FRANK SMITH IS POLITICAL PRISONER NUMBER TWO. The prosecution dragged Frank Smith, the former MP and Senator and former head of the Public Hospitals Authority to court in handcuffs. It is part of the FNM’s political playbook aimed at destroying the PLP. The Crown was not ready on Thursday 20 July even though they held Frank Smith in custody overnight. When they went to court, there was no docket but they had paraded him before the courts in shackles. This is contrary to the law which says that you do not need to cuff someone who is not a security or flight risk. All that is out of the window. There will be a day of reckoning for the FNM for this politically motivated charade. It’s the photo of the week. The FNM partisans are saying that the FNM has six Ministers in their sights including the former Prime Minister. They obviously want a riot to break out in this town.
Picture of how they treated slaves and how Ken Dorsett, former Minister, is now being treated as he was taken to court last week.
Many people around the country are predicting that Hubert Minnis and his FNM Government will not stop with their political witch hunt until and unless there is a riot in this town. They want push to come to shove. It is part of that old Bahamian adage: if you don’t hear you will feel. They have six ministers of the former PLP Government they want to arrest including the former Prime Minister.
Hubert Minis has always been a political coward. His answer to everything when threatened is to call the police. In this regard, he has plenty of folk willing to do his bidding at the governmental stage. He now has three cops in his Cabinet, any one of them practiced in the art of extracting confessions given their experience on the Force.
So it would not be a surprise then that a special unit has been established in the Force to extract confessions. They call it an anti-corruption unit but they know best how to pull your balls and force you to confess. It appears that the Commissioner of Police has been totally by-passed and this unit is answerable to politicians. The person who heads the unit has been well known to police officers to be a buddy of the now Minister of National Security.
It is easy to figure out the psychology of what is at stake here. It is called slave shaming. That is what happened to slaves when they don’t behave. The House Negros are paid by the slave masters to whip the field slaves into shape. The FNM are the Bahamian House Negros. Ken Dorsett was the first of what is expected to be many examples of slave shaming in this FNM administration.
What we need to do of course is to go back to visit Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It is the story of a slave who was so grateful even when he was being beaten to within an inch of is life to be with “Massa.”
That is what the FNM is. All that stuff which Hubert Minnis ran on last year about fighting the UBP was a game. He is now in bed with them, with Brent Symonette, the man who spent his whole life in segregated schools in The Bahamas, at his side. He who pays the piper plays the tune.
They hate the PLP. They hate the PLP because the PLP are the descendants the slaves. Slaves ought to know their places. If they don’t know their places then they are to be put in their places. That is why the PLP is hated.
We have not reached the end if history yet however and the slaves will revolt. That is what these folks are begging for, and it appears that having been warned they will to stop until something unfortunate happens.
This is sad but they never learn.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 22 July 2017 up to midnight: 315,434; Number of hitsfor the month of July upto Saturday 22 July 2017 up to midnight: 1,028,791; Number of hits for the year 2017 up to Saturday 22 July 2017 up to midnight: 6,796,972.
Carl Bethel has turned out to be a wuss… a weak Attorney General. He started off so well but his performance fell flat. First he made a grand stand about how the was independent and how he must be a minister for justice. He then said that there was nothing he saw so far that amounted to a crime. That didn’t last as long as a paddy in the army. First he arrested Ken Dorsett and had him paraded like a monkey in shackles through the streets. A few days later, he did the same thing with former Senator Frank Smith.
So what this means is that the precedent has been set. This is how you deal with your political opponents.
There are two culprits however that must not escape scrutiny in this matter.
The first is the Minister of National Security Marvin Dames. He appears to be author of these persecutions of PLPs. He defended this on the basis that no one is going get any special treatment. Special treatment he means by that there will be no civility. This will be designed to embarrass the PLP and to destroy the organization and its image.
We see now why he was not chosen by Hubert Ingraham to be Commissioner of Police. He was not fit for the job.
As an adjunct to that, there are probing questions that must be asked of the present Commissioner of Police. How can you take off in the middle of all this combrucktion and go on vacation.
The Commissioner of Police has to answer the question. Are you in charge of this operation of is there a rogue minister behind it?
Finally, it is Hubert Minnis who deserves a special place in hell. He is now the head of a party that is only adept at vengeance and destruction. They have no policies. They only want to get back at every blow that laid him down while he was in Opposition. It is nasty and vile. He deserves condemnation for it. Shame on him.
Ambassador greets Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister
H.E. Rhoda M. Jackson, Ambassador to Belgium and the European Union, extended warm congratulations to H. E. Didier Reynders, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium on the occasion of Belgium’s National Day, in Brussels on Friday 21 July, 2017.
Photo: L-R
H. E. Didier Reynders, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Belgium, Ambassador Rhoda M. Jackson and Mr. Albert Jean Niels, Bahamas Honorary Consul in Belgium.
19 July 2017
Nassau, Bahamas
Deputy Prime Minister Peter Turnquest and Minister of Foreign Affairs Darren Henfield receiving the Queen’s Relay Baton at a reception hosted by High Commissioner John Pilbeam of Australia in honour of the Baton Relay. The Baton arrived in The Bahamas 18 July and will visit various locations in Nassau. The Baton will arrive in Australia 2018, when it hosts the Commonwealth Games.
Washington D C
L-R: His Excellency Dr. Eugene Newry, Bahamas Ambassador to the U.S., Mrs. Francoise Torchon Newry and Paulette Zonicle, Consul General cut the cake. They are celebrating the 44th anniversary of the Independence of The Bahamas in Washington D.C. on 9 th July
Washington D C
H.E. Dr. Eugene Newry, Bahamas Ambassador to the U.S., Chet Neymour, Deputy Chief of Mission, Paulette Zonicle, Consul General to Washington, D.C, Reverend William H. Lamar IV, Diplomatic Officers, local Bahamian staff and members of the Bahamian diaspora worship at Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. The group was marking the 44th anniversary of the independence of The Bahamas on 9 July.
Headquarters
Commonwealth Secretary-General Makes Official Visit to The Bahamas
The Rt. Hon. Patricia Scotland, Commonwealth Secretary-General is paying an Official Visit to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, July 15-20, 2017.
Officials greeted her on Saturday, July 15, at the VIP Lounge of Lynden Pindling International Airport.
Pictured from left are Joy Jibrilu, Director General, Ministry of Tourism; Wellington Miller, Chairman of the Bahamas Commonwealth Youth Games Organizing Committee; Secretary General; Eugene Newry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Sharon Brennen-Haylock, Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Darren Henfield the new Foreign Minister, is a lost soul. The following comment appeared on line in response to a press conference held by him on Thursday 20 July: “Bahamas Foreign Affairs Minister Henfield called his first press conference. Bahamians waited with bated breath for this big foreign policy announcement. Henfield announced that Bahamians should collect their passports at Anatol Rodgers and he will determine if the govt will continue with this location as the bus does not travel that far south. This announcement was carried by the international press. I am sorely afraid for the foreign policy legacies left behind by both Paul L. Adderley and Fred Mitchell. Henfield has only been on the job all of nine weeks and already he is making historic and ground-breaking announcements on our foreign policy. Should the passport pick up location be CV Bethel, Anatol Rodgers or AF Adderley? He’ll just make it the Town Centre Mall and make Brent happy.”
The announcement about the passports should clearly have been made by the Chief Passport Officer. The Minister is not a mechanic but a policy maker. Let us also say that trying to defend the bringing back of low level staff to The Bahamas as a cost savings measure is being penny wise and pound foolish. It was just a vindictive action taken against people who had been hired by the former Minister. It will cramp the ability of the missions to carry out their work. One man still sits in Miami because the Ministry can’t find the money to bring him home. So he sits in Miami with no place to live and no idea when they will be able to find the money to transport him back to Nassau. That’s the new Minister and his FNM government for you.
Senator Fred Mitchell with Senator Michael Darville at the scene of the Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport 20 July
Senator Fred Mitchell with Jackie Rolle and Vernie Roker at the scene of Rand Memorial Hospital fire 21 July
Patients had to be evacuated from the Rand Hospital when a fire started in the kitchen on Friday 21 July and got out of control. It was soon extinguished but not before the 66 patients had to be moved. No one was hurt. Four from intensive care went to the East Sunrise Medical Centre a smaller private hospital. The others went to the Christ The King Anglican Church Hall across the street from the Hospital. The place was filled with smoke and so a job has to be done to flush that out of the system. Questions abound as to how it got out of control. The photo of the fire looks like it started from the stove and should have been extinguished by an automatic system over the stove. If that failed, then there was a lever that is to be pulled right next to the stove. It appears that it was either not done or it failed. In either case, it appears there was negligence at work. Deputy Prime Minister Peter Turnquest staged a meeting with the staff and he was later joined by the Prime Minister Hubert Minnis and the Minister of Health Duane Sands. Opposition Senators Michael Darville and Fred Mitchell were also on the scene. It is s real blessing that Dr. Darville had the foresight when he was a Minister, much criticized at the time to give Christ the King Hall, a generator and air conditioning. That came in handy. But it shows how short-sighted the FNM can be.
The Director of the National Youth Choir Cleophas Adderley was buried following a church service at the Christ Church Cathedral on Saturday 22 July. It was a state recognised funeral. The officers of the state were present for the service. Peter Ramsay of the Bahamas Information Services was present for the ceremony.
I note that six people have been murdered in the past seven days with the victim of a seventh shooting clinging to life in hospital; he was shot multiple time with a high-powered rifle. As The Bahamas burns, the FNM government is totally consumed with political retribution.
I also note that hundreds of workers in the public service have been summarily dismissed; contract workers in the foreign service have been recalled with no money to bring them home and over five thousand students who graduated last month are in the labour market in search of jobs. As important as the dignity and security of work is to our people, political retribution is the top priority of the FNM government.
I note that electricity costs have increased and there remains no plan to reduce electricity cost. Further, thousands of households remain off the electrical grid and thousands are living in darkness. Lower electricity cost is a priority for Bahamians but political retribution is the priority for the FNM government.
I spoke to a number of persons over the weekend and the general message was “nothing has changed.” They are angry that the FNM government reneged on their promise to repeal VAT on a number of items such as food, electricity, education and health care; the FNM government instead gave millions of dollars unsolicited to rich merchants in the form of reduced business license fees.
Bahamians must stand up and march against political victimization, retribution and intimidation as it strikes at the foundation of our democracy which is the prevalence of the rule of law. It is the PLP politicians today but tomorrow it could be any Bahamian who a politician has a vendetta against. There appears to be no restraint against the use of state power by FNM politicians to carry out a vendetta against any person for whatever reason. The FNM as a political organization can say whatever they wish about the PLP or personalities within that organization but the instruments of the state cannot be used or seem to be used to carry out what appears to be political persecutorial activities for the purposes of gaining a political advantage.
WHAT KIND OF DICTATORSHIP AND DESPOTIC COUNTRY DO WE LIVE IN?
The revelations by former House member and former State Minister for Legal Affairs Damian Gomez confirmed what many suspected all along but the revelations are still shocking.
Gomez said the manner in which the FNM government are using the police force to pursue corruption cases before legislation is put in place to provide the legal frame work through an established independent anti-corruption agency has opened the system to abuse, bias and interference from the governing party. This is a serious indictment against the government and an assault on our personal freedoms and democracy generally.
According to Gomez, an unnamed source in the RBPF, who wished to remain anonymous, claimed that government officials have given specific directions for police to “go after” certain investigations.
“It’s not us, it’s them,” one senior police officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. “That shouldn’t be their number one focus. Don’t mind what they say, we can’t do anything without government because we know where our directives come from.”
The criteria of the United Nations’ convention on corruption is very clear. Specialized and more importantly independent anti-corruption agencies are to be established to conduct such corruption probes. Further, the enabling legislation governing the work of such bodies mandates its independence to avoid political interference, pollution, intimidation, persecution and influence.
According to Gomez, “the Anti-Corruption Unit in the police force has no statutory basis at all here. It’s adjunct of the police department and to the extent that it appears the minister of national security is directly involved in the direction of what is going on, that impairs the independence of the police department.”
The irony and rank hypocrisy of this evil and illegal exercise is that the opposition FNM railed against the NIA because of the absence of enabling legislation. National Security Minister Dames unwittingly told the Tribune that going after these PLP politicians was such a priority of the Minnis administration that the FNM cabinet could not possibly wait for legislation. But why this big rush to judgment? What is the urgency?
All indications to date are that the police are receiving all of their instructions from the political directorate. Also, COP Greenslade said that the police received no official complaint on these matters being prosecuted. Whenever the police speak anonymously, they confirm that politicians are instructing them. Wow. What has the Bahamas come to in less than 100 days.
Former Prime Minister Perry Christie and his wife Bernadette are shown leaving the funeral service of well-known Doctor Baldwin Carey who died suddenly at home within days of being dismissed from his employ at the National Insurance Board. He was even told that he could not come back on to the NIB premises to collect his belongings, we are advised. Shame on the FNM for a man who gave such great service to our country. You cannot even be decent in victory. The service took place at the Christ Church Cathedral 21 July.
Glenys Hanna Martin MP, one of four PLPs left standing after the General Election, stands with former PM Perry Christie and her branch members as they gathered at Gambier House, the Party’s Headquarters for a celebration of that victory. She was also joined by MPs Picewell Forbes and former MPs Hope Strachan and Melanie Griffin.
The Chairman of the FNM Sidney Collie is a lost soul. Since the election, he has been cooling his heels in town waiting we hear on an appointment to be Ambassador to Washington (God help us!). Meanwhile, he is making the occasional statement as Chair of the FNM. The latest is that he according to the Nassau Guardian does not think that anybody listens to Bradley Roberts, the Chairman of the PLP. Mr. Collie was angry because Mr. Roberts issued a statement calling for Hubert Minnis, the Prime Minister, to account for his public policy on Bahamar. Mr. Minnis and his posse aka the Cabinet went to Bahamar with a high profile visit but could not answer questions about what the position of the government is on Bahamar. Mr. Roberts said that Mr. Minnis should not duck the questions. Mr. Collie got upset. Here is the irony: if as Mr. Collie says no one is listening to Bradley Roberts, why is Mr Collie answering. Seems a bit assified to us.
We have had cause to complain several times about the journalistic ethics of the Nassau Guardian. We do so again. This time we complain about a headline which we publish below which states that Fred Mitchell has started a campaign for leadership in the PLP. The statement it appears is based on the comments of a letter writer to the Nassau Guardian. The headline is misleading and designed to cause mischief. Mr. Mitchell nor any spokesman for him has made any announcement about running for leader of the PLP. In fact, Mr. Mitchell has said the opposite that having lost his seat, he will not run for leader of the PLP. Yet the Nassau Guardian carries a headline which gives the impression that an official campaign was launched. This is a dishonest headline. It should at least indicate that it is attributed to the letter writer. But hey Candia Dames is the Managing Editor so what can you expect.
So the FNM Prime Minister Hubert Minnis travelled up to Grand Bahama on private plane to look after the Rand fire in Freeport on Friday 22 July. Why didn’t he wait until the public transportation was available?
Young PLPs totally pissed by the actions of the FNM Government in targeting PLP Ministers for prosecution and persecution have started the organization We March Too. This is to take the mickey out of Senator Ranard Hanfield who claimed in a fit of pique that the PLP had stolen his idea. He called them cowards. With due respect to the Senator, he is not being frank with us. People remember him as someone who fooled the Bahamian public that he was independent when he was really FNM. One of his main spokesmen was a convicted bullet carrier. Yet he was talking about crime. So go sit down Senator and be quiet it’s the PLP people’s time now.
Fred Smith and his Committee called Bahamians Against Mitchell was at it again last week in the press with further defamatory ads about Senator Fred Mitchell. Commenting, Mr. Mitchell said that Mr. Smith continues to not take his pills.
Fred Mitchell speaking to is branch following branch elections in Fox Hill on Wednesday 19 July, accused the FNM of slave shaming the PLP by parading former Minister Ken Dorsett in handcuffs and shackles in public with no element of risk of flight on his part. This is against the law. The Nassau Guardian though said that the PLP is now known as the party of thieves. Fred Mitchell speaking at the same meetings aid if he PLP is the party of thieves, the FNM is the party of liars and deceivers. Have a listen.
The silly cow who runs The Tribune Eileen Carron was at it again last week attacking Fred Mitchell (her favourite subject) and his connection to Baroness Patricia Scotland who was in Nassau last week for the opening of the Commonwealth Youth Games. Mrs. Carron is a twit with nothing better to do with her time, a crabby old cow with many grudges to nurse. Poor her. Meanwhile, Patricia Scotland and Fred Mitchell carried on with their business at hand. Senator Fred Mitchell with Leader of the Opposition Philip Davis at the British Colonial Hilton for a meeting with Commonwealth Secretary General Baroness Patricia Scotland 20 July. Also present were Allyson Maynard Gibson Q C, Glenys Hanna Martin MP and Senator Jobeth Davis.
Dion Smith who was treated like a criminal when the police mistakenly kept him in jail overnight looking for two speakers, a computer hard drive and a TV set. Turns out all the stuff belonged to him. The police descended shortly after the general election with guns drawn (semi- automatics) if you please, and ski masks and fatigues to arrest nine of the employees at the Bahamas Agricultural Industrial Corporation where Mr. Smith was then the Chairman. Then they unceremoniously announced that it was all a mistake. Mr. Smith speaking to the Nassau Guardian on Thursday 21 July told The Guardian of his fears about what the country was becoming. The Guardian chastised him in an editorial saying that he was engaging in hyperbole. Of course tell that to his daughter whose sleepover with her friends got cancelled because parents were afraid that the police might come to invade the premises while their children were there. We are not surprised of course, Candia Dames, the Manging Editor of The Guardian is the sister of the Minister of National Security Marvin Dames. So whatever Marvin does is well done.
PLPs were urged to think about the Minnis Term of the FNM as follows. There are five years in a normal term of office. That sixty months. So far two have passed since the general election. That means two months are gone and fifty-eight to go for Minnis. Two down fifty-eight to go.
