Originally published as a column for the Freeport News and the Nassau Guardian, Friday, January 9, 2009.
Reprinted here with the kind permission of the author, Mr. Oswald Brown.
Fred Mitchell’s leadership quest
Former Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell has launched what appears to be a full-fledged campaign to become leader of the Opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) and position himself to possibly realize his cherished dream of one day being Prime Minister of The Bahamas.
He has shifted his public relations machinery into high gear, churning out frequent press releases and statements, and to a great extent he has had relatively good success having his views printed as news stories. That’s primarily because he was trained as a journalist before he shifted careers and became a lawyer, and he fully understands how news editors determine what they consider to be newsworthy.
Mitchell also has been travelling to various Family Islands meeting with party leaders and activists supposedly to solicit their support, as was the case in Freeport recently when he was observed having a luncheon meeting with a group of prominent PLP supporters at the Silk Cafe on West Atlantic Drive.
Actually, he has made no secret of his desire to replace Perry Christie as leader of the PLP. Addressing members of the Progressive Young Liberals on Sunday, January 4, in New Providence, he expressly stated his desire to enlist them “in the army of change and get you to sign off on my change agenda for the PLP.”
His intentions could not have been put more clearly than that, but he reinforced it with this statement: “For much of my life, consumed from the age of 16 by politics, many have considered me an iconoclast. It is a label that I wear happily in these days and times. One regret I have is that I did not push even harder for change when our hands were on the levers of power. The past is prologue. We have no time for regrets now, and you should accept these as the marching orders for the battle to come.”
What an amazing statement! In admitting that many once considered him an “iconoclast,” Mitchell may very well have been referring to his bitter attack in 1990 on Sir Lynden Pindling, who is generally recognized as the most venerated “soldier” in the PLP’s struggle for majority rule and who led the country to independence in 1973 and served as Prime Minister for 25 years.
One of the definitions given by the dictionary for “iconoclast” is this: “One of certain religious parties devoted to the destruction of images that were venerated or worshipped.” Was this Mitchell’s motive when he launched his assault on Sir Lynden? Surely, statements he made at the time suggest that this may indeed have been the case.
In an excellently researched “Special Report” printed in The Tribune on Saturday, March 17, 2007, Managing Editor John Marquis referred to Mitchell’s “hostility towards Sir Lynden” and revealed some startling details about the “erratic course” of his political career.
Marquis and other Tribune staff members apparently scoured through the archives of The Tribune and uncovered some astonishing facts about the “iconoclast” who is now seeking to become leader of the PLP. Included in the Special Report were five photographs, one from December 12, 1989, showing Mitchell – as leader of the People’s Democratic Force – threatening to burn The Bahamas Constitution.
Referring to that incident, 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 (Sir Lynden) ‘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, Mitchell’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.
Certainly, considering their ages, it is quite possible that members of the Progressive Young Liberals are not aware of this aspect of Mitchell’s political background, and he quite conveniently did not included it in the brief history of his political career that he included in his speech.
Here is what he had to say: “When I graduated from university, one of my first acts was to enrol in membership of the PLP and become a branch chair, later an NGC member and then a Senator, a Member of Parliament, a minister. There are only three jobs in the political directorate that I have not held — that of Governor General, Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition. I never once thought about the question of whether there was a role for me. I knew there was a role and I was determined to make one if there weren’t one.”
In that same speech, or at least in the prepared version released to the press, he took a personal jab at me when he made this comment: “In seeking to get my message out, I have used the Internet. This is a tool that I have used to great effect since 1998 when The Nassau Guardian’s then editor Oswald Brown, an FNM ideologue, decided that nothing I said was worthy of being published. We now see who has the last laugh.”
I have no idea what that is supposed to mean, but it is still my opinion that Mitchell is a shameless self-promoter who has allowed his monumental ego to obfuscate the fact that not everything he says is news worthy.
It is worth noting, however, that for the first time publicly he has indicated that he contributes to the scurrilous website bahamasuncensored.com, which he has in the past denied having any connection with.
Here’s what he had to say: “Yet, I believe that even with the podcasts that I do twice per month, the postings on the PLP website, the postings to bahamasuncensored.com or myplp.com, it is still not yet to the point where we can rival the influence of The Tribune, Guardian, The Punch, the Bahama Journal and the radio and television stations.”
It was on bahamasuncensored.com that a serious warning was issued to Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham in August of 2007 from “all 18 Members of Parliament of the Progressive Liberal Party” advising him that “in the future if you repeat the crude and boorish behaviour that you last displayed in the House of Assembly on Monday 30th July, you will find your back teeth floating.”
This most certainly was a definite threat against the leader of this country, and in any other country such a threat would warrant prosecution of the person or persons who made it. Given the seriousness of the threat, it should still be a matter that the police has under active investigation. Now that Mitchell has admitted that he contributes to bahamasuncensored.com, maybe the country will get to find out how much Ellison Greenslade and Marvin Dames, the two senior Bahamas Police Force officers who recently returned from a year’s training in Canada, learnt during their courses.
Hopefully, investigating threats and libellous allegations made on the Internet were included in their courses of study, and those individuals who persist in committing these acts are dealt with to the fullest extent of the law.
Oswald T. Brown is managing editor of The Freeport News. He can be contacted by clicking here....
