The Member of Parliament for Exuma and Ragged Island  Chester Cooper says “in the aftermath of what went down in the House of Assembly Wednesday, Bahamians of political persuasions can see that democracy and due process are under assault in this country.”

Addressing a Progressive Liberal Party Rally at  Gambier House (The Sir Lynden Pindling Centre) last night,  Mr. Cooper said , “the four members of the opposition went to Parliament in attempt to do something extremely straightforward – have the speaker of the House of Assembly removed for his complete lack of impartiality and flagrant abuse of the rules of the House.

“We followed the proper procedure; we sat out the suspension handed down by the speaker, even though we obviously disagreed with his ruling.

“We put the motion on the agenda and waited patiently while the prime minister tried to steal the attention away by talking about a heads of agreement signing that they plan to do next week. I shall return to this point later.

“And even still, so undemocratic is this lot, so petty, that they couldn’t even see fit to contribute to the motion that the leader had moved.

“Abusing their power yet again, they amended the motion in order to make it look better for the speaker, who had disgraced himself,” said the PLP Deputy Leader.

Mr Cooper said “they were so desperate to control the narrative, to assert their control, that they even tried to shut down one of their own – the member for Pineridge, Fredrick McAlpine.

“Even McAlpine, who took the PLP to war on the campaign trail, suggested that they were perhaps being unchristian.

“He told them, after he had to create a little bit of a fuss, that they should be careful not to be seen to be bullying the opposition, or even their members on the back bench.

“He told them that what they did looks bad and it’s a reversal of their promise to have a different kind of governance, a different kind of politics.

“Well, maybe McAlpine is just realizing it, but I could have told him that the promises of the Minnis-led FNM are often not worth the paper they’re printed on,” said Cooper.

He told PLP supporters, “ what was so shameful about the entire day is that the speaker apologized when he went back in the chair.

He was contrite and remorseful, even though the damage was already done.

At least he had the decency to apologize for attacking the leader and his wife, and Maurice Tynes and spewing personal, hateful nonsense from the chair and bringing the office to all-time low.

“My question is, where were the other apologies?

Where were the apologies from these respected men and women who sat there listening to the speaker last Wednesday then praised him for his great moral character?

“Where were the apologies from the men who sat there while the member for MICAL talked about when it was OK to beat or manhandle a woman?

“Where were the apologies or the condemnation from those members of Parliament who are divorced or have foreign-born wives?

“Where were the apologies to their constituents for wasting their time last Wednesday and not dealing with the people’s business?” asked Cooper.