By Jerry Roker
for Bahamas Press
Our land is locked in some unnecessary pettiness, anger and bitterness. The average FNM sympathiser riddles the Bahamian social space with a grotesque rowdiness, often becoming irrational, with eyes glazed over, lost to engagement or a workable conversation. Talk to the average FNM in this land, and the venom, hatred, and outright anger towards the ruling Christie-led PLP jumps out with vicious force. It’s shocking to encounter. Maybe governments, by their very nature, tend to step on toes and offend sections of citizens, for, like the cliché asserts, you can’t please all the people all the time; but when the FNM employs anger and irrationality to define itself in the national consciousness, Houston,we’ve got a real problem.
Opposition folks walk around with this stern-faced attitude, self-righteously propounding themselves as the paragon of virtue, morals and good sense.
PM Christie is a consensus builder. Always has been, so much so that, in my view, it probably cost him and his party the 2007 general elections. I believe, as PM he welcomes ideas, initiatives, solutions and constructive engagement from Bahamians across the board. The days of FNM-style “one man band” are long gone, cast into the dustbin of history. PM Christie, to the fault, is open, and encourages a participatory, engaging relationship in the society.
Of course, there may be Government supporters and zealous activists who go overboard with their public comments and their aggressive tone towards those they see as opponents. This, too, we cannot condone, for we’ve got to cultivate a national atmosphere of humane understanding, mutual respect and selfless cooperation.
The average Bahamian citizen not of FNM persuasion finds FNM advocates hard to deal with, impossible to reason with, and in fact shuns the aggressive stance, choosing to walk away. This sort of thing is uncalled for, for we’re a unique nation on the world stage. We’re one Bahamian nation, not split into camps opposing each other. We’ve already achieved the foundation of a modern society, in our democratic culture, firmed and established over the last four decades. We’ve advanced ourselves as a modern society in this 21st century global village. Our people now travel for vacation to the U.S. and the World, not migrating in droves anymore. We’ve achieved stunning transformation, in roads, and other infra-structural development.
A sane, sensible, rational, objective, professional Opposition camp would see and know all this, would not deny where we are today as a people, would not dumb-down the efforts of the duly elected government of The Bahamas and the professional cadre of public servants, as such attitudes damage its own reputation and image because of the ridiculousness of such views.
Dr. Minnis, you have got to tone down this over-zealous emotive way of engaging this Bahamian nation, and establish an engaging, sensible way of performing your role in the society.
