2012 will go on record as being one of the worst years in the history of the Free National Movement (FNM)

The Bahama Journal


Dear Editor:
 


2012 will go on record as being one of the worst years in the history of the Free National Movement (FNM). This was not supposed to be the case, however. You see, this month and year marks the 20th anniversary of the FNM’s stunning victory in 1992 (August 19) against the legendary Sir Lynden O. Pindling and his Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Government.

For 25 years Sir Lynden was the undisputed ruler of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. His erstwhile political son, Hubert A. Ingraham, led the perennial official opposition party to what many described as a momentous event in the annals of the history of the modern Bahamas. This would have also been a little over three months into the fourth non-consecutive term as prime minister for Ingraham had the FNM pulled off the May 7 General Election. But the Bahamian electorate voted against Ingraham and his party.

After all was said and done, only nine out of 38 candidates for the FNM were able to win a seat in the House of Assembly. The remaining 29 seats were won by PLP candidates. Many of the future leaders of the party were defeated by relatively unknown candidates. One of the FNM’s brightest candidates to fall in the May 7 electoral contest was Charles Maynard, former Member of Parliament for the Golden Isles constituency and minister of youth, sports and culture in the Ingraham administration. Like thousands of Bahamians, I was astonished and saddened after learning that Maynard had died on the early morning of August 14 in North Abaco. What makes his passing all the more shocking is the fact that he was only 42.

He was a great asset to the FNM as a chairman. I always enjoyed listening to him give radio and television interviews. He was very articulate and professional in defending the policies of his party despite being harassed and harangued by his political foes while on the radio. He always arose above the fray. He never got into mudslinging or character assassination in order to score brownie points. He always had a smile. What makes his membership to the FNM so unique is the fact that many of his family members have deep roots in the PLP.


 Yet despite having grown up in that party and having served as one of the leaders of the now defunct Coalition for Democratic Reform party, he decided to join the FNM party. His death is a major setback to a party that is in the midst of a by-election campaign. Perhaps FNMs in North Abaco will rally behind Dr. Hubert Minnis and throw their support behind his candidate Greg Gomez in tribute to a man who was determined to rebuild a great political organization that appears to still be reeling from the devastating loss it suffered on May 7.

Who knows? Maybe his death will serve as a unifying factor for a party that many political pundits are saying is badly disjointed. Maynard’s sudden passing teaches us all that death is the great common denominator. All of Adam’s offspring will be taken by the icy, cold hands of death. The Old Testament Book of Job 14:5 reads, “Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with Thee, Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass.”

Maynard’s death has put everything into perspective. In the last analysis, the only thing that will matter on the day we die is whether we had been fully obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ. How many elections we have been able to win or how famous we have become or how much wealth we have amassed won’t matter on the other side of death. Life is so fragile; so uncertain. You never know where the Grim Reaper is. My condolences to the Maynard family. My prayers are with you during these troubling times. I truly hope that the fallen former FNM chairman is in the presence of God and His holy angels in heaven. May his soul rest in peace.

15 August, 2012

Jones Bahamas

Former Housing Minister Kenneth Russell says: Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham is a “dictator” who should not be allowed to run the Free National Movement (FNM) as a “one man show”

Russell responds to being fired

Says PM Ingraham a 'dictator'

By TANEKA THOMPSON
NG Senior Reporter

Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham is a “dictator” who should not be allowed to run the Free National Movement as a “one man show”, charged former Housing Minister Kenneth Russell, who was fired from his post yesterday.

The High Rock MP said there was no good reason why he was booted from Ingraham’s Cabinet and told The Nassau Guardian he had exceeded the government’s expectations for the Ministry of Housing.

“If the prime minister decides to fire me for whatever reason, that’s his business, but I don’t consider myself as doing anything wrong to be fired,” Russell said.

“If my push to have business come to Grand Bahama is what caused him to fire me, then so be it.  If my push to get as many houses built and change the Ministry of Housing to a better place is what caused him to fire me, so be it.”

Russell suggested that the only reasonable explanation he could give for his sudden firing was his refusal to leave frontline politics when the prime minister told him to retire.

Russell said Ingraham called him on Monday and told him he was not going to be a part of the FNM’s 2012 election slate.

The MP said he told friends of his displeasure with Ingraham’s plans – something Russell thinks did not go over well with the prime minister.

“The prime minister called me on Monday and indicated that he is not going to run me anymore,” Russell told The Nassau Guardian from Grand Bahama, about an hour after he flew to that island after leaving his former ministry in Nassau.

“I told some of my friends about it and I said to them, ‘I don’t know who the prime minister thinks he is, one man in the party telling me he [isn’t] running me anymore’.

“On Wednesday, he said to me he wanted to see me at his house at 8 o’clock that night.  I couldn’t make it because I was going to a function with the Torchbearers (the FNM’s youth arm).

“On Thursday, I had the opening of the Pride III (subdivision) and the groundbreaking for the other subdivision... He only could see me this morning (Friday).

“So I came to Freeport, had a meeting last night (Thursday) with my executives and I flew back to Nassau this morning.  I walked into his office at about 9:30 (a.m.).

“He said to me, ‘You said to somebody, who I think I [am]?’  He said, ‘I will show you who I am.  Give me your resignation by 12 o’clock.’  I said, ‘Or what?’  He said, ‘Or I will do what I have to do.’  I said, ‘Fine, do what you have to do.’  I shook his hand and left the room.”

Although his firing seems sudden, Russell said he knew more than a year ago that there was a rift between himself and the prime minister.

He added the prime minister’s recent actions were the actions of a tyrant.

“I told the prime minister a year and a half ago that he is still my friend, but obviously he no longer has me as a friend.  The moves that Ingraham has made so far with the boundary cuts and what he told me about he’s not running me anymore and what not, they are moves of a dictator,” Russell said.

“I worked with him a long time and this is the first time I have seen this negative side of him.

“The prime minister was my friend.  In fact, we are related.  The same aunties and uncles he has in Cooper’s Town (Abaco), so do I.

“I don’t know why he turned this way, but I have no problem with it; it’s his choice to make.  Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, the Lord is always with me, and even though Ingraham would attempt to slay me, I still love him.

“I was surprised at the way he handled this and what he is doing.  He may have justifiable reasons in his mind; I don’t have any.  I thought he was a good leader... I told people [under] the rough exterior he was a compassionate man.

“I told people that Ingraham will give you the shirt off his back if necessary.  I will stand by that for the time being until he proves to me otherwise.”

The MP said he still is a member of the Free National Movement and plans to apply for a nomination on the party’s ticket for the new East Grand Bahama constituency.

“The FNM is my party.  I’ve been there from the beginning and I will continue to work with the FNM, and I intend to seek the nomination of the East Grand Bahama constituency for the FNM in the next general election,” Russell said.

As for what he will do if he is not selected as an FNM candidate, Russell said: “I will cross that bridge when I get to it.  Right now I am the FNM member of Parliament for the High Rock constituency and I will be seeking the FNM nomination for the new Eastern Grand Bahama constituency.

“We have the right to apply.  It should be no one man show, one man selecting who the candidates are.  The candidate’s committee and the council of the Free National Movement should be selecting the candidates for the FNM party.”

Russell said he plans to be in Parliament when it meets Monday, but does not know where he will sit.  Prior to his firing, he sat next to Ingraham.

Earlier this week, a defiant Russell — a member of Parliament for 15 years — said his party could lose thousands of votes if he is not renominated.

Yesterday afternoon, the Cabinet Office announced that Russell had been relieved of his ministerial responsibilities because of conduct inconsistent with his duties.

Minister of Works and Transport Neko Grant has assumed Russell’s portfolio.

Dec 10, 2011

thenassauguardian