Edward Hutcheson
The doors are being knocked on and the porches and front rooms are getting kind of crowded as the lives of us normal folk suffer from the invasion of political foot soldiers putting forth their reasons and opinions as to why their party or man should lead or represent us for the next five years. No one has stopped at my house yet, but a party leader did catch me on the line at Wendy’s and we spoke long enough for me to build up an appetite. An appetite for politics is something that Bahamians seem to be born with.
Recently, I have been thinking about the political definitions and the process that we go through to define who we are as “political beings”, and it has occurred to me that this very personal process has been hijacked, sullied, and messed over. There was a time when siblings and older family members took every opportunity to inform me as to how I should be voting, when I disagreed, there was usually an argument that did not last very long and about five years would pass before we got into that discussion again. The formulation of an opinion based on empirical evidence seemed a distant exercise for most of them.
For a time I wondered if I was being disloyal to them, but that changed when some of them began asking me to write letters to the Tribune and Nassau Guardian on their behalf, expressing their opinion on a particular issue, and, to sign my name to those letters. This was the “okay!” moment for me. Few of us have the courage to get into trouble for ourselves and others so I became a coward and decided that I would only sign my name to letters that reflected my opinion.
Have you listened to Members of Parliament, Pastors, Political Wannabees and pundits in the House of Assembly and Talk Radio, deliver a whole sermon that was prefaced by “something they heard”? And, there are Pastors, Political Wannabees and Pundits in the House of Assembly. So what about the definitions? The definitions have nothing to do with a five year cycle and they are applicable to all sanctioned beings, PLP, FNM,DNA or UBP.
The definitions are for all Bahamians and they are not cancelled because of “political change”. The definitions embrace the reality that even if your party does not get in you still have to go to work. If your affiliation to a political group changes because they have not done something special for you, you are nothing but a prostitute who is prepared to lay down for anybody or group who is prepared to “give you something”.
The definitions are grounded in the idea that you will put your country and the well-being of your neighbour before the demands of your political party; no more, no less. Can we do that? If we are able to this nation would be the better for it.
March 30, 2012
