Prime Minister Perry Christie may have shied away from grading his government’s performance over the past two years, but according to the Opposition leader the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) has been an “abysmal failure; leading to misery for tens of thousands of Bahamians.
In fact, Free National Movement Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis last night insisted that thanks to the Christie Administration, The Bahamas is becoming a “laughing stock.”
“[There has been] failure to act on rising crime, failure to produce jobs, failure to deliver on their promises,” Dr. Minnis chided during his address to an FNM mass rally at the party’s Mackey Street headquarters last evening. “So, they must consider it a masterful achievement that they have delivered on virtually none of their promises to the Bahamian people.
“He (Prime Minister Perry Christie) should tell us what and for whom he achieved whatever it is he has fixed in his mind that he has achieved because we cannot see anything. And he should tell us who did they do what for? Let’s hope he looks in the mirror and sees that he is running a rudderless ship. Every man is his own man.”
In an all out assault on what he called the do-nothing, promising, all-for-PLP Government, the FNM leader went down a laundry list of the government’s “failures” over the past 24 months.
“Under this PLP Government, everything is up except wages and salaries – business licence fees are up, customs charges are up, food prices are up, the price of gas is up and unemployment is up – dramatically so,” Dr. Minnis said.
“Instead of the promised 10,000 in the first year in office, the economy lost jobs. They said they had the solution to crime all wrapped up in a present called Urban Renewal 2.0. What they have delivered is record increase in crime disguised in mambo jumbo talk as a miraculous decrease in crime. Not even their most ardent, blind supporters believe that.”
Dr. Minnis’ comments follow a recent spate of murders in inner-city areas in New Providence, particularly the Centreville and Bains Town and Grants Town constituencies, which are represented by the prime minister and minister of national security respectively.
“If the prime minister and the minister of national security cannot control crime in their own constituencies, with their people – people they know, how do they expect us to believe that they can control crime for the rest of us,” he asked.
“They can do nothing to impact crime in their small constituencies. And then the prime minister tell us that the minister of national security is working with due speed with the police to do something about their strategies, which have not been implemented.”
Despite the daily reports of blood and gore though, National Security Minister Dr. Bernard Nottage last night assured that crime figures are down.
In fact, he said based on the figures recorded up between January and the end of April last month, crime has been reduced in all areas, adding that there has even been one less murder during this period when compared to stats compiled during the same period last year.
More than 40 homicides have been recorded so far.
But crime was not the only issue for which the government was raked over the coals.
The FNM leader further scolded the Christie Administration for “managing to kill the 400-plus plants that were uprooted from Acklins to transplant to Andros, as well as the “shameful and disgraceful way it has awarded contracts.
“It is scandalous that this government would consider awarding a contract for the construction of a replica of the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) Building on John F Kennedy Drive. The thing is that the building looks good from the street….The building was poorly designed and then they messed with the design adding another floor and compromising the roof,” Dr. Minnis charged.
“The building was poorly constructed – the floors are slanted, the windows leaked, the plumbing leaked, the air-conditioning leaked; one big leaky mess. Millions of dollars spent to correct those original building errors could not adequately and satisfactorily fix the building. Now, this government wants the same contractor to replicate his mistakes on another building using the same design. Imagine that.”
Dr. Minnis went on to defend FNM Chairman Darron Cash whose laptop and cell phones were taken from his home by police last Friday.
According to Mr. Cash’s attorney, Carl Bethel, his client was told the police force’s search warrant authorised the seizure of files, documents, computers and cell phones in connection with investigations into matters related to the Bank of The Bahamas (BOB).
“The vindictive abuse of the FNM chairman’s rights is the sort of harassment of political persons that takes place in dictatorships – not in The Bahamas. This is not some unfortunate country torn by decades of civil war and tribal antagonisms,” Dr. Minnis said.
“This is nothing other than an attempt, a shameless attempt, to intimidate the Opposition. Let’s send a clear and unequivocal message to the Government: The FNM will not be frightened by Gestapo tactics.”
Mr. Cash has since taken legal action against the commissioner of police and the attorney general.
“FNMs we must stand up; stand up for our rights and the rights of all Bahamians. Stand up against the PLP and its intimidation. Stand up against their ‘all for them’ policies. Stand up against their thievery and corruption,” Dr. Minnis urged.
