STATEMENT BY THE PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL PARTY
IN ANSWER TO FNM COMMENTARY ON
THE QUALITIES OF A PRIME MINISTER

Nassau, The Bahamas
10th April 2011

The Progressive Liberal Party is astounded at the level of idiocy to which the Free National Movement now stoops.  It is no wonder that they are now called in many circles the "Foreign National Movement".  This pathetic piece of fiction which they released this afternoon confirms that they wish to elevate trash talking to the level of public policy.  It is stupid.  It is idle.  It is crazy.  It is a concoction of lies and half truths.

We have said repeatedly: try as the FNM and its foreign minders wish to, this election is not a contest between two men.  This is about the abject failure of the FNM under their obsequious Prime Minister to protect this economy, to keep its people employed and to bring in foreign investment and to control crime.

Every single project about which the FNM now boasts is a project of the PLP, left in place from before 2007.  They have no projects of their own.  They have not been able to bring in one single new project.  

What we see in this commentary is the same nonsensical trash talking in which the Minister of Labour Dion Foulkes engaged when he spoke in the Senate on the sale of BTC.  The sale of BTC is the single most shameful act of national treachery in the history of our country.

How do these FNM people and their leaders who are so unpatriotic, who sold out our country with the BTC sale have the nerve, the unmitigated gall to raise their ugly heads in this country to talk about the PLP and its leader?  They are shameless political infidels who ought to be hanging their heads in shame for selling out this country.   It is not long now before the Bahamian people will toss them out on their collective behinds for their stupidity and their treachery in office 

The commentary issued by the FNM today would be laughable if it did not demonstrate the extent to which the FNM is out of touch with reality and the people of this country. The recent statements by Branville McCartney speak to this divide between we the people and the special interests that control the FNM.  Mr. McCartney was their own member when he said that Mr. Ingraham lacked compassion and was unconnected to the Bahamian people. He resigned from the party as a result of the FNM’s policies.

What is required of a Prime Minister is compassion for his people, deliberate judgment and a level head; not one who comes and goes in a heated rush. We need a man who loves the Bahamian people, not one like the people in the FNM who hate the Bahamian people and hold them in contempt.

The PLP left in place in 2007 a vibrant economy, money in the treasury.  In the four short years since, we are being forced to borrow, borrow, borrow and now we have to sell the furniture in the form of BTC to pay for the house.  All because of the FNM and Mr. Ingraham.

There are no scholarships for the children but instead roads are being built everywhere.  Businesses are closing down left right and centre, unemployment is on the rise; crime is on the rise and out of control.  The government is silent and helpless and they have the nerve to attack the PLP.  The PLP is not the government.

When we were in the government we left in place a crime fighting mechanism in the form of a national youth service and urban renewal. The FNM cancelled all of that. The FNM is the government and there have been more murders in this country under them than at any time in our country’s history.  That is what the FNM must answer not engaging in stupid trash talking on God’s Sunday afternoon.

Quite frankly, the FNM should be banished for the hell they have inflicted on the Bahamian people.

It is an interesting spin to characterize a hard headed, hostile and insulting bully as decisive and strong. Further the FNM’s judgment under Mr. Ingraham has been tested and found lacking. How else would you explain the BTC transaction which smacks of corruption, betrayal, and the pandering to special interests? Who inserted Cable and Wireless’ tentacles into URCA it wasn’t Mr. Christie was it? Bullies are cowards, not courageous. Who has made more money in the government from the government than his own Deputy Prime Minister?

It was Mr. Ingraham’s rush to give away BTC to his British friends that resulted in the embarrassing snafu when the signing over ceremony was postponed because no one had considered all of the angles. Decisiveness? More like bungling bozos!!  As for Bluewater, Mr. Christie never approved, or presented, Bluewater to parliament or the Bahamian people.  The FNM is so dishonest they want to discuss a deal which never happened rather than the one which they did. Spin? You bet!!

Mr. Christie’s reverence for all things Bahamian, leads him to be more consultative. That is better than being dictatorial. The only thing which Mr. Ingraham reveres is: “anything non-Bahamian”. Mr. Ingraham prefers to employ foreign workers to build roads that Bahamians can build. He employs a foreigner wherever he can. Those are the facts. The private sector has now climbed onboard, and Brent Symonette is their “boy”.  He is not our immigration minister he is the immigration minister of foreign special interests. Really can the management of these road-works be called competent? Give us a break from this FNM drivel. That is why they lost the court case brought by the merchants!!! Too much haste, not enough consultation.

Mr. Ingraham should not brag about establishing unemployment benefits. Mr. Christie (by the FNM’s own admission) left a booming employment with virtually full employment. After (according to Standard & Poors) mis-managing the economy Ingraham had to come up with a program to clean up the mess created by his own bad judgment!! 

We guess that the Bell Island BNT/Exuma Land and Sea Park fiasco was more “good judgment too eh?” and then what about the Mona Vie drink and its connection to his Minister of State Zhivargo Laing.

No one believes this trash talking for one minute!

Young Bahamians do not believe they have a stake in this country with this FNM, Ingraham led administration.

Is it not interesting that Mr. Ingraham seeks to limit the Commissioner of Police and the Commodore of the Defence Force to two terms, but he himself is seeking a fourth term? He used to say that a Prime Minister should only have two terms. Further he told Sir Lynden that he was too old to be Prime minister, but he himself is two years older than Sir Lynden was when he left parliament and now Mr. Ingraham wants another five years.  Never.

That’s Ingraham for you: the Film Flam man…”do as I say, not as I do”.

And this is not about age.  This about relevance to the times.  The question is whether or not the FNM is relevant to a time such as this.  The Ingraham government has sold out the nation.  Their patriotism is sorely lacking; is absent in fact.   The answer from the Bahamian people is not more than one year away.  We demand that the FNM calls elections and calls them now.
End