Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04NASSAU1535
2004-08-13 13:42:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Nassau
Cable title:  

THE BAHAMIAN SENATE: INFLUENCE WITHOUT POWER

Tags:  PGOV CU BF 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 NASSAU 001535 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/13/2014
TAGS: PGOV CU BF
SUBJECT: THE BAHAMIAN SENATE: INFLUENCE WITHOUT POWER

REF: NASSAU 1412

Classified By: CHARGE ROBERT M. WITAJEWSKI FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).

SUMMARY
- - - -

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 NASSAU 001535

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/13/2014
TAGS: PGOV CU BF
SUBJECT: THE BAHAMIAN SENATE: INFLUENCE WITHOUT POWER

REF: NASSAU 1412

Classified By: CHARGE ROBERT M. WITAJEWSKI FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).

SUMMARY
- - - -


1. (C) Charge, Acting DCM, and Political Officer hosted
groups of senators from the governing Progressive Liberal
Party (PLP) and the opposition Free National Movement (FNM)
on July 27 and August 4, 2004, respectively. The senators,
who were unusually frank in their assessments, discussed
Bahamian politics, the role of the Senate in The Bahamas, and
the future of controversial MP Sidney Stubbs and his seat in
the Holy Cross constituency. Animosity between the parties
was evident. The tiny FNM minority (25 percent) in the
Senate was accorded little quarter by the partisan PLP
majority and had to make due without offices, staff, or much
access to government bureaucrats.
End Summary


UPPER HOUSE A STEPPING STONE TO LOWER HOUSE
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2. (U) The Bahamian Senate is an unelected body whose seats
are filled by appointment. The positions are part-time and
senators have no full-time staff or any publicly-paid
assistants to help them carry out their legislative duties.
The annual salary for a Bahamian senator is a mere $12,500
and as a result, the majority of senators have full-time jobs
outside of their government responsibilities. Because the
Bahamian government does not provide its senators with office
space or administrative staff, many senators use their own
offices and personal secretaries to help with the legislative
work.


3. (U) The Senate's role is to review and make technical
corrections to legislation already passed by the Bahamian
parliament. Despite the Senate's modest formal powers,
membership confers significant symbolic prestige. The body's
influence stems from the fact that its members are members of
The Bahamas' political, economic, and social inner circles
and often bring significant personal expertise and experience
to their position.


4. (U) Senate membership is frequently a stepping-stone to
a political career or a cabinet appointment. James Smith,
for example, The Bahamas' equivalent of the Secretary of the
Treasury is a non-elected member of the Senate. Several PLP
senators indicated that they are being groomed to run for
seats in parliament in the next general election scheduled

for 2007. The leader of the Opposition, Tommy Turnquest, is
also an un-elected senator. The seat allocation process
assures that the majority party in the parliament also
controls the Senate. The PLP currently controls 75 percent
(12 of the 16 seats) of the Senate.


A ONE-SIDED RIVALRY
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5. (C) The Charge held a lunch on July 27 for four PLP
members of the Senate including the President of the Senate,
Sharon Wilson (wife of long-time PLP financial backer and one
of the wealthiest Bahamian businessmen, Franklyn Wilson),and
Senators T. Ricardo Whylly, Paulette Zonicle, and Cyprianna
McWeeney. The voluble and energetic PLP senators readily
(and gleefully) admitted that because of their numeric
dominance in the Senate, they deliberately "picked on" and
ganged up on their few FNM senator-colleagues mercilessly.
When asked by the Charge if former Prime Minister Hubert
Ingraham would return as the Leader of the FNM, Paulette
Zonicle said "I hope so... So we can beat him back down."
The PLP senators told Embassy officers that they felt no
threat from current leader of the Opposition, Tommy
Turnquest, and seemed to almost feel sorry for him because of
his lack of charisma and inability to lead his party.


6. (C) A week later, the Charge held a lunch on August 4,
2004 for all four members of the FNM: Party Leader Tommy
Turnquest and Senators Tanya McCartney, Desmond Bannister,
and Gladys Sands. Senator McCartney admitted the
effectiveness of the PLP harassment acknowledging that they
"have to put up with a lot in Senate" referring to the often
dismissive or badgering attitude of their PLP counterparts
during Senate sessions.

FIGHT OVER SIDNEY STUBBS' SEAT
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7. (C) Both the PLP and FNM senators agreed that there would
be a by-election for Sidney Stubbs' seat in Parliament in the
near future. Tommy Turnquest thinks it will happen within
the next "eight to twelve months realistically", a long way
off given that a parliamentary decision on Stubbs' bankruptcy
charge, which could lead to his expulsion from the House of
Assembly, is expected on September 26. (See Reftel) Foreign
Minister Fred Mitchell told the Charge on August 2nd that
despite the damage Stubbs has done to the PLP, the decision
to ask him to resign could not come from him -- it would have
to come from the Prime Minister...and that PM Perry Christie
was not inclined to ask for Stubbs' resignation from
parliament.


8. (C) The President of the Senate, Sharon Wilson, said that
if a by-election for Sidney Stubbs' seat is held, the PLP
will win, "but the margin will say all". She continued that
the seat is traditionally PLP and if an incumbent government
cannot win a seat -- and by a landslide vote -- then the
election would be ominous sign for the PLP Party that it was
rapidly losing public favor. She said "even if we win the
battle, we would lose the war if the votes were close."


9. (C) Tommy Turnquest said that a by-election campaign
would cost the FNM "one-hundred thousand dollars to be
credible, and two-hundred thousand dollars to win". Both the
PLP and FNM joked about how "Bahamian votes cannot be bought,
but Bahamians will accept all the free stuff they can carry."
A Stubbs by-election would become, all of the senators
agreed, a mid-term referendum on the performance of the
Christie government and both sides would go all-out to win.


TOMMY TURNQUEST INVITED TO CUBA
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10. (C) At previous meetings with the Charge, Tommy
Turnquest has asked how the PLP government is managing the
bilateral relationship between The Bahamas and the United
States, seeming to want information on how to criticize his
counterpart for neglecting The Bahamas' nearest neighbor and
biggest ally. Ever-cautious not to step on the toes of "the
giant neighbor to the north", the leader of the opposition
asked how the United States would receive the news that he
has been invited to Cuba, and is considering a visit.


11. (C) Charge explained to Mr. Turnquest that it is
completely up to him as a citizen of a sovereign country to
exercise his right to visit Cuba, but strongly urged him to
meet with the US Interests Section and with the members of
the democratic opposition and human rights movement despite
what will inevitably be Cuban government pressure not to do
so. The Charge also offered to help him arrange meetings,
via the Interests Section, outside of those that would be
offered by the Castro regime, including with religious
figures and the Catholic Church in order to give him more
exposure and a more balanced visit in Cuba.


COMMENT
- - - -


12. (C) Although determining philosophical differences
between the PLP and the FNM is next to impossible, party
members are fiercely loyal. One PLP senator said that "the
Progressive Liberal Party is almost a religion". One vestige
that is left-over from the creation of the parties however,
is that of the racial divide. The FNM evolved out of the
United Bahamian Party (UBP),which was known to be the party
favored by wealthy white Bahamians. Although the PLP
admitted that this line has blurred significantly, the
senators still felt that Brent Symmonette, a very wealthy
white Bahamian FNM MP, will never become the leader of his
party because he refuses to admit publicly that he has a
black grandmother, which reinforces the perception that he,
as one PLP senator put it, is a "white man from the
generation that was racist." The 49-year-old Symmonette, a
businessman/lawyer and former Minister of Tourism who
represents Nassau's affluent Montagu district, is sometimes
mentioned as a possible replacement for the uninspiring Tommy
Turnquest prior to the next general elections to be held no
later than May 2007.
WITAJEWSKI