PLP cheerleader is spreading divisive rhetoric

“In association football, diving is an attempt by a player to gain an unfair advantage by diving to the ground and possibly feigning an injury, to appear as if a foul has been committed. Dives are often used to exaggerate the amount of contact present in a challenge. Players do this so they can receive free kicks or penalty kicks, which can provide scoring opportunities, or so the opposing player receives a yellow or red card, giving their own team an advantage” — Wikki

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 17: Christopher Famous, PLP Cheerleader Extraordinaire of Bermuda Election 2012 Facebook fame, executed a political dive of sorts in his October 10 column, where he appears in great despair over the following OBA statement: “The Government needs to shift people’s attentions away from the fact it has led Bermuda into a world of unemployment, shootings and debt, with no end in sight.” 

Begging for a red card, Famous asks, “Is the OBA seriously trying to say the PLP has led Bermuda into shootings? I find it reprehensible that in their hunger for power they will be so insensitive to both the victims and the families of the victims. Perhaps it is lost on the OBA because they have a totally different support base of voters. So their views of life will differ from ours.”

The specific dive in these words was two-fold.

Firstly, Famous derails any discussion of the Government’s responsibility in dealing with serious crime.

Secondly, just in case you missed it, Famous does his best to avoid using the ‘W’ word and the ‘R’ word, but the code is clear if we are to be honest.

The real message is that those white OBA racists don’t understand us, and therefore have no problem making this kind of insensitive statement.  Clever use of the race card, no?

Famous goes on to state, “I can recall under the UBP, drugs being sold openly from St George’s to Somerset. I don’t recall the PLP stating the UBP led Bermuda into open drug sales.”

Well... this would be because in the game of politics, selective memory is a propagandist’s best friend. 

Famous needs to look back to November 5, 1998, because here he will find the following statement attributed to Alex Scott:  “Drugs have become entrenched in the last 20 years while the UBP has been in power.  They are guilty of neglect or benign neglect.’’

Now hang on one second!  That statement reads a whole lot like the OBA’s statement now doesn’t it? Surely the PLP wouldn’t make such insensitive statements about the victims and families of Bermuda’s drug war, now would they?  Surely they wouldn’t make such heinous and insensitive statements three days before the November 9 1998 election, now would they? Oops!

But it doesn’t stop there.  The following comments were also attributed to Scott during those last few days:

• “We shouldn’t fall victim to the prejudice that it’s just the boys on the walls who perpetuate this trade.
• “Most of the drugs come in by sea. The PLP doesn’t run boats in and out of the Island. PLP members don’t own boats. They don’t own yachts. They don’t have containers coming into the Island.
• “Anecdotally, it points the finger to some network of trafficking drugs which the UBP is unwittingly involved in.’’
• “Their money goes into banks, deposit companies and legal offices. Drugs come into the docks through containers.”
• “They are the party of the establishment. PLP supporters don’t own deposit companies and banks or big container lines.”
• “This doesn’t mean UBP supporters or members are involved, but their operations may be inadvertently caught up in the trade or trafficking of drugs, without them even knowing it.
• “That’s why we in the PLP can follow leads where the UBP cannot follow leads.”
• “The Progressive Labour Party does not have a vested interest. It is better-equipped to go after the Mr. Bigs.’’

Now I don’t know about you, but these statements don’t just hold the UBP accountable for failing to address drugs. These statements come extremely close to claiming that the UBP hasn’t addressed drugs, because they are somehow profiting from it.  How’s that for “reprehensible”, Mr Famous?

Some of us do get it. It’s an election. 

But it is duplicitous and divisive rhetoric like this that further justifies my decision not to vote PLP next time around. 

It is this type of rhetoric that allows me to empathize with the frustrations expressed by one online commentator who directed criticism at some of the site’s regular contributors, stating: “BE2012 has done more damage to the credibility and reputation of the PLP than any other single public source anywhere. Congratulations… for providing constant streaming of misinformation, slanted perspective, dishonourable behaviour … in a most unwavering and unapologetic fashion.

“I just have to wonder, if Alaska Hall has any idea of the tremendous amount of effort you folks have put into distancing the electorate quite far from alignment with that party.”

Bryant Trew, a former Best of Bermuda award winner for his Bermuda Sun columns, is not a member or affiliate of (or in any way associated with) either of Bermuda’s political parties. Feedback: [email protected]