It is now time for Bahamian politicians to take note... Remember one is judged by the "friends" one keeps... Distance yourselves from known criminals in the run up to the 2012 general election

Don't make the criminal your bedfellow

tribune242 editorial



LAST WEEK Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham gave politicians on all sides of the political divide sound advice: Distance yourselves from known criminals in the run up to the 2012 general election, he said.

Every five years, the sewers of humanity disgorge disreputables seen only at election time. Suddenly from being Nobodies, they assume airs of Somebodies. Strangely, like bees to honey, they are always seen crawling around election headquarters and rubbing elbows cosily with politicians. They seem to have an inbuilt radar as to which party has the most funds to disperse -- and there they are ready for any task, be it underhand or legitimate -- as long as the upended palms are suitably greased.

Mr Ingraham has said that although he knows that both political parties want to win the next election, keeping company with lawbreakers to gain votes is a practice that should be stopped.

Opposition Leader Perry Christie had his own embarrassing moments during his election campaign when a known drug dealer at Eleuthera boasted that it was he who had paid for all the PLP election paraphernalia for the rally that particular night, and organised the motorcade leading up to the rally. In the background we heard mutterings from supporters that this man of dubious repute was the only man who had Mr Christie's ear and knew of his plans while at the island. Apparently, if reports were to be believed, even the noses of Mr Christie's generals were out of joint.

Also over time -- ever since the drug years of the seventies/eighties -- drug dealers have aligned themselves with the PLP and come away with the erroneous belief -- at least it was erroneous by the time Mr Christie headed the party -- that the PLP was their party under whose umbrella they could expect protection. Tribune reporters often heard during the 2002 election campaign, especially at Eleuthera, that the drug dealers had their fast boats ready to get back into the trade as soon as the PLP won the election. Mr Christie later made it clear that it certainly was not going to happen under his watch.

The FNM also had a nasty scrape during the seventies in the Barry Major murder case -- known as the Perpall Tract murder -- November 17, 1970. The late Sir Lynden Pindling read a statement to the House, mysteriously given 11 years after the murder by someone close to the event who suddenly had total recall of what he remembered being told at the time of the murder. He alleged that Major had tried to "blackmail the chief" -- the late Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield -- and Mr Whitfield had given "the boys" the go ahead to "fix him up." Major was shot, and the election mayhem that was started by the PLP with their "goon squads" at election time in the late sixties, continuing into the seventies was all blamed on the FNM. According to the informant, after the murder, Wendell "Red" Burrows, who two years later was hanged for the crime, was given $15,000 to $20,000 to disappear in the US until things quieted down on the home front. In the meantime "the organisation continued and we kept up with our criminal acts of burning and the like," said the questionable informant, who at the time claimed he was FNM.

One day about that time one of "the boys" came to The Tribune trying to get us to publish what Sir Lynden eventually had to do himself from the floor of the House. They admitted that Sir Lynden had sent the information. Sir Lynden obviously wanted clean hands. He wanted The Tribune, as part of its investigative reporting, to publish what eventually he had to read himself in the House. We refused and quickly showed the criminals the door. We felt that if Sir Lynden wanted a smear campaign it was his to handle.

The Tribune never believed a word of what was said in that statement as we saw the plot building behind the scenes from the day of the murder. This was a case of politicians getting too close to criminals and being destroyed by that contact.

Supt. John Crawley, a respected police officer, had investigated the murder of Barry Major. The day after the murder he told us that it was a simple case of a drug deal gone wrong. To the end he maintained that it was not political and that no politicians were involved. However, during the election of that year Major hung around Sir Cecil's election headquarters. His death was turned into a political fiasco, and Sir Cecil was smeared by association. It was a convenient turn of events at the time because the heat was on the PLP for all the criminal mayhem created by their "goons" a few years earlier. The murder of Barry Major was a convenient way of turning the tables on the FNM.

One only has to look at the precarious position the Jamaican government is now in with the politicians and the gangsters being perceived as a team for so long that eventually the day came when "the President"- Christopher "Dudus" Coke, now in a US federal prison on drug charges -- almost became more powerful than the Jamaican government and its prime minister. When all the evidence is out in this case the reputation of Bruce Golding's government will probably be in tatters. Former Jamaican prime minister Edward Seaga, when asked after his government was defeated at the polls, what he most regretted during his administration admitted that leading the funeral procession of strong man Jim Brown was his biggest mistake. Jim Brown, father of "Dudus," headed the Shower Posse gangsters and was don of Tivoli Gardens. Dudus inherited his father's fiefdom and developed the criminal enterprise to such heights that in the end the US was demanding his extradition as the "world's most dangerous drug dealer."

It is now time for Bahamian politicians to take note. Remember one is judged by the "friends" one keeps.

June 06, 2011

tribune242 editorial