Today the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) is marking its second year in office since winning the election in 2012 and on this second anniversary, Prime Minister Perry Christie said despite a few challenges along the way; he is satisfied with his government’s performance so far.
However, during “A Report to the Nation: Second Anniversary of Governance” a special press conference held by Cabinet ministers on the eve of their second anniversary in office yesterday, the prime minister refused to grade his government’s performance over the past 24 months.
He did say though, that despite what the Opposition might say, the PLP’s work has been far from “lacklustre.”
“We were elected for five years so in the context of grades, I’m grading performance in the context of what I know we have achieved and invariably people are not aware of the extent to which I can now speak,” he said.
“I’m happy with my crew and I’m not going to give ‘A’, ‘B,’ ‘C’ or ‘G,’ I believe that we are to serve the Bahamian people and we are serving them as best we can up to this point.”
The prime minister went on to slam the Free National Movement (FNM) for their criticism.
“I find it absolutely amazing,” he said. “Lacklustre?
“We’re talking about the party that got beaten, we’re talking about ministers one by one who were toppled, you’re talking about a party that is scrapping right now. We are working hard, we are having dramatic results and of course the FNM shouldn’t just say it, they should get up in parliament where we can answer back. There is no muttering on this we are accountable for all that we do, each one of us will be able to stand on our own feet and we are very comfortable with that and we’re going to keep on going.”
However the prime minster did admit that the government continues to face a number of challenges; in particular the mortgage relief plan which he maintains is not a failure.
“We had to recalibrate our approach to it because we still remain convinced that we have to make an intervention on behalf of home owners and we remain convinced that we have to broaden the amount of attorneys who with insurance and everything else can have their clients retain them and the banks provide mortgages, these are issues that came up that we have to review,” he said.
He added that despite additional challenges such as crime and unemployment still affecting many Bahamians, significant efforts are currently being made to address such issues.
While the prime minister shied away from grading the performance, a number of Bahamians on Tuesday wasted no time in handing out report cards.
Well known activist Rodney Moncur said he would give the PLP Administration an ‘A’ grade.
“Well ‘A’ for doing nothing, ‘A+’ for not being able to efficiently manage the crime problem in Nassau and Freeport,” he said.
“I give them A for massive unemployment, the inability to put thousands of young men and women to work, ‘A’ for helping to stifle the small man, I give them ‘A’ for the ever increasing cost of food, the breadbasket items that the PLP who claim to have put Bahamians first I give them an ‘A’ as large as Christ Church Cathedral.”
Another man said a ‘B+’ grade would suffice.
“They’re trying to make things right, the world now is going through a lot of changes, we just came out of an economic crisis and unemployment is high and its difficult right now globally,” he said.
“From what I see the guys they had two years in office and they need more time to bring things into fruition, I would give them another year or so and see what happens before I make another decision as to how they performed.”