Progressive Liberal Party Leader Phillip “Brave” Davis has taken the government to task after the announcement to raise the salary of MPs in the upcoming fiscal year.
In statement Mr. Davis said the government should place itself in the shoes of the thousands of jobless Bahamians, adding that this is terrible timing for the announcement of the pay increase with the country going through a rough fiscal period.
“The Progressive Liberal Party does not believe that the personal needs of well-off politicians should come amid supposed policies of austerity, including but not limited to the firing of hundreds of public service workers, funding cuts to essential scholarship programs for young Bahamians and the reduction in social assistance to the poor, because the proverbial cupboard was declared bare by the Minister of Finance. It comes off to the general public as hypocritical, insensitive, mean-spirited and selfish.
“The PLP cannot and does not support these increases for Members of Parliament as proposed by the Prime Minister.
“This FNM government continues to produce the wrong remedies for the wrong time, and now it proposes to look after its own while many Bahamian families are hurting. This is, after-all, a government whose Minister of Tourism fired tourism personnel in Grand Bahama, an island with the highest unemployment rate. If Hubert Minnis believes Members of Parliament cannot live on the salaries they are currently making, he should place himself in the shoes of the thousands of Bahamians who live from hand to mouth, including those fired by his government.
“What concerns the PLP is the overwhelming proof we now have that the Prime Minister cannot be trusted. His proposal to raise MP’s salaries comes just three years after he stated that as long as he was the leader of the FNM, he would never support a salary increase for Parliamentarians while Bahamians are suffering. Well, Mr. Prime Minister, Bahamians are still suffering,” Mr. Davis said.
Mr. Davis also hit out at the Prime Minister for notably switching his stance on the issue calling him hypocritical.
“Last week’s proposal by the Prime Minister to raise salaries fits a troubling pattern of hypocrisy and flip-flopping.
“The government should focus its efforts on improving the economic livelihood of the Bahamian people before enhancing their own, announce a strategic plan for sustainable economic growth, and reduce the pain of Bahamian families caused by their short-sighted fiscal consolidation policies.
“The Prime Minister calls himself a man with a heart. Well where was that heart when children across this country struggled because their parents were made redundant?,” Mr.Davis asked.
