MITCHELL ANSWERS FNM’S HENFIELD’S ATTACK ON MOFA STAFF

Speaking at the induction ceremony of the cohort class of 2026 of the Bahamas Alrae Ramsey Institute of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday 29 April 2026, Fred Mitchell Foreign Minister took issue with the remarks of Darron Henfield, the former Foreign Minister, who attacked the policies of the PLP in Foreign Affairs and the staff in particular in a press statement in The Tribune:

I believe it was in a press statement that I tried to keep very generic about the philosophy I have about the recruitment and staffing and why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is being constructed in such a way. The most shocking thing this morning: I saw my predecessor in the newspaper trying to make mischief about what was said, and I intend to answer it tonight. 

The philosophy of hiring in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under me is that this ministry ought to represent all classes, creeds  and colours in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. 

I don’t mistake degrees for intelligence. So you go to school and that’s fine, you have to learn and you get degrees, but some people who don’t have degrees also bring experience to the fore, and they ought to have the opportunity, the same opportunity to serve around the country and on behalf of the country and overseas. 

So that’s point number one.

The institute was therefore put in place to supplement the native intelligence that you bring to the job, and that’s why you went through all of the paces that you have. And during the course of your careers, you will be rotated from section to section so that you get an opportunity to work in different areas.

The next point I would make is that in this term what is coming are Foreign Service orders. 

PS Cates who’s sitting there in the audience said that when he came back from service overseas 1995 some 30 more years ago, people were talking about these orders. 

And today, we’ve now amended the act, we have a new act. We have a new department of Foreign Service. And the orders will be in place within a day or two. 

And these orders will revolutionize the rules as they apply to Foreign Service orders. And the point my predecessor was taking issue with is the question of my remarks on tenure.

The late Alrae Ramsey in my view would have been alive and well had he been treated properly after we lost office in 2017, and I say that without fear of contradiction. 

And I told Alrae when he spoke to me on the telephone: “So do you know what happens in our system is as soon as there’s regime change, people run to the minister and say this one is PLP and this one is FNM.” 

Then the ministers of the FNM, proceed to eliminate everybody who they think are not FNM but you know that’s foolishness. Because no one should be discriminated against on the basis of their political affiliations or contact with the minister. 

Why do you want to pick on these little people, who are at entry level jobs making $2000 a month? Why you want to pick on them? 

What’s the point? It doesn’t make any sense and then when I see the remarks by the former minister to dismiss my hiring policies by saying that we were just hiring people who went down to the airport to pick up people. Well I’m glad he said that because he fell down at the airport of London. He injured his foot and couldn’t carry on his trip to Australia and one of those same young men he’s attacking, had to go get his behind from the airport to make sure he got to the hospital. I mean, it’s just outrageous. 

Why would you do that? Why would you say that? Why would you minimise people’s contributions in that way? 

Protocol is an important function. Airport courtesies is an important function, in Foreign Affairs, particularly. And then he says, we are spending $200,000 on someone. I don’t know the someone is nameless, and goes further to say: why would we the president administration expect them the FNM to keep on the person who he’s trying to identify? 

Well I thought a contract is a contract. So, already you are saying that if you get the opportunity you’ve got people targeted to do the same thing you did before. I’m trying in these new rules to make sure that that does not happen. 

And I’d say this against the backdrop of this: I just called the defence force to check the records. This is a man who had 3 years going into law school in The Bahamas; he had 2 years at the Eugene Dupuch Law School all on full government salary, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force full salary. So what’s his complaint if someone else gets a similar opportunity? Presumably we believed that he would make a future contribution to the country. 

And so Darron Henfield’s education was supported by the country. But yet what he is doing is begrudging that of other people… 

So in the four and a half years after  I lost office in 2017, the project of reforming the Ministry of Foreign Affairs went nowhere under Darron Henfield.  

They gave Alrae Ramsey nothing to do. The young man called me up. And I said, well, that’s the way it goes. 

You have one of two choices in these circumstances. Either go to the minister and say, well, you know, I’m not a PLP I’m really an FNM. 

Or you just wait.  Because the regime will change and things will swing around again and in the meantime, go and get your education to further your studies. As it happened, he chose to go that path and we know what happened in the result. And those are the decisions which often happen when people are cavalier about the future of other people’s careers. 

So I’ve worked hard just to try and eliminate the idea of prejudice. There’s no gender-based prejudice in any decisions made by me. I find it most unfortunate to introduce that into the criticism made of the decision, the public policy decisions. Senator Henfield wants to say, something else, but doesn’t have the courage to say it.