The good leader is routinely assumed to be the kind of person who – as the saying goes – can make things happen; thus that popular penchant where patron is linked to client and where money and other perks are exchanged for service and loyalty."
In hard times, things have a tendency to drop apart; this due to the fact that patrons themselves are sometimes so hard-pressed that they are obliged to drop some of their clients.
While it might not be billed as one of the greatest shows on earth, the current campaign for leadership in the Progressive Liberal Party does rank as a fairly good show.
Indeed, as one day followed another and each came closer to Convention Day, the attentive public was feted to one juicy morsel after the other concerning one or the other public relations gambits and gimmicks.
This has all been for the good.
Interestingly all candidates for posts -inclusive of those for the leadership posts- have taken themselves to those places where media types do their stuff. And as they did, the people listened and thereafter, the same people obliged themselves with the business of evaluating this or that one.
Indeed, as the Bahamian people go about the business of fashioning leadership sufficient to dealing with the myriad of tasks that come with nation-building, some of them yearn for the kind of leadership once provided by the likes of Milo Butler, Randol Fawkes and Lynden O. Pindling.
This kind of charismatic leader promised the people what they wanted. Once elected, the winners did as much as they could; if deemed sufficient; they were elected time and time again.
The late Sir Lynden was master of this kind of politics in a then-fledgling Bahamas.
His two successors in office would dearly wish the same for themselves.
As of this moment, only time will tell if this pattern can or would be repeated.
We are fairly persuaded that a significant number of Bahamians are tired of this big-man style of sugar daddy governance and that they are people who want leaders who can inspire the people to greatness and confidence in themselves.
Since these are difficult times and that they are set to hang around for a while yet, those who would lead should take a breather and note that space must be found in this new order of things for quite ordinary Bahamians – through their own sweated labor and toils – to literally build the Bahamas.
There is a commensurate need for the genesis of leadership that is up to the task of leading a people set on wandering into a wilderness-world that is strewn with pitfalls and no end of miry troubles.
Clearly, then, there is a need for those who currently govern – whether as Administration or Opposition – to get their act together. Here we reference the Progressive Liberal Party and its nemeses in the Free National Movement.
Each has a date with destiny.
Anyone naïve enough to believe that somehow and for whatever mysterious reason, the Progressive Liberal Party is on a path to self-destruction, that person is seriously self-deluded.
This conclusion of ours is grounded on all that we know about this party – as it once governed and as it now makes its way through its wilderness days.
There is no gainsaying the fact that the Progressive Liberal Party – as it regroups – must realize that the a Free National Movement led by the Rt. Hon. Hubert A. Ingraham is simply formidable.
It would also be true to say that the Progressive Liberal Party –as currently constituted- has yet to put its machinery in sufficient gear so as to persuade the Bahamian people that they can – if elections are called for anytime soon – best the incumbents.
This party and its strategists would be well-advised against following a path where the mass public is led to believe that the next general elections are all about the persona of this or that leader or coterie of self-appointed leaders, however well-funded.
Evidently, the nation requires more of leadership in these hard times.
In the ultimate analysis, then, the nation also requires more of those who would lead in our nation’s two pre-eminent political parties.
- Austin DWI - New York DWI