By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

THE FNM lost its appeal to the Bahamian public, its leader Hubert Minnis said before outlining a new ‘core vision’ which seeks to enforce transparency, fight corruption and improve communication.

Speaking on Saturday at an FNM Retreat held at Breezes Resort, he called on party supporters to unite and defend the FNM against its detractors.

“We have accomplished a lot but we lost our appeal to many of our people,” Dr Minnis said.

“Many feel that we lost touch with the human element. I challenge them by saying, all we did we did for our people. Many feel that we lost appeal to the youth, I challenge them by saying, we were building a future for the youth.”

Addressing the party, he said: “So I now challenge you... We have to strengthen inside before we grow outside. We have to trust each other before the voters trust us. We have to have faith in each other before the Bahamas has faith in us.”

The party is set to ‘look deep’ within itself to highlight strengths and opportunities to enhance or improve the party’s potency, Dr Minnis said.

It is also set to embrace the ‘difficult task’ of looking for weaknesses and threats.

“For when these components are not identified and managed (they) can create catastrophic structural damage in the foundation of an organisation,” he said.

He also pledged to implement a vision which encompasses the principles of accountability and transparency and ‘furiously and continuously’ fights against corruption and victimisation.

“A critical objective of our party is to continue to promote accountability, high ethical standards and dedicated and efficient service in public life,” Dr Minnis said. “We have to improve our organisational efficiency by establishing roles, policies and procedures that complement our vision and ensure our success.”

Standardised meetings with full involvement by party members will make this happen, he said.

“Another foundational objective is to improve relationships, relationships not only outside of our party but our internal relations as well,” he said.

Improvement of community programmes, regular walkabouts and visits, regular meetings with various neighbourhood associations, and quarterly church services at various churches were all highlighted by the party leader as initiatives that would improve external relations.

He added: “It is paramount for us to adapt a win-back strategy, a strategy to reach, renew and revive relationships with FNMs that have left the fold. I pledge to visit the families of the founding members to ensure a gateway between their vision and ours.”

Dr Minnis called on the party to develop an effective communication strategy that will use modern technology such as social media to spread the party’s message.

“Encompassed in this communication strategy must be an improvement of our public relations, we have to effectively communicate our vision, our strategy and our accomplishments,” he said.

He also implored party members to unite: “As long as we stay and fight internally, fight, backbite and undermine each other, we lose the strength to fight externally – this should be our real goal.

“We all need to keep our ears open and defend our party when detractors write about us on Facebook, Bahamas Press and other media. We must defend our party when people hit the airwaves and attack us, we have the ability and right to call in, all we need is the will to do so.”