“Sears has bad timing – Fitzgerald says leadership bid should come after election” – The Nassau Guardian (08.10.2016)

Excerpt from this article; “Attorney Alfred Sears’ bid for leader of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) would be best suited after the general election, according to Marathon MP Jerome Fitzgerald, who says that Sears’ chances of beating Prime Minister Christie at the PLP’s national convention in November are ‘very unlikely’.

Fitzgerald noted Sears is a well respected PLP who has demonstrated his commitment to the organization’s values, but said ‘that at the end of the day, timing is everything in life, and I just question his timing at this point because…the reality is that he has been out of politics for a number of years, he is not a member of Parliament, and will be asking those of us, who are members of Parliament, to support him over the prime minister, who is a member of parliament.”

Last weekend the Progressive Liberal Party’s candidate for Fort Charlotte, Alfred Sears, confirmed that he intends to challenge PLP Leader, Perry Christie for the leadership position of that party.  Mr. Sears promised a campaign not focused on personalities but rather said; “It will focus on a new vision in terms of how to turn our economy around, how to inspire our people, how to give young people within The Bahamas hope for the future’, indicating that the present governing Progressive Liberal Party government has failed the people in these key areas. Ever since he  made this announcement other members of the PLP party, ministers Obie Wilchcombe, Leslie Miller, Jerome Fitzgerald and others, have come out expressing their ‘gloom and doom predictions’ of Mr. Sears leadership bid against their failed leader.

Most of the persons that speak to the certain demise of Mr. Sears are all ‘veterans’ of the party, all except Jerome Fitzgerald, who is still seen as one of the ‘younger’ members of the party and a link in Mr. Christies’ ‘bridge to the future’; a bridge that has long since been abandoned by a leader who still would like to see himself as the only reason why the Progressive Liberal Party is not in turmoil and oddly enough Minister Fitzgerald agrees with these sentiments.  Oddly enough, Jerome Fitzgerald feels that Prime Minister Perry Christie is the ‘glue’ holding that party together and if he were to leave it would all fall into chaos and disorder, this in itself is a reason to bring in a new and younger leader with new vision to this party.

The other reason for speaking to Mr. Sear’s demise, if he were to confront Christie on the floor of the convention for leader, is the fact that he is not an member of parliament and has not been in active politics for the past few years but then shouldn’t that give him a better perspective as he speaks to his ‘concerns about the current direction of the country’.

It seems clear that the Progressive Liberal Party’s commitment to progression is not genuine, as they attempt to silently ‘cut down’ a younger member of the party with views of taking the party in a ‘new direction’ and maybe this is what this party needs; to be revamped and purged.

As a side note, as Minister Fitzgerald speaks to timing being everything in life, what was his thinking and rationale behind the timing of the release of the Rubis report, which he was forced to admit actually existed?

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is their nature.

END