Is there a natural governing party of The Bahamas?

The Nassau Guardian Editorial

Nassau, Bahamas:

There have been 10 general elections in The Bahamas from 1967 to the present. The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) won the first six of those elections. The Free National Movement (FNM) has won three out of the last four with the PLP winning in 2002. The first general election contested by the FNM was in 1972.

For three quarters of the last two decades, the FNM has governed The Bahamas. Sir Lynden Pindling was last prime minister of The Bahamas almost 20 years ago.

If the FNM wins the upcoming general election it would, by the following general election, have governed The Bahamas for about 20 of the last 25 years. It would earn the title as the new natural governing party of the country just as the PLP held that title for more than a generation.

The PLP has tied its narrative to the founding of The Bahamas as an independent country.  It says it led the way to ending institutional racism and providing opportunity to all Bahamians.

Somewhere around the early 1990s, this message lost its effectiveness. The party was burdened by accusations of drug related corruption and the economy was bad. The PLP lost the 1992 election and it has been unable, thus far, to regain its former dominating place in the popular consciousness.

The trust Bahamians had in their independence party in the 1960s, the 1970s, and the 1980s was broken in the early 1990s.

The PLP has a good problem: It helped solve many of the problems it was designed to. It helped end institutional racism and it led the effort to make opportunity available to a broad range of Bahamians, rather than just the old white merchant class.  A strong black middle class emerged. In fact, a strong black upper class emerged.

So what do you do when you achieve your major goals?

The PLP has not found a new message for these new times. Its victory in 2002 had more to do with FNM disorganization and arrogance than anything the PLP did.

What is different regarding the FNM’s run of success the last 20 years, as compared to the PLP, is that its connection with the people is not as obvious as the PLP’s was.

Sir Lynden was Moses. He led his people out of ‘bondage’. The FNM has won by appearing to be more organized and disciplined. It has won because it has said, and demonstrated sufficiently to the people, that it manages the state’s affairs better and more honestly than the PLP.

If this is the reason why the FNM has been so successful, then the two messages the parties have had so much success with appear so different when compared. One is grand and existential – we led you out of oppression. The other is simple and mundane – we will lead your affairs in an orderly and more honest manner.

The contrast helps explain the FNM’s success. The people are no longer in bondage and they no longer need a near transcendent leader to rescue them. They need a good manager they can trust. The FNM seems to have understood this better than the PLP.

The PLP’s 2007 campaign motto was, “No Turning Back”.  The motto attempted to remind Bahamians of the days when a small white merchant class minority ruled the country. The people rejected the message and voted the PLP out of office.

If the FNM is to convince the people that it should govern for another term, it has to reassert that message that is at the core of the party’s movement. If the PLP is to win it has to find a new message for new times.

Jul 16, 2011

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