EDITOR, The Tribune.

Amidst all of the political shenanigans, trickery and exploitation of an uneducated and unassuming, electorate, the system has been used to keep the black Bahamians poor, controlled and out of the loop. Now many, especially all those who are guilty of this, would ridicule the messenger, but be that as it may. Call me anything, but don’t call me collect!

From the beginning of what some are even brazen to call “Parliamentary Democracy” we have all lived long enough to experience why this statement is nothing but a lie, from the pits of hell.  

The Westminster System was designed for the “inner circle” to have control and to keep control, never mind that the faces and names may have changed.

The inner circle has control, specifically designed to strangle the poor man. The colour of the master may have changed but the same game remains. Same playbook!

Take a look at who own the businesses, the same guys. They combine their efforts uniting across party lines to keep the money in the same families. Do not be fooled, they own everything together. They sit in smoke filled rooms and divide the spoils.

The same guys who go after each others throats on stage for all to see and to cause the most ignorant to chant their themes, while they go behind closed doors and share “one for you and one for me”.

They are all friends and they are laughing at us.

After they leave where they cuss out each other stink, they wine and dine at lunch. They have shares in each other’s businesses.

But back to the system, we are all fools, all of us, including me. We elect all the members of parliament, then the majority get together and decide who will be the prime minister, he could be the worst of the lot, yet he is the man who would have our fate in his hand. So we are stuck with the decisions of a few men.

Which brings me, skidding around the corner on two wheels to this point, when are we going to be sensible enough to say that the Westminster system is not to our advantage. When are we going to “insist” that we elect the Prime Minister or President ourselves?

When, for God’s sake, are we going to stop allowing a few men to play games with our livelihood? We need more say as to who shall lead this country. Otherwise we deserve to get the treatment we have been getting.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, said, “Real legitimacy for political decisions comes from the elected representatives and is derived from the will of the people. While hereditary monarchies remain in place, political power is derived from the people as in a republic. These states are thus sometimes referred to as crowned republics.”

Time to get rid of Her Majesty and replace her with a republic.

After all this time, we must be ready to control our own destiny, otherwise we all are fools. Oh, I remember an old acquaintance said many years ago, “there is no fool like an old fool”.

On another note, but definitely related, the leaders who are consumed with greed would resist this suggestion, they would prefer dying in office, it’s a black thing.

I guess since we have and will never get used to being in charge, we will hold on to office for dear life. 

Our slave mentality has moved us from being the outside slave to the promoted slave who will fight to the death before we ever go back outside with the other slaves again. That is why over the hill will never change and will never get any assistance. This is the plan that will remain in place if the base is to remain.

Martin Luther King, Jr said, “The oppressor never voluntarily gives Freedom; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organised conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” 

Frederick Douglass.

Don’t let fear stop us from doing what it takes to remedy this travesty. Courage is being scared to death...and saddling up anyway. – John Wayne.

A word to the wise is sufficient.

Get it? Okay.

IVOINE W INGRAHAM JP

Nassau,

June 15, 2015.