There is a sense in the air that the upcoming gender equality referendum being put forth by the present Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government just may not succeed and it may not for several reasons but one of the main reasons is because there is still a lot of confusion surrounding some of the questions being asked and this confusion has been due to a lackluster educational campaign out forth by the government through their Yes initiative. While many find it hypocritical that the government would fund a “Yes” campaign and not a “No” campaign also but not neither thereby leaving the choice up to the general populous, this has also led to a lot of the confusion and distrust that has the chances of the referendums success on ‘life support’, so the government has put forth an ‘exit strategy’ by hedging its chances by finding someone else to blame if case the referendum fails and boy have they gotten lucky, as they have found two persons to place the blame on; one being some religious leaders and the other being the Opposition through its leader, the Hon. Hubert Minnis and as luck would have it the church and the leader of the opposition are not heavily favored in the eyes of the public at this time.
“Yes campaign urges Minnis to find ‘courage” – The Nassau Guardian – May 3oth 2016
Excerpt from this article; “Should Free National Movement (FNM) Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis ‘locate courage if his conviction’ and campaign with the ‘yes’ team he would see firsthand the inspiring and extraordinary work being done to ensure our sons and daughters are equal in the constitution and under our laws,’ Yes Bahamas said in a statement yesterday.” I am amazed at the language used to twist the arm of the leader of the Opposition from his current position of advocating for a responsible approach to the referendum by the Bahamian public. “Locate courage of his conviction”, really? I thought his conviction was for persons to become educated and vote their conscience but of course this is why Prime Minister branded Dr. Minnis a ‘hypocrite’ for failing to push a yes vote, after the Official Opposition supported the bills in Parliament. Why push a yes vote when the general populous are the ones that should be required to ‘show courage of conviction’, educate themselves on the bills and vote their conscience; why would asking this been viewed as ‘cowardly’ or hypocritical especially by a government who when in opposition in 2002 lacked the ‘the courage of conviction’ to support the bills once they had voted for them in Parliament, actually they went out and actively campaigned against equality for women at the time.

“Yes campaign urges Minnis to find ‘courage” – The Nassau Guardian – May 3oth 2016
Excerpt from this article; “Should Free National Movement (FNM) Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis ‘locate courage if his conviction’ and campaign with the ‘yes’ team he would see firsthand the inspiring and extraordinary work being done to ensure our sons and daughters are equal in the constitution and under our laws,’ Yes Bahamas said in a statement yesterday.” I am amazed at the language used to twist the arm of the leader of the Opposition from his current position of advocating for a responsible approach to the referendum by the Bahamian public. “Locate courage of his conviction”, really? I thought his conviction was for persons to become educated and vote their conscience but of course this is why Prime Minister branded Dr. Minnis a ‘hypocrite’ for failing to push a yes vote, after the Official Opposition supported the bills in Parliament. Why push a yes vote when the general populous are the ones that should be required to ‘show courage of conviction’, educate themselves on the bills and vote their conscience; why would asking this been viewed as ‘cowardly’ or hypocritical especially by a government who when in opposition in 2002 lacked the ‘the courage of conviction’ to support the bills once they had voted for them in Parliament, actually they went out and actively campaigned against equality for women at the time.
Picking up on the narrative being set by the Progressive Liberal Party, that of Minnis being a weak leader because he failed by others standards to support Yes Bahamas, we have persons within his very own party, especially those of the faction that want him gone like ‘yesterday’ that continue to openly bash him without a logical argument or any sound reasoning on this matter, so here the Progressive Liberal Party has already began to set the background story that is this referendum fails it did so because of the direction that Dr. Minnis took on it, not bowing to the wishes of the government and its agents but then there is more.
“PLP Chairman Hits out at opponents to bill” – The Tribune 04.20.2016
Excerpt from this article; “PLP Chairman Bradley Roberts said the Save Our Bahamas group did not have any evidence to support its opposition of the fourth Constitutional Amendment Bill.
Mr. Roberts said the religious group did not have a good reason for opposing the bill, which seeks to end discrimination in the Constitution based on sex. Questions based on the four bills will be put to the electorate in a referendum.
He urged Bahamians to pay attention to pay close attention to the facts so as not to get distracted by the ‘tremendous amount’ amount of misinformation that will be placed in the public domain.”
They only reasons why there will be a ‘tremendous amount of misinformation’ would be because either the government did not do a good enough job informing the people through the Yes Bahamas campaign that it funded or because the Bahamian people no longer trust the present Progressive Liberal Party or both and as for trusting them I would not blame them to trust this government
Yes Bahamians just may have good reason not to trust this present government that once voted campaigned against women equality, in 2002, citing as one of their reasons that the Church was not consulted, now the church has been consulted, the church has expressed their views and the church has been attacked for expressing their views, as a saying goes “Do not ask for my opinion and then get mad when I tell you the truth”.
“Mitchell: Deception by Vote ‘No’ side is a sin” – The Tribune 06.05.2016
Excerpt from this story “Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell yesterday spoke out against religious leaders opposing the four referendum bills, claiming that their ‘deceptive campaign’ against the gender equality vote is a ‘sin’.
He also insisted that some pastors are using ‘false stories’ to frighten Bahamians to vote against their ‘own interest.”
“A Sick, Sick Man”
“The Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and his party the Free National Movement went down to resounding defeat on Wednesday 27 February 2002. Their spin doctors and apologists are trying to make-up all sorts of stories about the whys and the whereof. The simple fact is they were beaten and beaten convincingly. This senator believes that his position from the start that he would vote no has been vindicated. The lesson for the PLP is that the role of a political party is to shape public opinion, not the other way around. We must congratulate the Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie and his team for the skillful manner in which this whole thing was handled.
On the other hand we have nothing but scorn for this jackass that we call our Prime Minister. He had to concede defeat just after 9.30 p.m. on the night of the referendum. But the next day, he was back true to form. He refused to resign making some spurious distinction by saying this was a vote not against the FNM and himself but against the issue raised in the referendum. This is utter foolishness and is at variance with every known convention of the constitution.”
Fredmitchelluncensored.com
As Minister Mitchell pointed out in this opinion piece after the 2002 Gender Equality referendum, he had intended to vote NO from the very beginning and really gives no real valid reason as to why either than the ‘scorn for this jackass we call a Prime Minister’. Minister Mitchell admits to setting back gender equality by fourteen years due to the spite and contempt that he held in his heart for one man but yet seeks to now convince us that the “religious leaders opposing the four referendum bills claiming that their ‘deceptive campaign’ against the gender equality vote is a ‘sin’, minister Mitchell was it a ‘sin’ fourteen years ago?
What is this man on?
Indeed, the Progressive Liberal Party has already set the narrative for the upcoming referendum; if it succeeds they seek to set themselves up as Champions of the people, righting an age old wrong of our society, no matter the fact they contributed to it being a part of our society for fourteen years longer than it should have, and if it fails
The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.
END