TO:
MS. CARLA CLEARE, PRESIDENT OF THE GRAND BAHAMA PLP WOMENS BRANCH;
PARLIAMENTARY COLLEAGUES;
THE GREAT PLP WOMEN TO BE INSTALLED THIS AFTERNOON;
THE GREAT PLP WOMEN PAST AND PRESENT AND
PLP’S THE LENGTH AND BREADTH OF GRAND BAHAMA;
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS

GOOD AFTERNOON

OPENING REMARKS
I bring you greetings from new PLP’s in New Providence and well wishes from new PLP’s all over the nation. I am likewise here this afternoon to participate in yet another historical event of the new Progressive Liberal Party, as well as to encourage those to be installed today to the Grand Bahama PLP Women’s Branch.

It is most fitting that the theme for this occasion be called “PLP Women On The Move,” for PLP women should be proud that the Party has women not only in key positions in government, but also in all areas of the Party Organization. The new PLP Government is very proud to have a female as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security in Cynthia “Mother” Pratt.

The new PLP Government also has three additional female Cabinet Ministers in Minister’s Melanie Griffin, Glenys Hanna-Martin and Allyson Maynard-Gibson. Other great PLP women also serve in government as Parliamentary Secretaries such as Agatha Marcel at Health; Veronica Owens at Education and Anne Percentie at the Prime Minister’s Office here in Grand Bahama.

Likewise, the Senate currently has five PLP female Senators in Madame President, Sharon Wilson, Cyprianna McWeeney, Monique Pindling-Sands Yvette Turnquest and Paulette Zonicle.  And certainly PLP Grand Bahamians must be proud of MP Pleasant Bridgewater who will head the Grand Bahama Commission, reviewing the extension of the Hawksbill Agreement. My brothers and sisters, it should be crystal clear to all that women are on the move in the top echelon of the government.

Likewise, in the Party itself, PLP women have Barbara Pierre representing PLP’s as the Secretary-General, as well as a number of Vice-Chairpersons including Faith Hall of Eight Mile Rock. For these examples and many others, the theme of this installation ceremony.  This afternoon is not only a fact, but also a needed asset, for with PLP Women on the move, the Party itself will be on the move. For those women being installed.  This afternoon to form the Grand Bahama PLP Women’s Branch, I have some sobering words for you to ponder, as well as some encouragement for what your focus should be as an integral part of the new PLP.

There is a widely said belief that “Behind every great man is a good woman.” And while I wholeheartedly agree, when it comes to the historical background of the Progressive Liberal Party, it is also believed that behind every great PLP man, there has always been a good and great woman. PLP women have traveled side by side with PLP men through every time period of the institution known as the Progressive Liberal Party. Down through time PLP women have shared in the ecstasy of PLP triumphs and the agony of PLP defeats.

Some of the PLP women prior to those being installed tonight were your grandmothers, mothers, godmothers, aunts and sisters. And today I charge you to walk in their footsteps to blaze new paths for the PLP Women’s Branch in the furtherance of the PLP as a formidable institution of stewardship and goodwill for the Bahamas. When some of your female ancestors served the PLP it was at a time of hostility toward a majority-rule Bahamas.

When some of your female ancestors served the PLP it was at a time when the PLP was under attack from without and within as a PLP Government. When some of your female ancestors served the PLP it was at a time when the PLP suffered a number of years of national hopelessness as a small Opposition with no choice but to go upwards because we had reached the bottom.

VICTIMIZATION CHARGES
But yet today, those of you women who are to be installed this afternoon are walking in the footsteps of your female ancestors, at a time when the new PLP has been given the opportunity to be the government. So the theme, “Women On The Move” is most fitting and timely for where the new PLP is at today. We need the PLP Women’s Branch of Grand Bahama and elsewhere in the Bahamas to get and stay on the move.
The PLP needs that because as a part of a new Government of only five months, already our detractors and those of ill will are attempting to derail our efforts. They are attempting to derail our focus to bring this country out of the bottomless pit the previous Administration has left the country in. In fact, it would seem that the former FNM Government had all intentions of burying Bahamians. Therefore they are now angry that their intentions of leaving the Bahamas for dead will not happen under a new PLP Government, headed by Prime Minister Perry Gladstone Christie.

So today we are hearing charges of victimization being lamely placed at the feet of your new PLP Government by FNM operatives, the misguided and those who strive on causing mischief for their own entertainment. But I want PLP women to be bold and confident, but humble, in your answers to these charges when our detractors come your way to try and derail you as the PLP Women’s Branch of Grand Bahama or any other PLP’s elsewhere in the Bahamas.

When the charges of victimization is placed at the feet of your new PLP Government in order to derail you; I want you to remind those detractors that victimization is wrong wherever it exist and for your part as the PLP Women's Branch, victimization has no place on your agenda.

But you must also remind those detractors that you are aware that individuals are capable of doing anything when left to them and believe they are responsible to no one. But that’s how the FNM operated for ten years. Remind your detractors that this new PLP Administration is not the be-all and the end-all to the Bahamas. Remind your detractors that the new PLP Administration consults with Bahamians and are ever so mindful that we are but stewards over the affairs given to us to manage by the people of the Bahamas.

And as a PLP Women’s Branch on the move, remind your detractors, who call us victimizers, that the FNM Government victimized the whole nation, FNM’s and PLP’s alike with their policies over ten years. Let your detractors know that PLP women are not fools and neither are you dishonest. Let your detractors know that you know that what the FNM considered well-deserved patronage after August 19, 2002; the same FNM now cries that it is victimization in 2002.

Let your detractors know that it was Hubert Ingraham, with his chest pushed way out and all his teeth showing proclaimed loudly for all to hear after August 19, 1992 that “the car gone; the police gone; the maid gone; the dog gone; and the generator gone!” You would be interested to know how that same big mouth fellow fixed his own self up before the FNM was kicked out of office with a high price Secretary and other goodies.  Yet spineless and seat less Little Tommy Turnquest has the nerve to cry victimization, when his own general at BAIC, who hardly ever went to work, but was paid a big salary for doing nothing, could cry crocodile tears about victimization.  I wish to put a lie to the assertion that the staff at the BAIC who were terminated were all FNM supporters was a deliberate nasty lie.  Therefore the allegation that they were let go because they were FNM supporters falls to the ground.

Let us not forget they victimized former PLP cabinet minister Charles Carter who was required by Hubert Ingraham rules to withdraw from front line politics, which he immediately did but was kept waiting for many years before receiving a radio license.

Let your detractors know that you recognize that individual human error may cause someone to be victimized as the FNM defines it, but that would and could never be a practice or policy of the new PLP Government, nor the Women’s Branch of the Party Organization. And after you have told your detractors that you don’t believe in victimization, let them know that you understand victimization to be a concept and practice where people become loses as a result of an act on the part of someone else.

Once you explain what you know victimization to mean, then remind your detractors that the FNM victimized the Financial Service Sector! They victimized the Air Traffic Controllers! They victimized the Royal Bahamas Defense Force! They victimized single mothers by leaving them as consumers unprotected from crooks! They victimized Batelco workers and they victimized the Nursing Profession!

And then again Hubert Ingraham with the blind support of his spindles FNM cabinet brutally victimized Bahamians when he stubbornly refused to grant the Cable TV license to any of the Bahamians applicants.  Hubert instead gave the license to a foreigner who has made extremely indecent super handsome profits on the backs of Bahamians.  That Cable Bahamas deal smells to the deepest pit of hell.  I restate my pledge to find out what went down and why this rape of the Bahamian people was allowed.

They even victimized PLP’s and FNM’s right here in Grand Bahama by leaving all Grand Bahamians defenseless against cruel and ancient powerbrokers.

The FNM Government was an equal opportunity victimizer. Every one got a chance at being victimized by them. In fact and according to the FNM Government’s definition of victimization, they were victimized too because they ended up out of power after a powerful electorate got rid of them to make room for your new PLP Government. Let your detractors know that the FNM Government went so far to victimize that the people finally victimized them.

And after you have confidently, but humbly put your detractors on the right course, you also have to reaffirm your belief of fair opportunities for any individual or group. Fair opportunities must be an integral part of the Party Organization that forms the Government of the Bahamas; a government that is committed to serving all Bahamians, be they black or white, rich or poor, FNM’s or PLP’s.

MISSION FOR WOMEN’S BRANCH
As PLP women on the move, I want to leave you with a mission and a challenge to be and stay on the move to help your new PLP be effective and relevant to stewardship, goodwill and governance. Certainly, PLP women should be painfully aware or have been told what happened to the PLP after our 25 years as a previous Administration.

It is worth recalling that when the PLP was the government from 1967 to 1992, while the government-arm was focusing on national affairs, the Party-arm of the PLP Organization sat back or joined in with the affairs of the government. It is likewise worthy to recall that not too long ago, we came to feel the folly of our previous ways when we faced ten bitter years as the Opposition from 1992 to 2002.

Ladies and gentlemen it was ten bitter years of some degree of disorganization, lacking in vibrancy and lacking in finances. It was a sad time not too long ago for a political organization that was a part of a 25-year government reign. We in the PLP of those days had neglected to keep the Party vibrant and to make provisions for our relevancy whether in government or opposition.

It is against the backdrop of this difficult past that God has given us in the new PLP a chance to do it right as a Party that forms the government. And it is against this backdrop of a difficult ten years in Opposition, that I ask that PLP women of Grand Bahama not to accept this night as a singular event to be enjoyed and then forgotten until the next event.

I charge and challenge you the Grand Bahama PLP Women’s Branch to not sit back and wait on the government-arm of this great Party to get you moving. Do not sit back and wait to be motivated by what the government-arm of the PLP does or does not do. The new PLP Government has as its major concern, the national welfare and survival of the Bahamas. The PLP, which the Women’s Branch is a part of, has as its major concern the survival, revival and relevancy of the PLP Organization.

Those of you who are being installed, as the Grand Bahama PLP Women’s Branch must participate in the nurturing of your Party, as you are accustomed to nurturing children. You must care for the financial health of your Party. You must care for the social and educational health of your Party. You must see to and care for the birth of new PLP’s to the organization. And after you have seen to the growth and maturity of your Party; you must be the solid foundation under girding any troubles that may arise.

Ladies and gentlemen before I conclude, it has come to my attention that some of our supporters and even our detractors have been asking the question why Bradley Roberts has gone silent. I am pleased to answer that question by saying thanks be to God, I am still alive and kicking. I have been working hard and putting in extremely long hours, seeking to address all of the matters in my vast portfolio.

Some times I work up to 2 o’clock in the morning, seeking to fulfill the mandate entrusted to me by the Prime Minister. I wish to let you know that in the process of fulfilling that mandate I am discovering everyday the unbelievable level of poor management and ineptness by the previous government. So for those who claim that I have gone quiet; it is not too long from now before Parliament reconvenes and I invite them to tune in.

CONCLUSION
PLP Women of the Grand Bahama Branch, the Leader of our Party, the Prime Minister, has asked me to convey this final thought; you must do your part and encourage your men in the new PLP to do their part; and if you can accomplish this task, you will in fact be women on the move not only in the PLP but in the entire Bahamas.

Finally, next year marks two significant milestones for our Bahamaland.  In 2003 we shall be celebrating the 30th Anniversary as an independent nation.  Next year will mark the 50th Anniversary of the formation of the 1st political party in the Bahamas.  Our founding father was the late Sr. Henry Milton Taylor former Governor General of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.  I believe that it was God’s will that the PLP is once again the government at this important time in the history of our nation.  I challenge you the women of the Grand Bahama branch to research and document the history of the party from it’s inception here on the island of Grand Bahama and to produce a book and a digital video document (DVD) for posterity.  Our Progressive Liberal Party has a grand and glorious history.  We have lead every progress program initiated in the country for the thirty-five years.  We have a proud and rich legacy.

THANK YOU AND GOOD AFTERNOON