Former Free National Movement Chairman Darron Cash on Friday lambasted Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis over the weekend for “laying off people who are desperate for a job” only to increase the salaries of Members of Parliament.
In a statement posted on Facebook, Mr. Cash said the message this sends to the people is “me first, you last.” He said however justified a salary increase might be, “it is still feathering your own nest”.
On Thursday, three years after opposing a salary increase for parliamentarians because of the weak economy, Prime Minister Minnis said his administration will raise the salaries of MPs in the next fiscal year.
Dr. Minnis’ position is a turnabout from 2014, when, in response to the Christie administration’s desire for the same thing, he said: “As long as I am leader of this country the
FNM would not support any pay increase with all the pain and suffering that is going on in this country.”
Since 2014, economic growth remains slow and the Minnis administration has frequently lamented the state of the country’s finances.
“If I did not know better, I would have sworn I was being punked,” said Mr. Cash.
“The news is simply unbelievable. Old people say that when you make your bed up hard you have to sleep in it hard. When a new government is striving to distinguish itself from its predecessors in office, a good starting point is to not do all the dumb things that they did. Especially if you were opposed to those things.”
Mr. Cash continued: “There is something unseemly about a government laying off people who are desperate for a job and then coming behind and raising its own salaries. The FNM did not run on the message of ‘downsize the staff and upsize our own salaries.’ Tough decisions cause goodwill and political capital to be eroded. That is to be expected. A new government should spend its political capital on the tough decisions that matter most to the broader population.”
Mr. Cash also criticized the Prime Minister for “making a U-turn on the resounding ‘no’ vote in the last referendum”.
Dr. Minnis announced in the House on Thursday his administration’s intention to amend the Immigration Act to allow all Bahamian women the right to automatically transfer citizenship to their children regardless of where they are born.
This issue – the first of four questions in the last year’s referendum – was overwhelmingly rejected by the majority of the population.
