Hon Fahie should be made Leader of Opposition- Doug Wheatley
Wheatley, who is the father of President of the VIP Dr Natalio D. Wheatley aka Sowande Uhuru, was addressing the much talked about issue on his 90-minute programme on Friday January 20, 2017.
“Last night a number of persons engaged me on this topic so I thought that this evening I should say something about it,” he said. “That is the question seems to be facing everyone in the community, whether or not Honourable Julian Fraser RA should be asked to step down from being Leader of the Opposition and in his stead, Honourable Fahie assumes that position. There are some persons who are in favour of that and the there are other persons who said that nothing should be done until the next election.”
Impasse
According to him, the constitution does not deal specifically with a situation where you have two members of the Opposition. Had there been three, or four or five or six members of the Opposition then they could have voted and then decided on the person that they wanted to be the leader.
“But when you have two persons and both of them would vote for himself or herself then you have an impasse or a stalemate and you can’t go anywhere with that.”
The talk show host pointed out that when there is a change of circumstances then you have to take a new look at whatever the situation is because there is a change of circumstances.
He informed that the present situation is an anomaly in the House of Assembly at the moment with respect to the Opposition because there is a Leader of the Opposition who was the leader when he was the Chairman of the party. "And then you have a Junior Member, who is Hon Fahie, who has now been elevated to the position of Chairman of the VIP and Hon Fraser has been demoted from that position."
“So you have an anomaly where the person who has been demoted from the position of Chairman is still senior in the house to the person who is now the new Chairman of the party. And that is an anomaly and you have to do something about this anomaly because we cannot have that anomaly in the house.”
Make Hon Fahie Opposition leader
“You should have a situation where Honourable Andrew Fahie as Chairman of the party should assume the position of Leader of Opposition and Honourable Fraser would be a member of the Opposition in other to overcome the anomaly whereby the leader of the opposition would be senior to the other the leader of the party,” she stated.
Wheatley continued, “So that is my take on it, there has been a change of circumstances and because there has been a change of circumstances the matter has to be addressed and I think the way to address it would be to appoint Honourable Andrew Fahie as the Leader of the Opposition.”
No hard feelings, work together
“And we don’t have to have any hard feelings and bad feelings about it… There shouldn’t be any ill will, any hard feelings; it is not a personal thing at all and it should not be regarded as a personal thing,” the outspoken host said.
The talk show host argued that Honourable Fraser was Chairman of the party and he had an opportunity to take the party into the election, “they lost the election, and he continued his leadership role as being the Leader of the Opposition, but since the congress has made a change I think Honourable Fahie should assume that position and everyone should thank Honourable Fraser for the service that he rendered during the time that he was there and both he and the new Leader of the Opposition should work together for the benefit of the party, for the benefit of the people of the Virgin Islands.”
Callers share mixed views
Several persons called into the programme expressing their opinions, with many arguing both for and against Mr Wheatley’s stance.
Some felt that Honourable Fahie should concentrate on being the Premier and not fight for the post of Opposition Leader, another felt that he should redirect his energy on the Public Accounts Committee, while another felt that the Opposition shouldn’t be wasting time on who is the Leader of Opposition and focus on the bigger picture by getting themselves ready for the next general election of the Virgin Islands.
Background to the power struggle
On January 17, 2017, Virgin Islands News Online first and accurately reported that Virgin Islands Party Chairman Hon Andrew A. Fahie (R1) had a renewed interest in becoming Leader of the Opposition, even after Governor John S. Duncan OBE had chosen Hon Fraser for the post following the 2015 General Elections.
Following our story, the Virgin Islands Party, through its President Dr Natalio D. Wheatley aka Sowande Uhuru, responded with a letter to the media, in which he stated that the Virgin Islands Party at its Executive Members elections in November 2016 had voted for a new Opposition Leader when they elected Hon Fahie as the new Chairman. Dr Wheatley, in his statement, said the Constitution of the VIP makes it clear that the Chairman of the party shall be the Titular Head of the Party and will lead the Party within the House of Assembly.
Hon Fraser, in his statement to the press on January 18, 2017, said he decided to end his silence on the matter after seeing a press release by the VIP that was riddled with falsehoods and fraught with presumptions.
Additionally, in coordination with the President of the VIP, a letter was written and signed by Dr Wheatley to Governor Duncan dated December 9, 2016, giving him the new executive officers of the VIP and advising the Governor to use the information to “assist in the administration of relevant onuses, inclusive of appointments.”
But according to Hon Fraser, petitioning a Governor to remove and replace a sitting Leader of the Opposition by a political party has no basis in the Virgin Islands Constitution Order 2007.
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34 Responses to “Hon Fahie should be made Leader of Opposition- Doug Wheatley”
One thing I can tell you though, the third party has legs now
So in other words fahie and his gang must kill the vip in silence!! no no never will we who love country allow that! we want the voters to learn about them c***ks ..
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Fa... and his rebels love power and confusion this is so sad sad sad
I believe this statement by the new President sheds a lot of light on the tenuous and unsustainable situation that exists between the VIP Executive and the former chairman, but still member Fraser. Fraser has not refuted this part of the statement so it is reasonable to assume that it is true.
You see Party members must be in regular contact with the executive to allow for the relay of ideas and a push of the Party's agenda in the House. It must be a team effort and you simply cannot have one man running one way and the team the next or conflict, confusion and disunity would be the result. If Fraser does not wish to continue as a party member then he should do the honorable thing and resign and I believe the Executive Committee may have exhausted all efforts in communicating to the member so resorted to asking for his removal as opposition leader. What I would have done is contact by written communication Mr. Fraser on a regular basis to schedule meetings with the new Chairman and if that failed then ask that he tender his resignation as party member. The leader of the opposition is a moot one really as what really comes with that position except possibly extra change and some benefits like special appearances and title. That could wait as what is most important going forward is finding a unified team for the next election and it appears that Hon. Fraser wants no part of it so it is time to move on for both parties.
The current position does not help to foster the necessary harmony for the team to unify going forward.
We are at the crossroads, where we go from here is crucial. We can't have policy based on special interest in the Virgin Islands.
The US system is just using a different name for the positions and the roles assigned to those positions. The roles of Chairwoman Donna Brazile and Chairman Reince Preibus are akin to President Dr. Wheatley 's role in the VIP which is to among other things organize the party, plan strategy, organize fundraisers and work with the campaigns of the Presidential nominee. The nominees Clinton/Trump are similar to Chairman Andrew Fahie as they were elected via the party process to represent their respective parties as leader in the general election. What the VIP just had on November 30th was akin to a US primary. The Chairman is the Leader as he is the face of the party and elected to represent the party at the next election.
"Should the VIP win the next election the party leader should be premier. The party leader is Mr Fraser".
How is Fraser the leader of the party? He maybe leader of the opposition but as of the 30th November 2016 election he was removed as Leader/Chairman of the party. Again the Chairman is the face of the party and the one to lead the party into the next election. Btw why are we using US analogy and political terminology when we are under the UK/Commonwealth political system?