The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

There are things you say to persons who are your elders and there are things you do not say, and someone should inform the Chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party, Mr Bradley Roberts about this.

More than likely he has already gotten an earful from the Honourable member of Acklins and Crooked Island; and he should be made by his party to issue a public apology for his “stuck in the past” comment.

The Honourable A Loftus is from a time in the past that paved the way for persons like Mr Roberts; many who came into the PLP at an advanced age because they had not really made up their minds about their “political allegiance”. It is said that the small man is never criticised and that you only have small men criticising greater men; criticising them in an attempt to bring them down to their level.

I will not stand by and let this great Bahamian be criticised by a person who really does not know who he is politically, whose political history and contributions cannot be compared to a person of Mr Rokers’ stature.

If Mr Roberts’s behaviour is not publicly reprimanded by his Party, the Party is telling the public and the members of the Party that there is nothing wrong with being rude and disrespectful for those who made tremendous sacrifices, sacrifices when persons like Bradley Roberts were not even considering being in the PLP.

Maybe it is time for the PLP to revisit what it stood for in the past. Dust off those old manuscripts that remind the organisation that it is far better than this diseased picture being painted by those who do not respect those who built the Party and this modern Bahamas.

Speaking to an older friend about it, he said that the man is just rude, and that it may be too late for him to change, but it is not too late for the Party; no matter how dire things may look. I did not agree with the last part, but you have to listen to the older and wiser persons when they speak.

However, the rudeness of Mr Roberts should not be seen in the same light as the rudeness of one of our former Prime Ministers; his “rudeness” was born out of a calculated political necessity, when his former mentor gave him that label.

EDWARD HUTCHESON

Nassau,

June 5, 2014.