a0\u00a0Significantly, he was not asked to withdraw or\u00a0apologize for his comments by his political seniors.\u00a0\u00a0But his words are not new for a PLP that has seen\u00a0fit to wield malevolent tactics and rhetoric in attempts to beat opponents into submission.<\/p>\n

In 1970 a delegation of PLPs travelled to Grand Bahama to apprise local party officials of their alarm at\u00a0the direction the party was moving in terms of its abandonment of certain policies and the cult of\u00a0personality mushrooming around an increasingly dictatorial Sir Lynden Pindling.<\/p>\n

The delegation included Cecil Wallace Whitfield, Arthur A. Foulkes, Maurice Moore, Garnett Levarity\u00a0and C. A. Smith, all veterans in the fight for majority rule.<\/p>\n

The meeting was held in a school room at Lewis Yard, with a raised platform for the speakers and rows\u00a0of folding chairs for attendees.\u00a0\u00a0The meeting opened with a prayer.\u00a0\u00a0Then all hell broke loose.<\/p>\n

Having just invoked the Lord\u2019s name, apparently in vain, a goon squad sprang from the front row.\u00a0\u00a0They\u00a0shouted that there would be no meeting.\u00a0\u00a0Once on their feet they grabbed the chairs, folding them into\u00a0bludgeons.<\/p>\n

Then they viciously set upon their targets on the platform.\u00a0\u00a0They drew blood from Sir Cecil, bashing\u00a0him in his head, and bruising others.<\/p>\n

While a few in the crowd sought to stop them, officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force looked on.\u00a0\u00a0They refused to intervene.<\/p>\n

What is little known of the Lewis Yard event is that Sir Cecil suspected that something might happen.\u00a0\u00a0His instructions to members of the delegation were to keep their hands at their sides if they were\u00a0attacked.<\/p>\n

His reasons were both practical and philosophical.\u00a0\u00a0By refusing to return the blows, the delegates were\u00a0demonstrating a commitment to the nonviolent tactics of the US civil rights movement.\u00a0\u00a0Further, there\u00a0would be no doubt as to the perpetrators of the violence.<\/p>\n

On the way out of Lewis Yard, a close associate of Sir Lynden, who would later resign from the\u00a0former\u2019s cabinet in disgrace, was observed in a trench coat, standing in the rain.<\/p>\n

The scene foreshadowed events to come, including decades of intimidation, victimization, abuse of\u00a0power and corruption by the Pindling regime.<\/p>\n

It does not require of a leap of conscience or imagination to characterize what happened at Lewis Yard\u00a0and the fascist impulse behind it.<\/p>\n

At Lewis Yard, Bahamian citizens, including three Members of Parliament, were denied fundamental\u00a0and constitutional rights including that of assembly and of freedom of speech.\u00a0\u00a0They were denied the\u00a0protection of the state as a mob attacked and police officials stood by watching the beatings.<\/p>\n

There is certainly no democratic impulse at play here.\u00a0\u00a0The democratic impulse is not frightened by the\u00a0sort of dissidence exemplified by those at Lewis Yard, who had a difference of opinion as to the\u00a0direction their party and the country should take.<\/p>\n

At the time, one of the highest-ranking PLP ministers sought to diminish what took place at Lewis Yard,\u00a0noting that such incidents were to be expected in Bahamian politics.<\/p>\n

To ensure that those who disagreed with Sir Lynden and his court got the message intended at Lewis\u00a0Yard, PLP MP Henry Bowen went on ZNS to denounce the dissidents as traitors.<\/p>\n

Just to recall, he was denouncing fellow-PLPs who were considered as not only betraying the PLP.\u00a0\u00a0By\u00a0calling into question Sir Lynden\u2019s leadership they were supposedly also betraying the nation.<\/p>\n

The charges were replayed on state radio in a barrage and loop of intimidation.\u00a0\u00a0Those attacked were\u00a0allowed no right of reply.\u00a0\u00a0Over the ensuing decades the PLP relentlessly utilized ZNS as a major\u00a0propaganda tool.<\/p>\n

MONOPOLY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even more diabolical, it kept a monopoly on the broadcast media.\u00a0\u00a0In the modern era autocratic and\u00a0dictatorial regimes understood that the maintenance of political power demanded as much control of the\u00a0media as possible.\u00a0\u00a0It is a fascist impulse to allow only one party line to be heard on state media.<\/p>\n

Today still, many in the PLP firmly hold that those who may disagree with them are somehow traitorous\u00a0and treasonous, even when they oppose wrong-doing in the party as did the Dissident Eight in 1970 and\u00a0Hubert Ingraham and Perry Christie in 1984.<\/p>\n

The PLP is not a fascist party.\u00a0\u00a0But there is a virulent fascist impulse that developed in tandem with the\u00a0cult of personality around Sir Lynden.<\/p>\n

Unlike the biblical Moses, Pindling, the Bahamian Moses, was set to enter the Promised Land.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Thereafter the apotheosis of Sir Lynden, seen by many PLPs as an icon of the nation, whose very\u00a0persona supposedly embodied the nation, was underway.<\/p>\n

The fascist impulse has so invariably developed in parties of liberation and majority rule-cum\u00a0independence, which almost as an original sin, tend to equate the good of their organization and needs\u00a0with that of a country.<\/p>\n

To wit: What is good for the PLP is good for the country. And, the most full-blooded and patriotic\u00a0Bahamians must be PLP or vote for the party.\u00a0\u00a0It is no accident that the PLP chose similar colours for\u00a0both the national flag and their party flag.<\/p>\n

Even as the PLP betrayed the national good whether through wrecking what promised to be a successful\u00a0national airline or giving drug barons near carte blanche to ply their trade, the party betrayed many of its\u00a0founding ideals.<\/p>\n

Yet it continued, often quite successfully, to play the politics of nationalism and to demonize many who\u00a0had a different vision of the national good and a more inclusive vision of a shared\u00a0nationalism and\u00a0common good.<\/p>\n

By:\u00a0 Simon<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is an entrenched conceit and pernicious lie which constitute the PLP\u2019s claim of superior nationalism, most recently on peacock-like display over the past few weeks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[93,31,40,142,60],"class_list":["post-41071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions","tag-corruption","tag-crime","tag-government","tag-incompetence","tag-plp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}