Compiled, edited and constructed by Russell Dames Updated every Sunday at 2 p.m.
Volume 5 © BahamasUncensored.Com 2007
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
IMAGE IS EVERYTHING
There were seven or so seats that the Free National Movement won,
no let’s put it this way; that the PLP lost by less than 60 votes.
These are the seats that the PLP’s legal team is now examining in a forensic
way to determine whether or not the matter should proceed to an Election
Court. Hard put to win in an anti PLP judiciary what you could not
win on the ground but a right is a right one guesses. What would
be more useful and admittedly a more long term exercise is to see who it
is that voted against the PLP and hazard some guesses as to why that might
be and win them back on the ground.
For example, in Pinewood, South Beach, Carmichael, Blue Hills and Golden Isles, why would communities that clearly benefited from the economic progress and stewardship of the PLP vote against the PLP? Some argue that it was disaffection, that in the short five years in office, the PLP simply lost touch with their base, assuming that the base would know of its good works. So like it happens when a product is off the market for a time, the customer gets used to some other product and when the old product returns his tastes have changed and it is simply difficult to get him to revert.
Why did the PLP lose the street in these areas? The marauding bands of young men, filled with liquor and drugs, riding on the back of trucks and shouting obscenities were on the FNM’s side. Why would that be, when the bedrock of the working class is supposed to be PLP territory? Was it simply money or was it something about the image of the PLP that caused them not to identify with the PLP? Some were of Haitian descent, this is likely where you have poor people, the immigrants are usually in the bottom rung, and they perceived that the PLP was locking up Haitians and refusing to give them their rights to citizenship in this country, and so they turned against the PLP? Imagine the irony of the sons and daughters of Haitians who brought freedom to the Indies voting to put the descendants of the slave masters back in power. And yet some argue that this what happened.
Those voices who jumped all over former Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell for arguing a kinder gentler strategy, for arguing integration, and for arguing for closer ties with Haiti, and those in the PLP who argued that the Haitians had to go and it was a great strategy to round up Haitians and send them home, now come to see that the damage is done. They did not muster their xenophobia into votes; the country has changed anyway and the government is now gone into history anyway. Both Rene Preval and Jean Bertrand Aristide, President and former President, wanted to visit The Bahamas officially but it appears that we were too frightened by the anti immigration crowd to do anything about it. Now we are where we are.
What about the record in housing and the expansion of credit that allowed private housing to flourish as never before? Again there seems to have been a disconnect with the electorate on that. They saw that it seems as by their own power and not by any climate which the PLP would have facilitated. Struck out again.
What about the fact that the United Bahamian Party and its descendants were being ushered back into power? One just has to look at where the invited guests were seated in the public square for the state opening of Parliament on Wednesday 23rd May. Just behind the spouses of MPs, were all the descendants of the UBP sitting there with their medals, their hats and in their glory. They were back in power. Curiously, those same bad boys who we talked about in the earlier paragraph were sitting at the back, confined to shouting abuse at PLPs as they passed by. But at the back they sat.
Here’s a curious and tortuous argument. The black middle class, and it is difficult to generalize, but let’s prescribe even further, the upper middle class of rich blacks; the upwardly mobile blacks that you find in Fox Hill, Yamacraw, and Pinewood, Sea Breeze and South Beach, do not want to identify with what they regard as race politics. Why do we want to bring this up? According to their creed, race was an issue that was conquered years ago. They judge their success by their ability to get along with white Bahamians who they perceive as the upper end of the economic and social ladder. The fact that there is still not social integration in The Bahamas does not disturb them. What they know is that they can work with whites on their jobs; that they can occasionally eat with them at lunch, and sometime sit at their table. The PLP bringing up this race business all the time embarrasses them because it reminds them of where they came from, and one thing they do not want is to remember in any way is the poverty, the sheer devastation of being born poor and black in Bahamian society. Let’s not have all this talk about where we have come from. That is not them now, and they don’t want it ever to be them. So the PLP loses the argument with them. Then there are core supporters and others who voted for us to give them a licence, a permit, a taxi plate, a job. Too many report that there was not one in the five years. This left them bitter and demoralized.
None of these things by themselves add up to very much. The problem is that in a situation where 420 voters going the other way and the PLP would have been in office, you have to count up the individual slights and then you see just why the PLP in part lost. Edison Key walking out in the first years of the government and the PLP saying let him go. Mohammad Harajchi saying that the PLP promised him a bank licence and when he didn’t get it, he and his support left in huff and attacked the PLP and its leaders in a vicious way and the PLP said let them go. There was never nay effective response to it. Then there were the voters disaffected in the problems of the MPs and the perceived inability of the Ministers to get along with the MPs on the back bench. The Government seemed to be drifting, and no resolutions seemed to be coming to any issues. It allowed the hasty decisions of the bad man named Ingraham to be successfully portrayed as decisiveness. The glow of his nastiness faded away and the disaffected FNM went back longing for the certainty of imperious behaviour.
Never mind then that things were going well in the economy. Never mind the economy. Never mind the obvious improvements to infrastructure. Even Sol Kerzner who got everything he wanted from the PLP was saying after the election that he did not think that the PLP did enough to fix the airport. The evidence shows otherwise but you know never let the truth interfere with a good story.
So that’s the fix the PLP finds itself in. We sum it all up as an image problem. No doubt about it, image also has to do with fundamentals as well. All issues about the PLP must now be on the table, and it should be done now rather than later. For our money though, there is still too much wringing of hands and who did what and didn’t do what. The fact is it is done. The leadership; and this means collectively, not the individually ambitious, now requires deft and forward movement because we have so little time to get this government back from the hands of the evil one.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 2nd June 2007 up to midnight: 194,670.
Number of hits for the month of May up to Thursday 31st May 2007 up to midnight: 1,361,262.
Number of hits for the year 2007 up to Saturday 2nd June 2007 up to midnight: 3,360,795 (Does not reflect hits prior to 14th February, 2007).
WHO
BURNED THE PLP HEADQUARTERS?
The FNM must be the first organization that the
police should go to and question them and their leader Hubert Ingraham
in particular to find out if they know or if he knows who if anyone set
fire to the PLP’s headquarters Gambier House, the Sir Lynden Pindling Centre
on Farrington Road.
Former Prime Minister and PLP Leader Perry Christie
was called to the scene shortly after ten p.m. to find the fire trucks
extinguishing the fire on Saturday 3rd June. The damage to the building
is extensive but the structure still stands and the property inside seems
to have been saved. Hubert Ingraham’s man was seen on the cell phone
on the steps next door talking continuously as the fire blazed. We
have no doubt that Hubert Ingraham got a blow by blow description of what
happened.
The police were out in full force and Leader of
the PLP Perry Christie made a statement to the press “…it will be difficult”,
said the Leader, “for us to cause our supporters not to believe that this
was an attack on the PLP.” Please click
here for Mr. Christie's full remarks. Supporters gathered at
Gambier House Saturday night in their scores. Most supporters believe
that the FNM set the fire and that this is part of a continued programme
of trying to intimidate the PLP. We withhold judgement but we are
not very far behind them in our thinking.
Photo: myplp.com/Andy Burrows
HUBERT’S
BUDGET IS THE PLP’S GOOD WORK
Well so now Mr. Ingraham is saying that there is
going to be a budget surplus. Yes he did in the House when he announced
his budget on Wednesday 30th May. Now he says that there is going
to be good fiscal management of the economy. How in the hell does he think
that all happened that he is able to come to the table with such a rosy
picture if not for the patient work of the Progressive Liberal Party under
Perry Christie. He ought to be thankful that he was left such a healthy
picture. His budget address broke no new ground. It could not
have been otherwise because all the budget was set by the time he got elected.
All Mr. Ingraham has to do is to stand by and watch
the economy develop according to the PLP’s plan for development.
All he can do now is muck it up. He is trying to make a good stab
at it too by cancelling and firing and spreading fear in the country.
One clear allocation that indicates how the FNM is simply borrowing the
PLP’s plan is the allocation for the purchase of Defence Force ships.
This was a plan left in place by the PLP and so for Mr. Ingraham to go
around touting that as if he and the FNM suddenly decided that they would
help the Defence Force is ridiculous.
Perry Christie, the Leader of the Opposition and
former Prime Minister and whose budget this ought to have been, issued
a statement claiming credit for the whole thing and debunking all that
the trickster Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham had to say. You may
click
here for his full statement.
Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie MP gives his initial reaction
to the national budget of 2007. BIS Photo: Patrick Hanna
The Bahamas Baptist Missionary and Education Convention
is headed by Rev. Dr. William Thompson, who up until last month was the
President of the Bahamas Christian Council. The convention opened
on Tuesday 29th May and he charged that during the general election campaign,
the nation seemed to be up for sale. He charged that the question
of who could circulate the most money in the campaign gave rise to this
impression. Many people responded that it was a little too late.
Some said better late than never.
The church was silent as Hubert Ingraham and his
cohorts drove a nail in political civility in the country during the campaign;
the FNM spun lies, deceit, untruth, and slime to new and unprecedented
levels. Mr. Ingraham condoned the speech on a public platform by
now Senator Frederick McAlpine that was unexcelled in its nastiness.
It is really shameful that this man McAlpine must be called honourable
today. An absolute shame! The church said nothing.
Rev. Thompson went on to call for reform in campaign
financing. The FNM has no interest in reform in this area since most
of the money comes to them. The PLP has no power to change it and
is busy trying to get money of its own. What we know is that in the
past money has always been in the hands of the United Bahamian Party and
its heir the FNM. That has not stopped people from voting PLP in
the past. The PLP has its work cut out for it now. They have
never run into a man as vicious as Hubert Ingraham. He is out to
destroy the PLP and its legacy. The PLP must realize that and get
back to basics.
THE
FNM JUST DON’T GET IT
The same way the UBP keep saying it aint so, we
keep saying that it is so. The FNM started playing the race card,
and then when it was turned on them, they said the PLP played the race
card. Guess what, people bought that idea, the blacks. Interesting!
But what we think is happening here and the PLP had better be wary and
aware of it is that the criticism about the race card is being used as
a smokescreen and red herring and a form of intimidation by the FNM and
its progenitors from the old UBP. They want to frighten the PLP into
not talking about what is glaringly obvious.
The problem is, what is wrong with the black middle
class? They seem to have forgotten from whence they came and that
there are still many others who need a hand up. The feeling seems
to be that the mark of success in The Bahamas is the ability of black people
to be able to get along with white Bahamians and accepted into their society,
not the other way around. Since the PLP still talks about black pride
and Bahamian nationalism, that reminds too many of the black middle class
of those outside toilets and those tough times. So no dice for the
PLP.
We say that just as Eileen Carron can continue every
week to repeat her racist claptrap with the ‘white is right’ philosophy;
this column will continue to send out the message that, with the election
of the FNM in 2007, the country has been put back 40 years. It is
disgraceful. It is embarrassing. It is shameful. It’s
not the PLP who don’t get it. The FNM don’t seem to get it.
THE
PLP MUST GET READY
There are two schools of thought now emerging in
the PLP. One says that the PLP must be more activist and refuse to
co-operate with anything Hubert Ingraham and the FNM propose, and to fight
and embarrass them at each and every step of the way. Then there
is the other side who say that the country is in need of some normality
and calm, and the PLP is making itself look shrill and ridiculous by engaging
in a confrontational strategy.
Whatever side there is, there is a certain frenzy
connected with the opinions for there is a feeling that something must
be done and done soon to recover from a disastrous loss at the polls one
month ago. The issues are not easily resolved on the way forward.
Clearly with a sharp and intelligent and aggressive bunch like those who
survived in the House for the PLP, there will immediately be jockeying
for the leadership. At least one former Minister has put his hat
in the ring, even before the question was begged. But what is also
clear is that whatever happens, the plan has to include the present leader
whose responsibility will be to hold the thing together to make sure that
there is something for all the would be adherents to take over.
We are on the activist side, and believe that there
ought to be a sustained programme of measured non co-operation; a high
public profile. But the main focus ought to really be on the preparation
below the surface not what is being done on the surface, in the belly,
not at the head. There is where the PLP's greatest weakness is.
Its inability to successfully shape public opinion, and to get rid of the
feeling that it always has to compromise its core principles in order to
get ahead.
THE
CHALK’S VERDICT IS IN
The New York Times reports in its Thursday 31st
May edition that the National Transportation Safety Board, the investigative
crash arm of the United States government, has ranked regulatory failure
as an equal cause of the crash of the 58 year old Chalk Airlines
seaplane in the Miami Harbour on 19th December 2005 with 20 people abroad,
all of whom died, and most of them Bahamians from Bimini. In other
words, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the U.S. that is responsible
for looking after the safety of the flying public did not do its job.
The airline in a hearing on Wednesday 30th May in
Washington claimed that it followed all of the rules that were then in
place for the plane. But the Transportation Safety Board said that
the FAA had sufficient issues just in the poor paperwork of Chalk’s Airlines
to identify a problem and the Agency didn’t do anything about it.
The wing of the plane broke off shortly after takeoff because of an improper
weld, a welding job that had been done several times, and for which no
record could be found on paper.
This is quite a serious matter for The Bahamas since
Bahamians have the impression that with the FAA looking after an airline
the airline is safe. It also causes us to wonder whether our own
domestic fleet is safe what with the recent crash of the Bahamasair plane
and other crashes of small aircraft. Is the Civil Aviation Authority
in The Bahamas up to the job?
THE
BAHAMAS SOCIETY OF ENGINEERS STATEMENT
We found it very curious that The Bahamas Society
of Engineers sought fit to issue a statement in which it welcomed the new
Ministers who run the Public Works Ministry and are now responsible for
relations with the engineers and with the Town Planning Committee.
The engineers are a group that the Progressive Liberal
Party went to bat for. It ensured that the legislation was put into
place and brought into force to make sure that engineers could be registered
as Bahamian engineers and get qualified to work in their own country.
Not only that, but from the start of the term of the PLP, meetings were
held with engineers to ensure that they had contact and first hand input
into what happened at the then largest employment project in The Bahamas,
the Atlantis Phase III.
So while one supposes there is no harm in saying
welcome to the new Ministers, one must ask what happened though to thanks
to the Progressive Liberal Party for all that was done to ensure that Bahamian
engineers could make living in their country? The whole statement
of the engineers seemed to suggest that the PLP did nothing to help during
their term in office. We find the statement to be very strange indeed
and it is very suspect for political pandering. The story was reported
in the Bahama Journal of Wednesday 30th May.
THE
US EMBASSY NASSAU
When John Rood was Ambassador to The Bahamas for
the United States he took an active interest in the well being of persons
who were applying for visas in The Bahamas. It is nothing short of
a scandal that the United States embassy has a situation in this and other
countries where lines snake around the block for people wanting to get
visas to enter the U.S. as visitors. The persons applying are demeaned
by the entire process in a situation where freedom to travel is said to
be an article of faith of American democracy. Much was done by Mr.
Rood to improve the way the service is delivered. Since he has left,
there has been silence from the embassy on so many things, perhaps waiting
for a new Ambassador but the report that appeared on the BBC’s web site
on Friday 1st June about the treatment of BBC reporter Matt Frei and his
family at the embassy’s facility in Nassau is interesting. He wrote
about it and here is what he said:
“Truncheon and Tempers
The visa process is bureaucratic and cumbersome
involving at least two interviews and a separate appointment the following
day to collect the visas. Allowing for flights from the U.S. the
whole process lasts at least three days. Shame!
The tedious part is the three hours waiting time
in the embassy. This demands a suspension of all cell phone activity,
monastic silence, and a Byzantine queuing system enforced by large Bahamian
women with truncheons and tempers.
The atmosphere is a combination of fear, reverence
and anticipation. Prayer vigil meets lottery.
My children were so terrified, they have never
behaved better. George did his maths homework in silence. Amelia
read her book. Lottie drew flowers. Alice was a time bomb,
growing increasingly fractious. But then, she is American.
The experience was annoying and stressful.
But all the same, it was a good deal safer than the option taken by many
illegal immigrants of walking across the border in New Mexico or Arizona,
risking death in the process.”
This is not a Bahamian writing this, so it can’t
be easily dismissed in that way, and the embassy should give an answer.
The embassy should also explain what the situation
is with regard to the issue of passports from the United States re the
travel of U.S. citizens. The U.S. embassy here assured the Bahamian
public that the State Department was up to the task of meeting the expected
demand for passports as a result of the rule that all U.S. passengers returning
from their holidays in the region have to have passports going back into
the States. USA Today reported in its Friday 1st June edition that
the State Department has not been able to keep up and they now ask U.S.
travellers to apply 12 weeks in advance in order to get a passport.
Even the expedited passport is going to take two to three weeks according
to the Times report. It appears that this passport rule was implemented
before the country was ready to do so. We wonder if The Bahamas is
not suffering any way because of this to the advantage of other American
destinations in the Caribbean.
There is to be a conference on the future of the
Caribbean on 19th and 20th June in Washington D.C. which will see a summit
with President George Bush and a meeting with Condoleezza Rice and the
Foreign Ministers of Caricom. Surely these two topics ought to be
on the agenda. We repeat something that was said by the former Foreign
Minister of The Bahamas Fred Mitchell: there needs to be visa free access
for all people in this region to the United States just as US citizens
have visa free access to all of our countries.
IN PASSING
Dame Lois Brown Evans, founder of the Progressive
Labour Party of Bermuda has died. She was a classmate of Sir Lynden
Pindling’s at law school in England and served as attorney general in Bermuda’s
first PLP government. She will be buried on in a state funeral in
Bermuda on Tuesday.
BUMPY
WATKINS ON JOHN MARQUIS
Errington ‘Bumpy’ Watching is a retired police officer
who once helped to lead a rebellion to oppose independence for The Bahamas.
He now writes a column in the Bahama Journal. We reprint the column
of Thursday 31st May because it describes quite accurately our feeling
about the man John Marquis. We congratulate Mr. Watkins on an excellent
piece.
“During the mid-1960s, one John Marquis, a Reporter
with The Nassau Guardian, ran afoul of the then Government (UBP) and received
his walking ticket out of this country. It was obvious at that early stage
of his career that he was a racist with a Jim Crow mentality.
“Some nine years ago, this Racist was hired by
a local media as an Editor on a work permit. One of the conditions of that
permit was that he should train a Bahamian to fill the capacity for which
he was hired, at the end of his Contract. Nine years down the road, he
has yet to fulfill that condition.
“From the commencement of the Christie-led PLP
Administration, this racist bombarded Christie and his Government mercilessly.
It is common knowledge that Eileen Carron has very close ties with the
U. S. Government through a former U.S. Official, with whom a close relative
was employed. It was only natural that the combination of a racist and
a ‘flunky’ of the U.S. Government combined to do all in their power to
bring down a legitimate elected Black Government of this country, that
did not have the blessing of the U.S. Bush-led Administration. This ‘carpet
bagger’ wasted no time, while increasing his coffers by publishing a concocted
and misinformed version of the Oakes Murder Case, in ridiculing and denigrating
the Government of this nation. When a group of citizens threatened to expose
the true character of this individual, he wrote some tripe in The Tribune,
saying that a lady friend once told him that he did not "look like a homo"
or words to that effect. I do not recall anyone calling him a ‘homo.’ What
I do remember is that Ricardo Smith promised to expose some pictures.
“Marquis also wrote some garbage about his head
being attached to the body of a homo or something to that effect. Those
pictures, Mr. Carpet Bagger, do not look like fakes to me. What Smith should
have done was made them public without saying anything about them. Word
on the street is that the New Administration is about to give John Marquis
Permanent Resident Status. If this happens, then the REAL reason for this
Racist imported expat’s untiring efforts to bring down the Christie’s Administration
would be revealed in its intricacies. He really worked hard, and with the
procrastinated style of Perry Christie, was aided and abetted in achieving
his perverted goal to add further INSULT and RIDICULE to Christie.
“This perverted transplant, in his last assault
on Perry compared him (Perry) with Bush and Blair. It would appear from
his assault on Tony Blair, that he (Marquis) is blaming Blair for the large
influx of Blacks in Great Britain. As I remember, after WWII, Britain opened
her doors to Blacks from Africa and The Caribbean, and indeed all former
colonies worldwide. At that time, Tony Blair was no where around – not
even in a dream. In that same article, he – apparently trying to lick Brent
Symonette’s boot – referred to Sir Roland Symonette, saying that Sir Roland
instructed Sir Stafford Sands to get rid of certain individuals in the
casinos at the port. For your information, Marquis, Sir Roland was only
P.M. in public. Around that Cabinet Table, Sir Stafford was THE MAN. When
Pop and his crew started making noise, Stafford gave all – including Etienne
Dupuch – CONSULTANT fees. When this fact was revealed, Dupuch wrote a series
of Editorials explaining how he donated his ‘Consultancy fees’ to charity.
There are many of us in John Q. Public that were around when you were kicked
out of this country by Stafford Sands, and when the infamous ‘Consultancy
fees’ were given to silence the objectors.
“The majority of people in this country are fed-up
with you and your degrading journalism of Blacks in this nation. One day
Eileen Carron will awake from her slumber – I hope it won’t be too late
– to see what the real motive in your journalistic mischief to gain Permanent
Status, devious as it is, one has to be completely blind not to see that
your diabolical goal, is to gain unfettered CONTROL of Etienne Dupuch’s
beloved Tribune.”
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
The latest FNM propagandist: Meet Johnley Ferguson
I would be remiss if I did not weigh in on the
comments made by Johnley Ferguson on ZNS news on Monday, 21st May 2007.
First of all, the $80 million were allocated as follow:
$23 million for the state of the art straw market.
$25 million for road work.
$32 million for several schools in New Providence and the Family
Islands.
These projects were all budgeted for in the 2006/2007
fiscal year that expires at the end of June 2007. The period during which
the contracts were issued is immaterial as it was within the fiscal year.
The decision of the government to suspend these projects is a departure
from the Westminster convention of an incoming government honoring agreements
entered into by the previous government unless there is some aberration
and reason to believe that the public interest is not being served.
To date the FNM government has not given a reasonable
explanation for their actions. Simply saying that the contracts were awarded
within three months of an election is not reason enough to depart from
an established convention. Further, they have failed to prove that the
costs of the straw market in Nassau and the school house at Salina Point,
Acklins were prohibitively high, given the structural designs and scope
of work. If there exists a quantity surveyor’s report or some other scientific
evidence that presents costing that is significantly lower than the contracted
sum or sums, then Mr. Ferguson should simply present the evidence and make
the case for his government’s decision. This will offer credibility to
the FNM government and underscore its claim and governance theme of transparency
and accountability. To date, he and his government have failed to do so.
This exercise appears to be both a witch hunt and an opportunity for the
FNM government to ensure that the contracts are awarded to contractors
of their choosing. There is no evidence that the public interest is not
being served in the award of these contracts.
Mr. Ferguson questioned the fiscal prudence of
the PLP government when he described it as a “run away train”. I take grave
exception to this characterization. The FNM and its operatives have no
moral authority to question the fiscal responsibility of the Christie administration.
Mr. Ferguson will be well advised that it was the FNM government that left
$325 million in unpaid bills when they demitted in 2002 that the PLP government
paid off in its first 22 months in office. It was the FNM government that
drove the public overdraft beyond $100 million, the highest in this nation’s
history. It was the FNM government that deferred payments for eight of
the ten years they were in office. It was this same hypocritical FNM government
that bragged about government revenue increasing by 10% per year for 10
years, yet left the treasury broke when they were kicked out of office
in 2002. One of the dubious distinctions of the first FNM administration
was that they squandered the prosperity of the 1990’s. When countries like
the US were recording surpluses, the Bahamas, under an FNM led government,
suffered record budgetary deficits.
This level of unsustainable borrowing came to
an abrupt end when the Christie administration came to office in 2002.
Our monetary policy led to the largest foreign exchange reserve in our
nation’s history of $604 million. Our fiscal discipline resulted in a recorded
GFS deficit of just 1.6% in 2006. This was just four years after inheriting
a stagnant economy with only 0.8% growth and a GFS deficit of 3.4%. Additionally,
Mr. Christie’s management of the Bahamian economy delivered 6% economic
growth and reduced unemployment to below 7% within one term of governance.
One of the distinctions and legacies of the Christie administration is
its fiscal and monetary discipline in addition to its competent management
of the Bahamian economy. Clearly the Christie administration has set the
gold standard as it relates to the delivery of good governance and in particular,
stewardship of public finances and economic management.
Mr. Ferguson is either intellectually dishonest
or suffers from selective dementia. Given the atrocious legacy of the FNM
in the management of the people’s money, they now seek to tarnish the reputation
and taint the legacy of the Christie administration through pure, naked,
and unadulterated propaganda. If he is plain ignorant of his party’s fiscal
legacy, I will gladly edify him.
Elcott Coleby
THIS
WEEK WITH THE LEADER
Fire at Gambier House
TOP: Progressive Liberal Party Leader Perry Christie
with colleagues and staff outside PLP Headquarters at Gambier House after
Saturday night's blaze. ABOVE: The leader calms supporters gathered
behind police lines in concern over the fire.
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
THIS CLASS OF 2007
It is very interesting watching this new crew of FNM wannabes at
work in the House of Assembly. They are all dolled up in their new
suits and fresh from a victory, all knowing and all powerful. People
are calling them minister and they all have brand new cars with blue plates
furnished with the characteristic CM and then their number. You can
see the cars darting all over town as they get into the groove.
But the groove about which we are concerned is the one at work in the House of Assembly and of course the one in their offices and how they actually work for The Bahamas. What we don’t need is a repeat of the earlier Ingraham administration of sycophants and lord and masters who don’t do any actual work. From what we see it looks like it's headed in that direction. You get the impression that this is a crew who have no idea why they are in public service save and except they want to be in Parliament, and they want to get their pictures on the front pages of the paper. They like the idea of the public recognition and to heck with whether they actually do any work.
The most talkative of the bunch is the very verbose, sickeningly loquacious Zhivargo Laing who simply rattles on, minute after minute, sometimes mumbling to himself in a stage whisper. Always something clever to say. Too clever by half. The rest try to compete with one another to say clever things that will distract and cause one another to laugh at their own jokes. And if they can get Hubert Ingraham their bigger boss to laugh, well all the better. It is really quite pathetic to see grown men and women act this way.
Mr. Ingraham is as imperious as ever. He is as biggety as ever. In one case as the Speaker’s procession is entering the gallery, he orders the Garden Hills MP Brensil Rolle to get to his seat. “Brensil get to your seat!” Mr. Rolle jumps and runs to his seat. In another moment of candour, he tells Ken Russell, the newly installed Minister of Housing and National Insurance to button his coat (new coat too) when he comes into the House of Assembly. Button his coat he did. This is interesting indeed. It gives the impression or should we say furthers the impression that PLPs had during their first term that this is a group that is incapable of thinking for themselves. They are beholden to the master, maximum leader at all times and for all things.
There has of course been a marked generational shift in the FNM. There are so many first timers, some of whom have been trying to get to parliament for years. You get the impression again that having gotten to the House of Assembly they can’t quite believe it, and so they are really enjoying it for all the trappings of power but can’t be taken seriously for anything else. That precisely is the danger for the country. People talked about the malapropisms, bad grammar, mispronunciations of their House statements. This is the future of The Bahamas from the most well trained generation. They make fun of the D average across all school children and say they are pledged to correct it but what about their own D average that is found in the examples of how they present to the country.
The oddity in all of this is the Speaker of the House of Assembly. How did he get to be Speaker? Alvin Smith, the Member of Parliament for North Eleuthera was known for his disrespect of the chair when he served in the previous Parliament refusing to obey the directions of his homeboy the previous Speaker the Member of Parliament for South Eleuthera Oswald Ingraham. Yet he is the Speaker now and he is pledged to protect the rights of all. He has so far restricted the debate in his attempt to impose order that the debate is in fact stifled. What you have to give him credit for is getting the House started on time. But already he has had to back track from his penchant of not allowing members to intervene during the course of untrue statements being made by other members. The public no doubt waits to see where this is headed. No doubt, he would have expected to be a Minister of the Government. This is the second time that Mr. Ingraham has shunted him aside after promising him more.
What this all goes to show is that democracy has no special magic but it is a magic of its own in another way. In one day an ordinary mortal is transformed from no one to someone and that someone is a Member Parliament or Minister of the government. Usually though, the newly transformed try to wait for the praise of others. The present crew is busy praising themselves. Perhaps that is the PLPs fault, and why they are where they are today and the FNM is where they are today. Whatever the case, our country is in an especially dangerous situation where power is the only fact, and where the individual’s thoughts and opinions count for nothing and where Hubert Ingraham’s word is law. Where this exists, the country is in for a tough time. No one will stand up for us but all our leaders will be busy thinking how they protect their blue plates, cars and other perquisites. This is the FNM’s incoming class of 2007. Now more than ever we need the PLP.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 9th June 2007 up to midnight: 243,661.
Number of hits for the month of June up to Saturday 9th June 2007 at midnight: 290,574.
Number of hits for the year 2007 up to Saturday 9th June 2007 at midnight: 3,651,369 (Does not reflect hits prior to 14th February, 2007).
THE BUDGET DEBATES REVEALS SOME BOOBS
 |
PHENTON
NEYMOUR’S FALSE ALLEGATION
Phenton Neymour really let down all his former colleagues
in the PLP and the CDR by his latest comments in the House on Thursday
7th June. He took so much time to ingratiate himself to the new FNM
that he went overboard with the praise of the new people that he is with
and seeking to damn the people whom he left. It is demeaning to him
and unnecessary. It is embarrassing. First he does not impress
the FNM with that. He only makes himself suspect, and for his former
friends he proves to be unworthy because he is telling tales out of school.
But one of the things he ought to do is try to be accurate and truthful
and tell the full story when he speaks. As the Minister of State
responsible for Utilities, he made the following assertion in his statement
to the Parliament on Wednesday 6th June:
“Mr. Speaker, I have recently discovered what
I consider to be a gross abuse of power by the previous administration,
whereby the previous Minister of Works and Utilities and Member of Parliament
for Grants Town approved the swap of 8.63 acres of reclaimed swamp land,
in the vicinity of the end of the runway at NIA, for 10 acres of WSC owned
prime land in the Perpall tract area. Who was this deal made with?
None other than Arawak Homes.
“What is worse is that the WSC has no need for
this reclaimed swamp land, other than to ensure that it would not be developed,
nor impact the well fields adjacent to the airport. Further, this
reclaimed land was designated by Civil Aviation as “not to be used”, as
it was needed for rain run off and drainage for the existing runway.”
This is another patently stupid and dishonest statement
by the new member. It is only half the truth and disingenuous.
The facts are that Bradley Roberts was not involved in the transaction.
The Water and Sewerage Corporation approached Arawak Homes who were about
to commence construction on the land near the airport. The Corporation
and the Civil Aviation Department wanted the land not to be used, to be
sure that there was a rain run off and to ensure that there was no damage
to the well fields.
So don’t try and portray something that was not
initiated by Arawak Homes as dishonest for political purposes. It
is also true and his record should show that Robin Brownrigg, the real
estate appraiser, did a valuation of both properties and Arawak Homes accepted
the valuation and then paid the difference in the value to the benefit
of the Water and Sewerage Corporation. No dishonesty at all. But
in an effort to please the maximum leader who is a Bradley Roberts hater,
this one gets himself into a twist. It is really pathetic and you
really feel sorry for these people.
BRENT
SYMONETTE FLUBS IT
It was very interesting to see Brent Symonette run
to the press to report what he had done shortly after the former Foreign
Minister Fred Mitchell's address in the House of Assembly on Wednesday
6th June. Fred Mitchell, the former Foreign Minister, told the House
that Brent Symonette is now traveling and that he will have to travel if
he wants to represent the business of The Bahamas abroad. (You may click
here for the full text of the address of Mr. Mitchell and see
it on youtube at this link. The sound may be low and so you may
have to adjust the sound on the video.)
Mr. Symonette was criticized for not informing the
Bahamian public what he was doing so he ran to call a press conference
quickly to say that he had been to Panama to attend the Organization of
American States General Assembly.
The most stupid statement however was his assertion
that relations between the United States and The Bahamas have improved
considerably since he came to office. On what does he base that?
The US officials in this country have already said that the relationship
was an excellent one throughout the term of the last Minister. How
does one get better than excellent? Mr. Symonette says that the American
Charge D’affaires is his neighbour and somehow that means that the relationship
is better. He is silly if he thinks that makes any difference to
the interests of nations.
Mr. Symonette does not know what the hell he is
talking about. It shows all the more reason why he is not fit for
the post and it is a disgrace that this country is represented by him in
this post in the 2007. The 58 million dollar man cannot represent
The Bahamas abroad. Mr. Symonette’s response in the House to that
is “jealousy is a bitch”. The only person who was obviously jealous
was him who coveted a job as Foreign Minister so he could get to hobnob
with the rich and famous and powerful. Unfortunately if you have
nothing in your head you cannot succeed. It is not wealth but the
content of your character that counts.
FNM
IS VICTIMIZING CIVIL SERVANTS
Fred Mitchell, the former Foreign Minister, gave
an example in the House of Assembly and on one of his podcasts of a civil
servant who with 30 years experience has been sent off to a place with
nothing to do because she is a PLP. Philip ‘Brave’ Davis, the MP
for Cat Island gave an example in the House on Friday 8th June of a similar
case of victimization. It was directed at Carl Bethel, the Minister
of Education, who immediately got bent out of shape. He swore that
he has never victimized anyone. The reports are coming in from all
over the country of PLPs being shunted out of jobs because they are PLPs.
The FNM’s master victimizer is back on the job, and Hubert Ingraham is
like a leopard. He cannot change his spots. You may click
here for the podcast.
FRED
MITCHELL VISITS THE STRAW MARKET
The Opposition’s Spokesman on Foreign Affairs and
the Public Service was called to the Straw Market in Nassau on Thursday
7th June by supporters in the Straw Market. He has always had a working
relationship with the straw vendors. It was pouring rain and the
tent that they have been under since the fire in 2001 is leaking again.
The vendors gathered around him. He had come because the Minister
of Works Earl Deveaux had a meeting with Straw Vendors during the week
and gave information which seeks to blame the PLP for the latest developments
at the market. Mr. Mitchell told them that the FNM should take the
responsibility for canceling the contract with Woslee Dominion for the
construction of the straw market.
It was reported that Mr. Deveaux was blaming the
PLP saying that the PLP designed market had made no provision for the straw
vendors. That is a complete lie. The booths in the market are
not on the architectural drawings because they are considered furniture.
Architect Michael Foster went on radio to tell the country that he had
just been given instructions prior to the election to design the stalls
for installation into the market.
Mr. Deveaux is reported to have told the straw vendors
that the PLP lied to them when they told the vendors that they could not
move into a building on which the FNM had spent three million dollars on
the Prince George Dock because of security objections by the U.S. government.
Mr. Mitchell told them that if Mr. Deveaux said that, then he did not know
what he was talking about. He reiterated that the FNM must take responsibility
for their decisions.
The fact is the earth works are complete at the
market site on Bay Street after having run into problems with including
finding the foundation of the old building; having to have that removed
and then the base redesigned to accommodate the pilings already in the
ground. The contractor is already in funds. The work stoppage
is costing the Bahamian public the sum of 10,000 dollars per day on tangibles.
The work stoppage ordered by the government has caused the date to slip
for completion in August 2008.
The vendors were told that the FNM does not propose
to put them in the new facility on Bay Street but wants them to go on the
Prince George Dock. The vendors do not agree to move because they
believe that once on the dock they will be forgotten. The U.S. government
needs to say whether they have flipped on this issue now that the FNM is
back in power. The photo is by Dennis Fountain.
MITCHELL
TO SPEAK AT HILTON FORUM
Fred Mitchell, the Opposition’s spokesman for Foreign
Affairs is to be the first speaker at the public forum organized by Ricardo
Smith at the British Colonial Hotel on Wednesday 12th June beginning at
7 p.m. The public is invited to attend.
A
SECOND FIRE AT PLP HEADQUARTERS
Fire engines were called again to the PLP’s headquarters
on Thursday 7th June to investigate another fire at the headquarters.
This time the fire was only smoldering. The police have brought in
experts from Florida to investigate the first fire. They believe
the fire is electrical but the PLP is so suspicious of the Police that
there is a feeling that the fire was deliberately set, the crime scene
was contaminated by police action, and that the second fire may have been
a patch job to settle the verdict in favour of an electrical fire when
in fact it was arson. The PLP has called in its own experts to investigate
the matter.
MITCHELL
AT THE HOUSE
It has been a busy week for Opposition Spokesman
on Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell in the House of Assembly. A sample
shows him leaning back speaking with former Speaker and representative
for South Eleuthera Oswald Ingraham and conferring with PLP whip and former
Minister of Social Services and Community Development Yamacraw MP Melanie
Griffin. All in a week’s work.
KNOWLES
& NESTOR WIN FRENCH OPEN
Bahamian Mark Knowles and his Canadian partner Daniel
Nestor have won the French Open men's tennis doubles title, and now they
need a win at Wimbledon to complete a career Grand Slam.
It was the seventh Grand Slam final appearance for
the pair who were runners-up at the French Open in 2002. Knowles
and Nestor have now added this third major to their Grand Slam tennis titles
from the 2002 Australian Open and 2004 U.S. Open. Knowles has won 45 doubles
titles in his career.
Breaking up may now be a little harder for the partners
who had planned to split after Wimbledon.
Knowles, left, and partner Nestor are shown raising the French Open
championship trophy after winning the men's doubles title Saturday at Roland
Garros Stadium in Paris. (Michel Spingler/Associated Press)
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
Johnley Ferguson's Folly
Three storms in two years, and we have not learnt
anything from our experiences. I speak of Senator the Honorable Johnley
Ferguson, Vice Chair of the FNM’s appearance on Jeff Lloyd’s Radio Talk
Show Real Talk Live where he sought to make a case that the Progressive
Liberal Party Government was being wasteful by allocating 3 Million Dollars
for a Primary School in Acklins.
What Senator Ferguson failed to outline is the
fact that the 2.8 Million Dollars that was allocated for the Primary school
was a multipurpose facility entailing a Community center, School, Auditorium,
a 440M Track, and a Hurricane Shelter.
Acklins is one of those remote southern islands
I am told that it would take as much as two days to reach via Mailboat;
so to invest 2.8 Million Dollars in a School/community center able to withstand
hurricane force winds is not an unreasonable figure.
Listening to the Senator’s view it became clear
that he could not identify with the catastrophic experiences that Grand
Bahamians realized during hurricanes Francis, Jean and Vilma and a suggestion
of any type of wooden structure is a non starter, therefore, as a Leader
he should not be around ANY table making public policy decisions that would
affect the lives of ordinary Bahamians in a modern Bahamas.
The following day Prime Minister Ingraham presented
his Budget communication, it was interesting to note that high on the agenda
of the new government was a 1 Million Dollar PER ANNUM grant to the Bahamas
National Trust for all the wonderful work they do in conservation and preservation
of the environment yet 2.8 Million Dollars is too much to invest in a school/hurricane
shelter for the people of Acklins.
As we chart a new course, it would be a grave
mistake for the Government to allocate less than 1 Million Dollar grant
PER ANNUM to the various children’s homes, homes for the aged and the disabled.
Finally, I trust that we are not following other
nations that put animals and nature over people, to do so would be heresy.
Brian N. Seymour
Paul D. Moss Jr. Joins PLP
(Excerpts from his news statement - Click
here for the full statement)
After careful and considered deliberations, I
have joined the Progressive Liberal Party, and am now a card carrying member!
I am fully persuaded that I have much to contribute
to the Party’s rebuilding process, and that is why I have made this move.
For me, now is a perfect time – an exciting time to be PLP.
The PLP has always demonstrated that it is the
party that not only best represents the interest of the grassroots Bahamians,
or the less fortunate Bahamian, but it is a party committed to the empowerment
of all Bahamians. The many national social initiatives and programmes enacted
by them over the years show that they are indeed the party with vision,
innovation and heart. Under successive PLP governments, the country has
grown and progressed. There is still some ways to go, and I truly
believe that the PLP is still the best vehicle to take us there.
Today, the Bahamas is faced with many pressures,
both from within and out. Issues like globalization, for example, continue
to press us and will have to be dealt with. How we respond to these
issues will determine what kind of country we leave for our children. I
am willing to entrust my country to the PLP, and am willing to do my part
to ensure their success.
Paul Moss
THIS
WEEK WITH THE LEADER
Full Speed Ahead
PLP Leader Perry Christie confers with his spokesman
on foreign affairs and the public service Fred Mitchell just before Mr.
Mitchell's contribution to the Budget Debate in the House of Assembly.
| 17th
June, 2007
Welcome to bahamasuncensored.com |
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| PLP FILES COURT CASES... | LORETTA BUTLER’S NEW LIFE... |
| NO VISION IN FOREIGN POLICY... | THE STRAW MARKET DEAL IS CANCELLED... |
| PM’S PENSION BILL... | LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION’S BUDGET DEBATE... |
| SPEAKING ABOUT THE MIDDLE CLASS... | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR... |
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| PLPs On The Web... | Interesting Places... |
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| Alfred Sears / PLP Fort Charlotte | Bahamians On The Web |
| Melanie Griffin / PLP Yamacraw | Bahamian Kayaking News |
| John Carey / PLP Carmichael | FredMitchellUncensored.Com ARCHIVES... |
| Keod Smith / PLP Mount Moriah | |
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
THE CRASSNESS OF HUBERT INGRAHAM
The headlines were too titillating for the newspapers to miss and
so the anti PLP press all carried the headlines that Hubert Ingraham when
speaking on Wednesday 13th June in the House of Assembly, called on Perry
Christie the Leader of the Opposition to resign. He said that this
is what leaders do a democracy. Hubert Ingraham is an ass.
The PLPs in the House should have told him so. There is no other
way to put it than to say just that. He is a biggety ass and really
should join the pantheon of JACKASSES OF THE WEEK in this column.
We would not dignify him with that epithet.
The first thing we need to ask him is, what business is it of his who the PLP’s leader is? The answer is clearly none of his business. And yet feeling his oats as he does, like he is anointed of God, he comes wandering into something that clearly is not his business. The Bahamian people have by giving him this victory now made him feel entitled to it. He is entitled to nothing. In our view he is not even entitled to respect. His conduct in the House of Assembly during the past two weeks has been boorish and crude. There is a saying that needs to be revived to describe him and that is: “You can’t put a goat on a board floor because it will prance”.
The PLP looking at that big, dumb and happy lot that he leads on the other side of the House must come to the conclusion that they (the PLP leaders) should be horsewhipped and shot at dawn for losing, indeed some would say giving away an election to the Free National Movement. One FNM Minister after the next clearly does not have clue what they are doing.
On the outside of the House as they take the reigns of government, we have a new a situation where a purge is taking place throughout the public service. Each day comes the news that some civil servant has been removed, some have been fired and that others are relegated to doing nothing. He listed at last three permanent secretaries who are in the Cabinet Office who literally have nothing to do.
The most prominent of the victims this week was that of Rory Higgs, the Managing Director of the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation. Mr. Higgs was delivered a cheque during the week for one year's pay and told to go home. This is Mr. Ingraham’s modus operandi. In his contribution to the debate on the Budget Perry Christie, the Leader of the Opposition, tried to make the case for the way he did it, where he left certain FNMs in place. That approach is clearly not one that the Bahamian people accept. They prefer the ways of the feral beast that is now in charge of the country. If there is a hint of being PLP, then you are gone.
How does the PLP intend to fight this? One thing for sure, we don’t have the press on our side. During the week, you had each newspaper trying to prescribe for the PLP what they should do and what they should not do. The fact is at the moment the PLP should do nothing. It seems clear that in an atmosphere where the election result is as close as it is, and with the possibility of another general election in the air, it is important in the short term for the PLP to stand pat with its present Leader, and begin the reconsolidation from below. The retrospective on the election must be done quickly. All of the problems with the theme, the lack paraphernalia, the money and the general management of the campaign have to be set right. This is the only way to face a quick election. The long term clearly requires change at all levels.
In speaking this week to the New Progressive Institute (NPI) the next generation of PLP leaders, Mr. Christie himself referred to the need for a review by the party. He said that the review must allow the party to transition without collapsing but that the review must also include the leadership and the extent to which the present leadership has managed the party, and whether the present leadership has taken the party as far as it can, and where do we go from here.
That is the PLP’s business. Clearly this is not Hubert Ingraham's business. His comment that one resigns after a loss in a democratic society is not even accurate. In his own party Tommy Turnquest was the leader of the FNM and he kept his position when the party lost in 2002 even though he even lost his seat in the Assembly. Then there is Patrick Manning, the now Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago who held on when he lost and became Prime Minister again. There is Kenny Anthony who just lost as Prime Minister of St. Lucia. He too is holding on until he can lead the party into the Government again.
Anyone who looks at the House of Assembly tapes can see that Hubert Ingraham has a dog in the manger, pubescent attitude. He is bad for The Bahamas. The people of The Bahamas made a serious mistake re electing him to office. But that is where we are and the PLP had better get its act together and quickly so that we can be rid of this crassness once and for all.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 16th June 2007 at midnight: 200,964.
Number of hits for the month of June up to Saturday 16th June 2005 at midnight: 505,527.
Number of hits for the year 2007 up to Saturday 6th June 2007 at midnight: 3,866,322. (Does not reflect hits prior to 14th February, 2007).
PLP
FILES COURT CASES
The press reported on Friday 13th June that the
PLP had obtained leave on Thursday 12th June to file two election court
petitions. The two are believed to challenge the results in the Marco
City (Grand Bahama) election and the one in Pinewood (New Providence).
The incumbents Pleasant Bridgewater (Marco City) and Allyson Maynard Gibson
(Pinewood) allege that the result in the election was not correct because
of irregularities in the voting, mainly that people voted in the election
who were not entitled to vote. It is not known when the cases will
be heard.
The question the PLP will now have to ask itself
is whether or not it is ready to face a general election. It is open
to Hubert Ingraham if he believes that the results will go against him
to then advise the Governor General to call a snap election. Is the
PLP ready for such an election? If not, they should get ready for
one.
No word on the whether or not the PLP filed the
case to challenge the Senate appointments for the three senate seats that
are still not filled (click
here for a previous story). The Leader of the Opposition insists
that the seats must go to the PLP. The Prime Minister believes that
he is the appointing authority and that he can appoint those whom he wishes.
The court is to be asked whether or not the Prime Minister is bound to
give the seats to the PLP as advised by the Leader of the Opposition.
Two more cases are expected to be filed in the election
court before the deadline on Monday 18th June. No word on whether
or not the FNM has filed any cases against the PLP on the election.
LORETTA
BUTLER’S NEW LIFE
The Butler who is in the FNM and belongs in the
PLP is having a hard time of it. She can’t take the pressure of her
new job. She was being put under severe pressure by Melanie Griffin,
the former Minister of Social Development, to answer some questions relating
to the budget which the FNM has proposed for the area of social services.
Her response was to pull a tantrum: “I am the Minister now”, she said.
Yes we suppose she is the Minister and that answer must be the answer to
all things. The fact is it isn’t. This new crew will quickly
find out that the cars and the ‘yes minister; three times full, minister’
will not get you to understand your job or deliver the services for the
Bahamian people.
Mrs. Butler Turner has the same kind of complex
that Earl Deveaux, the Minister of Works and Transport has. He is
constantly trying to impress people that he is a mannerly and orderly fellow,
his version of order. How can he be? How can he sit in a Cabinet
with Hubert Ingraham who acts like a boor when he is on the floor of the
House and cannot simply answer straight questions when asked in the House?
If he is hanging with the crows then you would consider him a crow.
What is happening throughout the FNM is that they
all will have to adopt the attitude of Hubert Ingraham: crass, boorish
and ugly. This is to make up for lack of talent and ability, their
embarrassment for not knowing. Instead of saying I don’t know, you
try to bluff it but by being crude and crass. This is unfortunately
again what the PLP has wrought: a group of people who are more interested
in the trappings of office than in the jobs they actually will have to
do.
Loretta Butler Turner’s answer simply exposes the
insecurities they all have. It was she who having just come into
the House was lecturing members on decorum. It is as if this crew
thinks that this is a school hall, what between them and the new Speaker
Alvin Smith who has throttled lively debate in the House by the silly adherence
to rules. This would be fine except they allow their Prime Minister
Hubert Ingraham to be as rude and boorish as he wishes. What they
need to do is to make him behave and then perhaps the PLP can pay attention
to what they are saying.
NO
VISION IN FOREIGN POLICY
Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum are off to Washington
on Wednesday of this week for a meeting with U.S. President George Bush
and Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State of the United States.
Who is Twiddle Dum and Twiddle Dee? Why none other than the salt
and pepper team of the Free National Movement. This group who ridiculed
the travel abroad by the former Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell to work
for and on behalf of The Bahamian people are now travelling themselves
in order to do the work of the country.
The reason for the trip is a long planned Conference
on the Future of the Caribbean. This was a matter mooted by the former
Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell when the U.S. Secretary of State travelled
to The Bahamas for a meeting with the Foreign Ministers of Caricom.
Several countries in the Caribbean have set themselves the goal of becoming
developed countries by the year 2020. These include Trinidad and
Tobago, Barbados and Jamaica. The conference should help to fine
tune that goal for the region, have the region interact with the Caribbean
Diaspora in the United States, and set mutual goals on trade, security
and politics between the region and the United States.
Eventually there will have to be a free trade agreement
with the United States and the region. It was clear from the answers
to questions asked in the Parliament last week, the current Prime Minister
Hubert Ingraham and the Foreign Minister Brent Symonette have not one clue
as to what they are going up to the United States for save that they are
going to get a photo op with the President and one with the Secretary of
State. What a hopeless bunch. Nevertheless, we hope that the
diplomats who work for and on behalf of The Bahamas will get to doing the
job they are supposed to while these nitwits who are presently in charge
waste the taxpayer’s money.
THE
STRAW MARKET DEAL IS CANCELLED
Hubert Ingraham, the Prime Minister, continues to
be a national embarrassment. During his two hour rant in the House
of Assembly on Wednesday 13th June, he announced that the straw market
contract will be cancelled his by government. That is not okay but
on one level if the government wants to pay the penalties and the loss
to the contractor for getting out of the contract all well and good.
Mr. Ingraham will have to explain to the taxpayers why he felt the need
to waste their money in that way.
What we found reprehensible for the boorish and
crude way in which Mr. Ingraham attacked the contractor on the job essentially
saying that he was not qualified to do the job. This is a young Bahamian
contractor with the requisite experience to do the job, and if Mr. Ingraham
had uttered those words anywhere else than in the House of Assembly he
would have been sued for slander and libel. This Prime Minister of
The Bahamas has come back with vengeance with his anti Bahamian attitude.
He is so wrapped up in pro white policies that nothing good can come from
black men and women; only white men and women will do. His racism
knows no bounds.
The straw market contract should not be cancelled.
The straw market should be built and the project should be re commenced
immediately. It is interesting Mr. Ingraham’s cancellation of the
contract came while his Minster of Works was telling the straw vendors
that the matter was being reviewed; that he did not have a final answer
with regard to the contract. He has his answer now and that is that
the straw market will not be rebuilt. But that’s how a minister in
the Ingraham government finds out what the Cabinet’s decisions are -- in
the House of Assembly just like everyone else.
PM’S
PENSION BILL
Fred Mitchell, the former Foreign Minister, was
designated by the Progressive Liberal Party to speak to a Bill that the
FNM proposed to clean up Hubert Ingraham’s dirty work when he was in the
House over the last five years, where he collected both his pension and
his salary. He was asked to give up his pension since he was not
retired and to accept his salary. The law allowed him to do both.
Mr. Ingraham was labelled a double dipper and that label stuck with him.
What it means is that he was supposed to be a retired Prime Minister but
he was able to collect over $200,000 per annum and he spent his time using
it to fight, organize and campaign against the PLP.
Mr. Ingraham deliberately set up an act to force
the late Sir Lynden Pindling to resign on the ground that he had to leave
the House of Assembly but he did not apply any such thing to himself.
The PLP did not act on this legislatively until this year and it gave Mr.
Ingraham the opportunity to say that he would suspend his pension for the
duration of the time that he was a member of the House. That was
shortly before the election. Now M
