Pintard should stop crying a river

Dear Editor,

I have a serious question I hope the Bahamian people can answer for me: Why is everyone crying rivers for Michael Pintard?

What did he think leadership was going to be like when he pushed out Dr. Hubert Minnis and overran Kwasi Thompson and Iram Lewis for this crown?

Did he just expect that all would bow down and throw palms in the streets while he rides through on an ass?

The last person that happened to, even he ended up being dragged through those same streets and crucified on a cross by the same people who were tossing palms. So, I wish people would stop with the sympathy.

Mr. Pintard has been around politics for a very long time, and he’s been around long enough to know that there’s never been a leader of the Free National Movement (FNM) who has assumed the leadership position and has commanded the loyalty of all of its members, not even Hubert Ingraham. So, what makes him different or special?

Nothing that we can see.

He talks a good highfalutin talk, but he’s nothing special or exceptional.

So, here’s what I’ll say to the opposition leader — it’s called politics, Mr. Pintard. Suck it up and lead.

Stop whining and bullying people into loyalty without a cause for their being loyal. Why should they be loyal to you?

Make the case, and it just can’t be because you’re “the leader” and being loyal to you is being loyal to the FNM brand; that would be like some kind of Trump, Putin, Xi Jinping president-for-life, dictatorship kind of talk.

There is no case he can make, Editor, and here is the real source of Mr. Pintard’s woes: the constitution of the FNM.

It is not Dr. Minnis or any of his Minnisites who are undermining Mr. Pintard and causing him to unravel before our eyes, as he chases a ghost of Minnis past.

It is his party’s very own constitution that allows for a leadership convention in the middle of his leadership tenure in opposition. So, why does everyone want to make it out that a challenge to Mr. Pintard’s leadership is something nefarious or underhanded?

If I remember the reports coming out of the last leadership convention correctly, the FNM, according to its constitution, is supposed to hold another leadership race two years out from the last, which would put us into early next year.

If that’s the case, why is Mr. Pintard surprised that he may have a challenger, even if it is the boogeyman right now?

And how can he tell anyone who wants to challenge him that he or she should sit small and give him a head start until he calls?

And not only that, if someone wants to challenge his entitlement, it seems as if he wants to choose who it is and when that person can start to challenge him. In what democracy does that happen?

This, Editor, would be so laughable if it wasn’t playing out right in front of our eyes. In this case, it is pretty sad, and there is nothing more unattractive than a whiny, crying man.

It is important for Mr. Pintard to know that he is not entitled. And if he and his supporters believe he is being undermined now, they’ll have another thing coming when the PLPs start after him, if he was ever lucky to become prime minister.

He wouldn’t be able to bully them or a disapproving nation into loyal submission. So, all I can say is suck it up, sir. You asked for it. You got. Deal with it.

And to the Bahamian people, again, remember, this gentleman has been around the block a few times.

He’s no newcomer. He was rejected twice by voters in two election cycles.

He knows the game and how the system works.

Why feel sorry for him? Remember, folks, all’s fair in love and war. He asked for it. He got it. Let him deal with it and let it deal with him.

Stop crying rivers.

— Ednol Bain