Dear Editor,

Initially I did not intend to write a commentary on the weekend’s events over at Atlantis, but since persons have asked: I have said in past op-eds and it bears repeating – national events should always be apolitical, meaning no political party should at any time be the focal point or muse for such events.

Why BeBe Winans, an American gospel artist, felt the need to state from the stage that he was PLP was beyond stunning for among other things, this key reason – all musical artists, especially American artists know that when they perform in a foreign country, they are to never make statements of any kind from the stage about that country’s politics or its government.

BeBe Winans is already a singer, so if he also felt the need to sing for the “PLP”, I am on the one hand left to wonder what his precise affiliation with the governing party actually is, and on another hand, left to assume that the government was paying for him to both appear and perform in The Bahamas. If so, how much did we pay Mr. Winans, since it is my money and your money as a taxpayer that paid him if the government paid for his appearance, either in part or the whole.

Bebe Winans is a gospel singer. God is not PLP, so his statement clearly had nothing to do with praising God and was out of order in the context of the music business, not to mention ridiculous from the standpoint of entertaining those in attendance, since he cannot be silly enough to believe that an entire nation of people in a democracy only supports one of several political parties therein. And this is precisely one of the reasons behind artists being prohibited by their record labels from doing what Bebe Winans did.

As for statements made by Sir Sidney Poitier to or about Prime Minister Christie, I do not have the direct quote of his comments, and therefore do not want to comment on what I am not certain of.

But, if he did make comments of a political nature, those too, would have been completely inappropriate at what is supposed to be an event celebrating being Bahamian, not being a supporter of the governing party.

And for the armchair patriots who are rearing up to say “every political party does this” – no they do not and no they did not. When the national stadium, as one example, was officially opened, the former administration (thanks to the late Charles Maynard) was so focused on having authentic Bahamian artists as headliners that it brought in Johnny Kemp!!

I will never forget when I saw Johnny step on stage singing “Just Got Paid”. I said to myself, “well muddo, where they found Johnny Kemp from?!”

But he is Bahamian, so wherever he was, he ought to have been found, and he was.

To the government of the day: one does not have to be a supporter of yours to be Bahamian. One is no less Bahamian if he or she does not, never did or never will support your Party.

If you know that, please remember it. If not, please do learn it.

Sharon Turner