23rd October, 2008
This morning's story in the press 'MP IN LOOMING SCANDAL IN TALKS WITH CHRISTIE' continues the shocking pattern of unsubstantiated reports by newspapers of record with regard to the PLP.
 
One week ago, I raised the alarm at a series of stories based on the word of anonymous individuals and unsubstantiated leaks that appeared to emanate out of the police force and which were designed to smear Members of Parliament of the PLP.
 
This morning's story has no by-line, no named sources and nothing to substantiate the facts alleged.  This is beneath the standards of acceptable journalism.  Newspapers of record cannot continue to demean themselves and defame their own reputations by relying on half truths, innuendos, lies and in the absence of anything at all putting two and two together and making it five, to suit their own purposes.
 
As a PLP Member of Parliament, I am deeply disturbed and offended by this continued biased and tendentious campaign.  My views in opposition to this campaign were never fully aired by the perpetrators of the stories appearing in the press.  Someone in officialdom is seeking to poison the well of public opinion, preliminary to using the courts and the police for some malicious, political objective.
 
The FNM and its government must be careful in all of this lest they be accused of using the Police as a political tool of destruction against the Progressive Liberal Party in an attempt to keep their hold on power in the country.  Such acts, if committed, are dangerous and illegal and must be condemned across the political spectrum by all right thinking Bahamians.
 
The PLP and the Bahamian public are entitled to know whether or not this investigation is a conspiracy, hatched as an illegal and partisan tactic by the political directorate or by agents of the FNM within the Police Force.
 I repeat the view that I gave at my news conference on Wednesday that a distinction must be made between the individual's behaviour and conduct, for which each individual is entirely responsible; and the process of a fair and impartial investigation.  However, a citizen who co-operates in a fair and impartial Police investigation does not expect, nor should he or she expect, any details of that investigation to appear in the press; especially prior to any formal conclusion.
 
If there is an investigation by the Police, that investigation is supposed to be an impartial investigation.  It is not supposed to be a partisan investigation.  Anyone, having seen what has transpired in public in this investigation has to wonder about a political motive, which sullies any appearance of impartiality.  If this is the way police investigations are conducted in The Bahamas, it is a wonder that anyone is able to feel secure in fulfilling their duty as a citizen to co-operate with the police.
 
The leaks from the Police or from inside the government, together with the story and the previous pattern of conduct by certain journalists and editors, leads inescapably to the conclusion of a political campaign by those persons which is rooted in malice and deceit.  It should be denounced and it should stop forthwith.