US embassy cable - 04NASSAU1535

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, Bahamian Politics 
SUBJECT: THE BAHAMIAN SENATE: INFLUENCE WITHOUT POWER 
 
REF: NASSAU 1412 
 
Classified By: CHARGE ROBERT M. WITAJEWSKI FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). 
 
SUMMARY 
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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