A call for Real Debates:
Bahama Journal Editorial -
Nassau, Bahamas:

Today we challenge all who would lead this great little nation of ours to stand and be counted and to come forward prepared to debate some of the issues that Bahamians are already talking about among themselves.

Like other Bahamians who have a direct stake in the outcome of the next general election, we too want to know and hear what the Rt. Hon. Perry Gladstone Christie and the Rt. Hon. Hubert Alexander Ingraham have to say concerning their positions on issues that matter to Bahamians.

The public wants to know whether those who would lead from the helm have what it takes to speak to the issues that would distinguish one leader from the other.

The debates we talk about should be pitched to this type of thinking Bahamian voter. We make this call in a context where it is conceded that both major parties have a tremendous amount of crowd support as witnessed by what has been happening at the mass rallies.

And as most people recognize, these events are staged to rally and energize each party’s base. Little is therefore left for those thinking Bahamians who want a bit more than pom-poms, rake and scrape and the now obligatory fireworks.

These people want to hear their leaders debate the issues that matter most.

We make this observation against a particular background, which was that Wednesday evening presented us with a unique dilemma – that being that we were caught in a spot where we literally fantasized about being in two places at the same time. That is so because we wanted to be an eyewitness to history at both the rallies that were being held on two of the major meeting places in New Providence.

We wanted to get a feel for what was happening for the Progressive Liberal Party as it launched its campaign down at the Sports Centre, and what was happening for the Free National Movement as its leaders and foot soldiers sought to stir up an already frenziedly ecstatic crowd at Clifford Park.

As best as we could we did do just that.

What we did was to channel surf from one station to the other in order to see and hear some of what was happening at both rallies.

Prime Minister Christie was in fine form as he lambasted the current opposition, and not to be outdone, so was Mr. Ingraham, leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition in the House of Assembly.

As we have already indicated, all roads now lead to Election Day, May 2, 2007.

On that date, the voice of the people will roar.

Once that cry comes forth, some will hear the mournful cry that they have been weighed in the people’s balances and have been found wanting. This crew will then be expected to slink away and tend to the business at hand, namely licking their wounds and wondering to themselves how they could ever be so wrong.

On the other end of the spectrum will be those jubilant Bahamians who would rush forward to give thanks to the Almighty for seeing them through. They will do what winners do, that being to wax eloquent about how they knew that theirs was the easier path.

At this juncture, both major political parties seem convinced that the mandate of heaven is fated for their side. Even now, there is that hardy band of men and women who are already trying to figure out what part they will play in the next administration.

Some will do so for naught.

And so, unlike some others who blithely and ignorantly assume that there are no real differences between the Free National Movement and the Progressive Liberal Party, we are convinced that they do differ in ways that would be decipherable to all who would examine them more closely.

In one regard, this is obvious when reference is made to their past.

One struggled for Majority Rule while the other has a record of being cold to lukewarm on that issue and Independence.

In more recent times, there was a marked division between the two as regards their responses to challenges posed by a drug trade through the Bahamas that left in its wake much social desolation.

Their leaders differ in ways that do matter when reference is made to personality, demeanor and attitude.

And so, today we insist that the issues that matter most to Bahamians should be debated and discussed as widely and as thoroughly as possible. While mass rallies and radio advertisements do give us and others some idea as to what their parties are all about, nothing trumps an open debate.

13 April 2007