By Craig Butler

The attempt at third party politics in The Bahamas probably died yesterday, when The Coalition for Democratic Reform (CDR) announced at a news conference held at The Cable Beach Resort & Casino that with immediate effect, it was disbanding and joining forces with the Free National Movement (FNM). The announcement was made by Charles Maynard who was joined at the news conference by the Chairman of the FNM, Desmond Bannister and all his officers.

Democratic systems thrive on all being able to have a voice and in principle, when we have many political parties existing, this should translate into a broad spectrum of views being aired.

Why did the CDR come into existence? In my opinion, the only reason why the CDR was formed was because Dr Bernard Nottage was disgruntled at the Progressive Liberal Party's (PLP) hierarchy, in that he was not made the leader and he sought a means to have a platform; thus, the CDR was born.

In the last general election with the exception of the FNM, none of the other parties, including the PLP, ran a full slate of candidates. In particular, although the CDR joined forces with Labour, this factor did not make a difference at the polls and Dr Nottage lost his Kennedy seat.

To have an effective third party, the leader has to be able to at least hold on to his seat and even if only a minority showing, have others in parliament that are part of the cause.

In the United Kingdom, the Liberal Democrats (an amalgamation of two parties) was a third party led by Paddy Ashdown. Ashdown resigned as leader in 1999 and was succeeded by Menzies Campbell. Since the alliance between such parties in 1983, such party gained between 16% to 25% of the national vote. Now, the Liberal Democrats hold 62 seats in Parliament.

For a third party to have any chance in The Bahamas, it ought to have at least three persons representing it in the House of Assembly. When one looks at the history of the Bahamian parliament, it can be said that the official opposition is sometimes no more than a third party, due to their lack of representation.

OPBAT

United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in a letter to the Attorney General Alberto Gonzales according to The Associated Press, has requested that the seven Blackhawk helicopters currently deployed in Operation Bahamas Turks & Caicos (OPBAT) be withdrawn by October 2007 since the US military's resources are being stretched thin, by ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He said "OPBAT now competes with resources necessary for the war on terrorism and other activities in support of our nation's defence, with potential adverse effects on the military preparedness of the United States."

I don't feel as though the continued use of these limited resources, which are being utilised to fight drug trafficking in this region, are going to cause a major strain on the world's most well equipped and sophisticated armed forces.

Rather, I feel that this is another veiled threat from our big brother to warn the present government that their persistence in adopting policies that the US does not favour, has consequences.

Remember that most of the drugs are destined for the US and that any withdrawal will only allow the flood gates to be widened.

Though the US maintains they do not interfere with the internal politics of a country, it is the worst kept secret that the CIA has orchestrated coups in many countries and sought to destabilise governments.

Malaria

I was shocked to read about a case of malaria being reported in Exuma the other day. In my opinion, our nation does not have the resources to fight the widespread onset of such disease.

The Ministry of Health noted 'Malaria is not endemic in The Bahamas, but sporadic cases are encountered from time to time, with such cases usually being imported into The Bahamas. With the hurricane season upon us, we can ill afford to have another form of disaster causing havoc in our nation.