Cable: Christie considered resigning
BY CANDIA DAMES
NG News Editor
thenassauguardian
candia@nasguard.com
U.S. Embassy official says 'backstabbing' plagued PLP govt
Opposition Leader Perry Christie told a U.S. Embassy official that he planned to resign from the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) if the party was unsuccessful in its Election Court challenges that followed the 2007 poll, according to a diplomatic cable written in 2008.
The official wrote that Christie indicated that “he would stay on only as long as the PLP had a realistic chance of being named the victor in the contested seats.”
It is unclear which embassy official wrote the cable, but then Ambassador Ned Siegel’s name is at the end of the document.
Following the 2007 general election, the PLP through its defeated candidates challenged three seats: Pinewood, Marco City and Blue Hills.
It lost both the Pinewood and Marco City challenges. The Blue Hills challenge was dropped.
Leslie Miller, who ran for the PLP in Blue Hills, said he considered the challenge a waste of time, as elections are not won in court.
After the Pinewood loss, and Kenyatta Gibson’s resignation from the PLP, the American diplomat speculated in the 2008 cable that Christie was about to step down.
“For the foreseeable future, the PLP will be distracted and consumed with its ongoing internal disarray and lack of direction,” the official wrote.
“The party convention, if and when it is held, may not resolve even the leadership crisis....With this defection (Gibson) and the FNM victory in the first court challenge, it is likely that Christie will now step aside unless the factionalism is so strong that no consensus can be reached on a successor.”
In the 2008 cable, the embassy official wrote, “Gibson’s resignation is a big nail in Perry Christie’s political coffin.
“It will intensify pressure for Christie to step aside for new leadership. It also eases political pressure on the FNM, which is expecting to win ongoing court challenges to three seats by the PLP.”
The embassy official expressed the view that Gibson’s “attack” on Christie after his resignation from the party was ironic given that he was one of the MPs involved in a high-profile fight in the Cabinet Office while the PLP was in office.
“Christie’s unwillingness to replace Gibson fed the image of his indecisiveness as a leader, and of the PLP as a party without internal discipline,” the cable said.
“Christie no doubt feels personally betrayed for having stood by Gibson only to have Gibson bite his hand.”
The cable added: “The resignation has laid bare the fractional lines in the party, with the party’s official website now being used to criticize other members, and those members in turn publicly criticizing the party’s own website.”
The embassy official wrote that Gibson’s resignation undermined the PLP leadership’s post-election strategy of contesting the three seats.
“The resignation, which was accompanied by a blistering exchange with the PLP leadership, is a blow to the embattled PLP leader, former Prime Minister Perry Christie.”
The official opined at the time that Gibson’s resignation was certain to reopen debate about Christie’s record and the need for strategic changes following the PLP’s “shock election defeat” in May 2007.
“The unexpected resignation has bared to the public the infighting and backstabbing that had plagued the PLP during its time in office and has only intensified following the PLP’s loss,” the cable said.
“The turnabout in parliamentary fortunes eases pressure on the FNM government as it struggles to deal with daunting challenges of crime and stagnating tourism numbers.”
The U.S. Embassy official also wrote that Gibson’s surprise resignation not only upset the PLP’s post-election strategy, but further undermined the already “weak position of PLP leader Perry Christie who, like the rest of the party, was reportedly blindsided by the news.”
The official noted in that 2008 cable that Gibson’s resignation came only days after the PLP’s spokesman on foreign affairs, Fred Mitchell, sought to downplay in a media statement the liklihood of any leadership challenges at the next PLP convention.
“On the contrary, Gibson’s strategically timed announcement on the eve of the anniversary of the PLP’s achievement of Majority Rule in 1967 added insult to injury by upstaging the party’s commemoration,” the official said.
“It has also intensified questions about Christie’s viability as opposition leader.”
But at the party’s convention in 2009, Christie crushed his opponents, winning more than 80 percent of the votes cast for party leader.
RELIEF FOR EMBATTLED FNM
The 2008 cable characterized Kenyatta Gibson’s resignation as a relief for the “embattled Free National Movement”.
“Striking like a thunderbolt out of a clear blue sky, news of Gibson’s resignation came just in time to become the top story on evening news broadcasts and morning newspaper headlines, pushing all other current affairs aside,” the official wrote.
The cable added that the media splash handed the FNM a bit of unexpected relief after months of pressure from negative crime stories and unfavorable tourism numbers, coupled with stinging opposition attacks over both.
“The FNM’s presumed courtship of another MP whose allegiance to the PLP may be shaky, Malcom Adderley, may also return to center stage,” the official wrote.
“Speculation about Adderley’s loyalties returned to the forefront recently after Prime Minister Ingraham reappointed him to a two-year position as chairman of the Gaming Board, the sole PLP member to hold on to such a position after the May 2007 elections.
“While the urgency of such an effort might wane, the prospects for another defection cannot be ruled out.”
Adderley resigned from the PLP and Parliament in early 2010, triggering the Elizabeth by-election, which was won by the PLP’s Ryan Pinder.
In a recent interview with The Nassau Guardian, Christie said some of what the American diplomats attributed to him was inaccurate, and their characterization of him as weak and indecisive was also wrong.
Christie said the leak of the cables is a lesson to public officials that they need to be more disciplined in how they deal with foreign diplomats.
Christie added that he had no concerns that the cables would negatively affect him politically.
Jun 17, 2011
thenassauguardian
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