Guest Editorial
Originally published as a column for the Freeport News and Nassau Guardian, March 23, 2007.
Reprinted here with the kind permission of Mr. Brown.
The demonstration staged outside The Tribune’s office on Tuesday by a group of 15 protesters was another brazen attempt to stifle freedom of the press and every journalist in this country should be offended by what was obviously a well orchestrated effort to intimidate The Tribune’s managing editor, John Marquis, because he is a white foreigner who dared to write and print some remarkably well-re-searched articles critical of certain members of the current government.
The demonstration’s leader, Ricardo Smith, left little doubt that he is either an unabashed racist, a total fool or a political mercenary doing the dirty work of someone Marquis had deeply offended in one of his “Insight” columns or “Special Reports” in The Tribune.
Referring to the demonstrators, Smith was quoted as making the following ridiculous statements:
This is a group of concerned citizens of The Bahamas who have come to express their disappointment in the manner in which John Marquis has continuously insulted the leaders of our country with his writings that are not complimentary and that are not truly representative of the black leadership of The Bahamas.
We equate John Marquis’ writings, his so-called aces and jokers, with the assault that was waged against America when the Twin Towers was hit, and we equate John Marquis’ activities with that of a terrorist.
In our view, Marquis has espoused racist views and he has continuously written nasty comments about leaders of The Bahamas, particularly black leaders.
What a bunch of rubbish! Exactly what are these so-called “citizens” concerned about? Was Marquis wrong in concluding in an “Insight” piece last October that then Immigration Minister Shane Gibson’s “Anna Nicole gaffe leaves him with a credibility problem?”
Surely, subsequent events since Marquis wrote that article have demonstrated convincingly that he was more than justified in reaching that conclusion. Indeed, the manner in which Gibson handled the former Playboy playmate’s application for permanent residency and the questionably personal relationship he seemed to have had with her eventually led to him being forced to resign as a minister.
Could it be that these “citizens” are concerned about the “Special Report” written by Marquis that was published in The Tribune last Saturday? That article revealed startling details that further confirmed what many Bahamians long ago concluded about current Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell: he has been a five-star opportunist throughout his political career.
Marquis’ piece was a tour de force as far as his research was concerned. He and other Tribune staff members apparently scoured through the archives of The Tribune and uncovered some astonishing facts about the “erratic course” of Mitchell’s political career. Included in the five photographs that accompanied the “Special Report” was one from December 12, 1989, showing Mitchell – as leader of the People’s Democratic Force – threatening to burn The Bahamas Constitution.
Marquis had this to say: “The burning of the constitution, which deeply offended many Bahamians, was only part of it. In fact, the ashes of the constitution were sent by Mr. Mitchell to the then Prime Minister ‘as a reminder of how our country is being destroyed.’ The words are Mr. Mitchell’s not ours. They show the deep contempt he felt for the late PLP leader and poses the obvious question: ‘What is he doing in the PLP now?’ ”
Claiming that Mitchell ended up in the PLP because the FNM did not want him, the Special Report added: “They refused to run him as a candidate and he slunk off in a sulk, bearing his resentment like a king-size haversack.
However, when he launched his ‘Third Force’ in 1989, Mr. Mitchell insisted that Hubert Ingraham – the FNM leader who was later to reject him – should become a key component in his new set-up. At the time, Ingraham was the independent MP for Cooper’s Town, Abaco.”
Continuing, the Special Report noted: “Mr. Mitchell’'s declared aim then was to inflict a resounding defeat on the PLP. Like his long-held desire to be prime minister, his ambitions proved delusional. By December 1990, Mitch-ell’s hostility to Sir Lynden culminated with his declaration that the so-called ‘Father of the Nation’ was irrelevant to The Bahamas.”
“It is time that the Bahamian people consign him to the scrap heap of history,” Mitchell was quoted as saying about Sir Lynden.
There are those who are of the opinion that Marquis was motivated to write the “Insight” article on Gibson and the “Special Report” on Mitchell by the fact that these two ministers of the Government were in the vanguard of the unrelenting campaign last year to have his work permit not renewed and have him thrown out of the country. Be that as it may, if what Marquis wrote is the truth, there is nothing journalistically unethical about exposing wrongdoing and hypocrisy, even if vengeance was the adrenaline that lubricated his thoughts while producing two well-crafted stories.
And in the case of Mitchell, the information contained in the Special Report was well documented; so was his antagonism toward the late Sir Lynden, which Marquis also addressed in his Special Report.
Anyone reading that article and not having any knowledge of Mitchell’s political background would wonder how it was possible that he was able to rise to a position of power in the PLP. The answer, of course, is quite simple: Mitchell is a trained journalist who later became a lawyer and he has blended the skills he developed in both careers to become one of the best in the business when it comes to self-promotion.
He may have met his match in John Marquis, however. That Special Report in last Saturday’s Tribune may very well have provided Dr. Jacinta Higgs, who is trying to unseat Mitchell in what used to be the Fox Hill constituency, with the additional ammunition she needs to hammer some permanent nails in his political coffin.
This being the case, skeptics could be forgiven for suggesting – as some people have – that the demonstration outside The Tribune’s office earlier this week was far from being a coincidence, coming only several days after that Special Report was printed.
But even if Ricardo Smith, the demonstration’s leader, indeed organized the protest because he is a “concerned citizen,” it is mind-boggling that he could have reached the conclusion that Marquis’ articles represented “racist views.” What’s more, he obviously is unaware of the fact that The Tribune’s publisher, Eileen Carron, inherited more than The Tribune and her love for journalism from her late father, Sir Etienne Dupuch.
As well as I know Carron, having worked at The Tribune for six years in the early stages of my journalistic career, I know that she will not be intimidated by his threats to “return in greater numbers and demand the removal of John Marquis from our society forthwith and without delay” if Marquis continues his “nasty comments about leaders of The Bahamas, particularly the black leaders.”
Like her father, Eileen Carron does not frighten easily, and a full army of demonstrators cannot intimidate her, as long as she is convinced that her managing editor wrote the truth and nothing but the truth. In this regard, she should have the support of every journalist in this country who likewise would not give in to such brazen intimidation.
Oswald T. Brown is editor and general manager of The Freeport News. You can contact him via e-mail by clicking here.
