Bahamas opposition party and its leader facing stern challenge

File photo shows then
Cabinet Minister Tommy
Turnquest (left) with then
Prime Minister Hubert
Ingraham

by C. E. Huggins
Caribbean Net News Bahamas Correspondent
E-mail: chazzhuggins@msn.com 

Monday, June 27, 2005

NASSAU, The Bahamas:  It is a measure of Senator Tommy Turnquest’s tenuous hold upon his position as Free National Movement leader, that no fewer than six of his colleagues - Dion Foulkes, former Minister of Education; former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham; Brent Symonette, former Minister of Tourism; Zhivargo Laing, former Minister of Economic Development; Algernon Allen, former Minister of Housing & Development and Government Leader in the House and Carl Bethel, former Attorney General - have either declared themselves to be, or have been rumoured to be interested in replacing Mr. Turnquest.

The seemingly sudden interest in Mr. Turnquest’s job is due more to the fact that he continues to enjoy little or no confidence among broad swathes of the electorate as well as the fact that he is a mere six months away from his party’s last national convention before the scheduled national election in 2007.

Following its loss at the polls in 2002, the Free National Movement staged its national convention the following year, under the burden of unity. From a decade of popularity the party imploded on its inability to find a believable and acceptable successor to former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham.

Having lost his seat in parliament, the popular opinion was that Mr. Turnquest would have to go. Indeed, several months before the convention, word was that Brent Symonette, scion of storied Bahamian fortune and political legacy - his father Sir Roland was The Bahamas’ first Premier, and his older brother Robert “Bobby” was the youngest Speaker of the House during the pre-majority era when the United Bahamian Party (UBP) was in power.

The UBP which represented the mercantile class that ruled The Bahamas until 1967 when it lost power to the Lynden Pindling-led Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), had folded into the Free Liberal Party, which was a group of dissident PLP politicians, that included Orville Turnquest, now Sir Orville, father to Tommy Turnquest.

Mr. Turnquest, the son, is himself a scion of wealth, position and politics. His father Sir Orville has had an outstanding political career as Deputy Prime Minister and cabinet positions of Attorney General and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He seemed destined to be the next Prime Minister.

But it all changed during his party’s first term when he was elevated to Government House as the Queen’s representative where he transformed the office from a stodgy and insignificant ceremonial posting to a proactive national platform for promoting Bahamian culture throughout every settlement of the Commonwealth.

It is a testament to Sir Orville’s considerable influence that despite his son’s showing at the polls in 2002 and the widespread sentiment both within and without the party that Tommy, though by all accounts a good man, had failed even after a lifetime in politics, to ignite and capture the Bahamian imagination.

One supporter said that it is “just that he simply is unable to reach out,” the supporter said. “It isn’t that he isn’t a nice guy, He is but unlike Pindling or Ingraham he just ain gat that thing man.”

And “that thing” whatever it is, is weighing heavily upon the rank and file of the party. Thus far, although he has refused to tip his hand, former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, is considered the only one of all the potential party leaders with a chance of winning the next election.

Therein lies the rub. Mr. Ingraham, the youngest parliamentarian to hold a cabinet post, was forced out of cabinet and the PLL when he publicly challenged Sir Lynden’s fitness to continue as leader of the country following the 1984 Commission of Inquiry, which was unable to provide Sir Lynden an entirely clean bill of health regarding the transhipment of illegal substances through The Bahamas.

As a one-man opposition, the now independent Mr. Ingraham gained the respect of Bahamians at large as he highlighted the failings of a government that, after more than two decades, had clearly used up its goodwill with the electorate. Through his integrity and stand against corruption, plus his charisma and tireless work ethic, was a leader waiting for a party.

The FNM, legendary for its factious infighting, was a party in need of a leader. The party had just lost its charismatic leader Sir Cecil Wallace Whitfield but none, including the elder Turnquest, seemed to believe that they could take on Sir Lynden, despite indications that he and his party had exhausted their welcome.

The FNM’s operators did what they had to. Allegedly, in keeping with the late Sir Cecil’s wishes, the approach was made to Mr. Ingraham and the rest as the adage goes, was history.

But even as potential leaders jockey for position, attempts are already being made to stifle the FNM’s Achilles heel - infighting.

Former Attorney General, Carl Bethel, recently gave an interview to one of the dailies in which he sought to allay the perception that an Ingraham return would split the party.

Mr. Bethel’s concern is real. As with most relationships of convenience, that between Mr. Ingraham and certain factions within the FNM remained distant at best. In fact at the end of the decade, there were party faithful who felt that his stint at the head did not bring the expected rewards. And for these factions Mr. Ingraham is persona non grata as far as a second stint as leader.
Apparently the opposition to Mr. Ingraham’s is strong enough to have prompted Mr. Bethel to make the quixotic observation that an Ingraham challenge to Turnquest would not destabilise the party because “we are a democratic party”.

He then attempted to deflect attention from his party’s perennial factionalism, by pointing out that the governing PLP was itself much more factious than the FNM.

The question is not whether democracy reigns within the FNM, as Mr. Bethel stated, but whether the party can find a credible leader without shooting itself in the foot.

The fact that Mr. Bethel felt constrained, while apparently throwing his support behind an Ingraham bid for leader, to address his party’s penchant for factionalism, suggest that the issue is both real and troubling for a party that feels it could have

Whether Mr. Ingraham decides to go after the leadership or not, both Mr. Turnquest and the FNM are in for an interesting six months he and the party prepare for the national convention and the subsequent national elections in 2007.

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