US embassy cable - 03NASSAU1066

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 NASSAU 001066 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/30/2013 
TAGS: PGOV, PINR, BF, Bahamian Politics 
SUBJECT: POWERS BEHIND THE THRONE IN THE PLP GOVERNMENT - 
PROTIGIS OF THE                    COUNTRY'S FIRST PRIME 
MINISTER 
 
 
Classified By: DCM Robert M. Witajeski, Reason 1.5 (B) and 
(D). 
 
Summary 
-------- 
 
1.  (C) In two separate meetings May 27 and 28, DCM and 
POL/ECON section chief met the two individuals outside of the 
Bahamian government considered to have the most influence on 
Prime Minister Perry Christie's government.  Wealthy 
businessman Frankie Wilson, a prominent campaign contributor 
and friend of the Prime Minister's, offered us a spirited 
defense of the former Pindling administration's drug record, 
gave his perspective on various recent ambassadors, and 
defended the Christie administration's record of inaction by 
saying repeatedly, "But you have to understand where we have 
come from."  Bishop Neil Ellis, the controversial pastor of a 
large evangelical church whom Christie refers to as his 
"spiritual adviser", expressed his desire for closer 
relations with the Embassy, bemoaned his treatment in the 
press, and offered a fascinating intimate account of how he 
came to publicly endorse Christie in the last election.  Both 
power brokers humbly -- and unconvincingly -- denied having 
or wanting any real influence.  End Summary. 
 
Frankie Wilson 
-------------- 
 
2.  (C) Frankie Wilson is The Bahamas' most prominent, and 
probably wealthiest, black businessman.  The owner of Arawak 
Homes and Sunshine Insurance Company, as well as many other 
businesses, is an original member of the "Sunshine Group", a 
group of black businessmen who were actively supported by 
former Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling as they created 
their empires in the 1970s and 1980s.  Pindling supported 
them as a way to break the economic power held by the "Bay 
Street Boys" (the country's traditional white elite), who 
with the support of the United Bahamas Party (UBP) had ruled 
The Bahamas both politically and economically for decades 
until majority rule arrived in 1967.  Wilson is very proud of 
his rise to meteoric wealth and, during the course of the 
meeting, repeatedly referred to his humble past, when, as the 
youngest of 11 children in a working class family, he had to 
sleep on the floor until his older sisters grew up and moved 
out of the house and a bed opened up for him.  He is 
fanatically devoted to Pindling, who identified him, became 
his godfather, and opened the doors that allowed Wilson to be 
successful.  That loyalty has transferred to Pindling's 
Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), and today Wilson is a major 
financial contributor to the party and close adviser to Prime 
Minister Perry Christie.  In fact, when we arrived, Wilson 
summoned his own son and Perry Christie's son (both of whom 
work for him) into the office for the meeting.  Wilson, who 
served for the PLP in Parliament from 1992-1997, was defeated 
in 1997, has declined to take several positions offered to 
him by the Pindling administration, insisting they would take 
too much time from his business concerns. 
 
Pindling the Hero 
----------------- 
 
3.  (C) Wilson, a bombastic speaker who frequently cuts 
others off in conversation, spent much of the hour and half 
meeting offering a passionate defense of the record of Sir 
Lynden Pindling.  He insisted that allegations of narcotics 
corruption against Pindling were completely unfounded and 
claimed that the Commission of Inquiry bore him out on this 
point.  He brushed aside questions about how Sir Lynden had 
amassed his obvious wealth during his years in office and the 
influence of notorious Colombian narcotics kingpin Carlos 
Lehder, and said that the stories about Pindling were the 
result of jealousy and ingratitude, a plot orchestrated by 
former U.S. Ambassador Carol Boyd Hallett and former Prime 
Minister Hubert Ingraham who "wouldn't have been anything 
without Pindling."  Wilson claimed "no one has cooperated 
more" with the U.S. on drug interdiction than Pindling, and 
said that seizure statistics bear him out on this assertion. 
He expressed great scorn toward Hubert Ingraham for betraying 
Pindling and then setting out to destroy his reputation after 
Ingraham became Prime Minister, which Wilson claimed 
destroyed Pindling's health and led to his death (this is 
also the opinion of Lady Pindling, Sir Lynden's widow). 
Wilson said that only when Pindling neared his death did 
Ingraham "repent" and seek reconciliation with Pindling on 
the latter's death bed.  Wilson claimed that the impressive 
sendoff given to Pindling by Ingraham's government when he 
died in 2000 was proof that Ingraham felt "remorseful" about 
what he had done to Pindling's reputation.  (Ingraham would 
say that the impressive funeral was appropriate for the man 
who, whatever his faults, was the country's "founding 
father", and that the kind words offered by Ingraham then 
were simply an example of not speaking poorly of the dead.) 
Wilson believes that the seeds of the PLP's 2002 election 
victory were laid at that funeral, as the state ceremony and 
effusive eulogies allowed the PLP to escape from its image of 
corruption. 
 
Wilson's Take on Diplomacy 
-------------------------- 
 
4.  (C)  Wilson offered his opinion on the performance of 
former U.S. ambassadors here.  He singled out Ambassador 
Carol Hallett for scorn, blaming her for demonizing Pindling 
and dragging his reputation through the mud.  He said that 
she "played the game" politically and was very shrewd, but 
that he despised her for her actions.  Wilson alleged that 
she interfered directly in Bahamian internal politics for 
reasons he failed to understand, offering tangible support to 
Hubert Ingraham and the FNM - support Wilson claims they 
could not have won the election without.  He reserved his 
highest praise for Ambassador Sydney Williams, saying that he 
had a quiet style and didn't make waves.  Wilson said that 
Bahamians prefer that style of diplomacy, and do not like 
confrontation. 
 
5.  (C) Wilson also pleaded with us to engage constructively 
with The Bahamas and support Foreign Minister Mitchell's 
desire to play a more prominent role on the world stage.  He 
said that, as a country with shared democratic and capitalist 
values, the Bahamas could help the United States a good deal 
in international fora, and that the U.S. should take 
advantage of that. 
 
"To Understand Where We Are, You Have to Understand From 
Where We've Come" 
------------------------------- 
------------------------------------------- 
 
6.  (C) In response to various questions about issues of 
concern in The Bahamas, such as overcrowding, lack of 
investment and urban planning, Wilson kept coming back to the 
same theme.  Essentially, he dismissed current problems by 
saying that regardless of their gravity, The Bahamas, and 
more specifically, black people in The Bahamas, have come a 
very long way since majority rule.  He spoke proudly of the 
way the Pindling administration broke first the political and 
then the economic monopoly on power of the Bay Street Boys, 
and declared his optimism about the future.  He dismissed 
foreign investor concerns about the PLP's program of 
"Bahamianization" saying you had to view it in the context of 
Bahamian history, and that the PLP government welcomed 
foreign investment, pointing to the recent signing of the 
Atlantis expansion deal.  He wondered why it was a South 
African who brought that kind of investment to The Bahamas, 
rather than an American. 
 
7.  (C) Wilson confidently predicted the PLP would win 
election again in 2007, and dismissed the FNM as disorganized 
and poorly led.  He also said that for the first time in 
2002, the PLP was "competitive" in terms of campaign 
financing.  According to Wilson, the PLP spent approximately 
$7 million on the 2002 campaign (the FNM claims to have spent 
about $4 million, but neither is required to provide any 
accounting for campaign contributions or expenditures, so 
both figures are suspect).  That would amount to close to $70 
per registered voter.  He dismissed questions about whether 
or not this was an excessive amount for such a small country, 
and did not elaborate on where all this money came from. 
 
Bishop Neil Ellis 
----------------- 
 
8.  (C) Bishop Ellis, the pastor of a large Baptist church 
(6400 members) in a working class neighborhood of southern 
Nassau, is one of The Bahamas' most controversial figures. 
He publicly endorsed Perry Christie during the 2002 campaign 
and reportedly told his congregation from the pulpit during a 
religious service that they must support Christie if they 
wished to remain members of his church.  Ellis also held a 
huge religious revival featuring a renowned U.S. evangelist 
that was a magnet for criticism about the reported 
"greediness" of its fundraising appeal.  (Establishment 
religious figures now sometimes preface fund-raising remarks 
by noting that the funds "will not be used to build a 
vacation house in Bimini" to distinguish themselves from the 
self-proclaimed bishop.  The press hounds him constantly 
about his flamboyant personal lifestyle and open political 
preferences.  Ellis was another protigi of Sir Lynden 
Pindling, who identified him as a promising young man growing 
up on the small island of Bimini and brought him to Nassau to 
complete his education.  He is affiliated with the Full 
Gospel Baptist Church headquartered in New Orleans, and is 
its "bishop" for international churches, theoretically having 
all Full Gospel Baptist churches in The Bahamas under his 
leadership.  Prime Minister Christie has openly referred to 
Ellis as his spiritual adviser, and many Bahamians assume 
that his influence runs deep within the administration. 
 
9.  (C) POL/ECON section chief arrived at Ellis' Mt. Tabor 
Full Gospel Baptist Church, and was met by the first of 
Ellis' personal assistants, who passed me to the second, who 
entertained him while Ellis finished a meeting with his seven 
associate pastors.  Ellis then received Emboff in his nicely 
appointed (bordering on lavish, but not quite passing over 
into poor taste) office.  He was dressed in a loud magenta 
clerical shirt with gold and diamond cufflinks, a thick gold 
chain, several large gold rings and a gold Rolex watch. 
Ellis is a thin, energetic man of middling height, in his 
early forties.  He is married and has three adopted 
daughters. 
 
Anointing of the King 
--------------------- 
 
 9.  (C) Ellis described for POL/ECON section chief the 
remarkable story of how he came to endorse Perry Christie in 
the 2002 elections.  According to Ellis, he barely knew 
Christie before the run up to the election in 2001.  At that 
time, he says Christie began seeking an appointment with him, 
saying he needed to speak with him for several hours.  Ellis 
says that he kept putting Christie off, both because he 
didn't have that time to spare and because he had a bad 
initial impression of him.  Ellis said that this bad opinion 
dated from the PLP leadership battle Christie won against 
B.J. Nottage after the death of Lynden Pindling.  Nottage was 
a friend and former congregation member of Ellis and harbored 
a lot of ill will toward Christie because of his loss. 
Christie was persistent in his pursuit of Ellis, whose church 
membership has definite PLP leanings (Three PLP MPs, 
including two Cabinet ministers, call it their home church), 
however.  Finally, according to Ellis, he agreed to take 
Christie along with him on an evangelical trip to the U.S., 
promising that if Christie attended all he services he 
preached at, Ellis would give him the time in between to 
listen to his appeal.  Ellis said that, when given the 
opportunity, Christie and Ellis spoke for 13 hours straight, 
about both secular and spiritual matters and that Ellis 
progressively became more convinced that Christie had been 
"sent by God" to lead The Bahamas.  The meeting ended, 
according to Ellis, in a scene reminiscent of the Biblical 
story of Samuel's anointing of Saul, with Christie coming 
around the table they were seated at, going to his knees and 
requesting a blessing from Bishop Ellis.  At that time, Ellis 
reported "the Spirit came upon him" and told him that he had 
to endorse Christie. 
 
10.  (C) Ellis, on the one hand, denied having or wanting any 
political influence with Christie, but on the other hand went 
to great lengths to explain how close their relationship is 
and how often Christie calls on him for spiritual guidance. 
For example, Ellis recounted that Christie had presented him 
with the names of his Cabinet nominees before they were 
announced and asked for him to pray over them and give his 
opinion.  Ellis says that, although Christie has offered him 
several government positions (most recently The Bahamas' 
Ambassador for Religious Tourism) and other rewards such as 
free government land to build a new church, he has turned it 
all down and wants nothing from Christie or the government 
(or at least nothing they've offered yet). 
 
It's All Just Jealousy 
---------------------- 
 
11.  (C) Ellis claims that, ever since Mt. Tabor started to 
grow and he began to be seen as a successful pastor, he has 
come under attack by others, including other pastors, who are 
jealous of his success.  As a result, Ellis claims he has 
been unfairly vilified in the press, particularly the 
scandal-mongering tabloid The Punch.  Ellis says that during 
one stretch The Punch printed negative articles about him in 
95 consecutive editions, beginning with an unsubstantiated 
rumor that he was carrying on a homosexual affair with a 
member of his congregation.  In addition, Ellis has received 
heavy criticism for the large salary he draws (reportedly a 
tax-free $180,000 a year), and his penchant for luxurious 
living.  Recently attention has focused on the impressive 
house he is building for himself in one of Nassau's more 
exclusive neighborhoods, reportedly costing $1 million. 
Ellis claimed that the stories were exaggerated, but made no 
excuses for his lifestyle, implying it was only fitting for 
the pastor of such a large and thriving church. 
 
12.  (C) The one press story that he claimed hurt him the 
most, however, was the one published by leading daily The 
Tribune shortly before the election, claiming that Ellis had, 
from the pulpit, instructed his congregation to vote for the 
PLP, saying that if they didn't, they should "haul hip" out 
of his church.  Ellis said he was most hurt by the fact the 
Tribune did not contact him prior to publishing the story for 
his version of events.  According to Ellis, a rival pastor, 
Bishop Simeon Hall, a strong FNM supporter, was the source of 
the story.  He sent a tape recording of some of Ellis' 
sermons to all of the papers.  Ellis admits that the tape -- 
which he claims contains selectively edited portions of three 
different sermons -- could easily lead you to believe he had 
instructed his church how to vote, but he denies this. 
According to Ellis, his comments were taken out of context, 
and that while he did officially endorse Christie and the PLP 
from the pulpit on several occasions (doing as he says the 
Holy Spirit moved him to do), he never tried to tell others 
how to vote or threatened anyone if they didn't vote for the 
PLP.  He blames the whole issue on poor journalism and the 
jealousy of other, less successful pastors.  Ellis claims the 
Tribune is biased against him because he signed an exclusive 
deal with the rival Nassau Guardian for all of the church 's 
considerable printing business, in exchange for a full-page 
platform in the weekly religious section. 
 
13.  (C) As a consequence of his on-going bad press, Ellis 
has vowed not to respond to any of the allegations against 
him.  Doing so, he said, just legitimizes those allegations 
and gives them more life.  Many in his congregation, he says, 
have disagreed with this policy and urge him to publicly lash 
out at his critics, which he admits is tempting, but he 
continues to maintain his silence, preferring to let the 
criticism pass. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
14.   (C) Wilson and Ellis, each in a different way, wield 
considerable influence in the Christie government, despite 
not being members of that government.  Wilson is one of the 
financial mainstays of the party, and the PLP needs his money 
to counteract the FNM's traditional fundraising advantage 
with the traditional white business elite.  Ellis openly uses 
his pulpit in one of Nassau's largest and fastest growing 
churches to advance the PLP's political agenda, and by 
allying himself so closely with Christie, has surpassed many 
of his more established (and perhaps more respectable) 
religious brethren in influence.  Both are outspokenly 
passionate in their support for the party, having been 
nurtured by Lynden Pindling from an early age, and both will 
probably remain active and influential in PLP circles for 
many years to come.  Both have substantial power, profound 
influence, and no accountability. 
BLANKENSHIP