The play on the leadership of the Progressive Liberal Party has taken a number of hairpin turns in recent weeks, no doubt sparked in part by our observations here, and the reporting on the piece by The Tribune that it demands a follow up.
We understand that there is yet another faction within the PLP jockeying for the leadership but the prospects for this crew are as remote as Sarah Palin’s chance of winning a Nobel Prize for Science. This crew is supposedly composed of former chairman Raynard Rigby, Fred Mitchell, Neville Wisdom and Vincent Peet but we have our doubts as to how solid this union is and may in fact be more propaganda being put out by the “Freeport Faction”
. Lets look at the players in this drama and see who pans out as real and unreal.
Fred Mitchell spends a lot of time traveling to and fro to Freeport, so much so that it makes one wonder if he’s a part of the crew up there looking for leadership. We know that Fred isn’t looking for a seat in Grand Bahama so there has to be some other reason for his frequent visits up north. Could Fred and Obie be working together in some unholy alliance that sees Fred as Obie’s number 2? This one is a hard one to call because many PLP insiders agree that while Fred Mitchell has always had his own agenda, he’s not one to bite the hand that feeds him. These days, that hand is Perry Christie. But what is Fred up to?
Neville Wisdom is being framed in this whole thing. Of the four, Wisdom is the one that poses the least threat to Christie and is likely to be less compelled to go against his old boss. Yes, Neville was upset following the loss in that he felt Christie could have helped him out against Hubert Minnis, but Wisdom is smart enough to know that if Christie was really against him, he would have sent a fresh face into Killarney to unseat Neville. That hasn’t happened and Neville recognizes this. Wisdom is tight with Vincent Peet and the two have met regularly about Peet’s aspirations to deputy but it is unlikely that Neville would dare make this kind of move without anything firm to back him up. He knows what side his bread is buttered on.
Vincent Peet’s relationship with Candia Dames of the Nassau Guardian was useful in the leaking of the confidential post election report commissioned by Perry Christie, but Peet wasn’t the one who leaked the report. That would be too obvious and too stupid of him as he is highly dependent on not rocking the boat with either side. Peet has been around long enough and was one of the youngest pupils of Sir Lynden Pindling when Ping appointed him to the Cabinet at a very tender age.
Loyal to Christie
Peet is old school and as such, his loyalty to the hierarchy trumps his own ambitions. He’s also extremely pragmatic and won’t jump on any bandwagons against Christie unless there is certain success. This is not the case now and he’s being set up because of his ambitions to lead the PLP. Anyone hoping to unseat Christie has to know that having another aspirant to that post only poses another problem.
Raynard Rigby, the former chairman who has just found his groove back since leaving the office has been from pillar to post talking about the party’s leadership and campaigning for Perry Christie to step down. Rigby seems to be feeling his oats now that people are paying attention but seems to have forgotten that this very same Perry Christie was the one who saved his tail when the party’s voting delegates were calling for his head in 2003, just one short year after he was elected chairman. The clarion call on the floor of the 2003 PLP Convention was for the removal of Raynard Rigby as Chairman, citing his high handedness with down the line supporters of the party and his embarrassing blunders and estrangement of the media as the cause. But, Christie stepped in and saved the young Chairman, perhaps now to his regret.
Senior advisors were already weary of Rigby’s intentions and are now saying “I told you so” now that Rigby is throwing darts at his former leader. The question is, why, and to what end? If Rigby hopes to achieve a PLP nomination, surely he must know that if Christie survives an attack on his position, and we have every reason to doubt that there will even be one, he’s toast. Could it be that Raynard bought into the idea of Obie succeeding? Not sure. Could Raynard’s relationship with Fred Mitchell (former partner), be a hint of some other plan? Not sure. What we are sure of is that Raynard has bitten the bullet and gone for it but his critical error may be in making a move too soon and too sure when he has no idea what Christie’s intentions are.
In PLP politics, thats a dangerous thing to do.
Did we mention that Rigby is tight with Candia Dames?
Now I won’t make it a point to swear. but anyone that knows Neville Wisdom and Vicent Peet knows that these former Ministers worships the ground that Christie walks on. As a matter of Fact these are the only two ministers in Christie’s cabinet that surpported him over B.J Nottage. Now I’m sure, they may be up to something. but not without the blessings of Christie.
This isnt the crew to worry about. its the other set because everybody knows Fred will never be leader of the PLP or even deputy and Vincent Peet too boring and Wisdom over the hill and Raynard say where ya put ma. I just hope they realize that all this gossiping is making the PLP look bad and Ping would have fired plenty of them if he was alive. Perry need to stop joking and make an example out of a couple of them otherwise they will make an example out of him.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I wouldn’t mind Obie as deputy but they better not destroy the PLP in the process because right now, that is the only thing people have to look forward to. the FNM is messing up bad and as an independent voter, I want to know that the PLP is stable first before putting my support behind them. I know one thing, i won’t be voting FNM anymore.
Anyone of these persons who put their own personal ambition above the well-being of the PLP will be very unpopular as a result. Everything comes in time and there is a proper procedure to following. All of them may make a good replacement for Christie, but it must be done properly and not through scheming and plotting.