Monique Pindling, daughter of Sir Lynden Pindling, speaks at the PLP convention. Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune staf
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
THE Progressive Liberal Party “has become weak” and “dishonest” and allowed the political ambitions of a “few men to dash the aspirations of a whole people,” Monique Pindling, the daughter of former Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling, said last night.
In the most pointed critique of the PLP made during the opening night of the opposition party’s convention, Ms Pindling steered clear of attacking the Free National Movement as others had done before her and focused her critique on the PLP for “straying” away from the values it once had.
“…Many of us forgot how to treat people,” she said. “We made promises we did not keep. Appointments were made and either they didn’t show up or they kept us waiting for hours and yet wonder why or how our party suffered its most crushing and humiliating defeat in this past general election.
“Many in the party became overcome with envy, consumed with jealousy and some of us were stung with greed,” she added.
“We became too concerned with who became ministers but ignored the taste and values of those who would make good representatives. We became arrogant, petty and thin-skinned. Some in our party even became anti-Pindling but (were) quick to quote or call his name when it was politically expedient to do so. Our party has been broken. Our party has been torn at the seam, torn at the very core of its principles and foundations. Our party has become weak.
“We became dishonest. We lost touch with too many people. We allowed the political ambitions of a few men to dash the aspirations of a whole people. I hope our defeat in the polls was a learning experience. I hope it was a sobering experience. I hope it’s a reality check for all of us. I hope we are taking stock of ourselves as a party and people. I hope that when we reflect on what brought us here, we see our faults clearly so that we may correct them.”
The daughter of Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling said despite its setbacks, the PLP will rebuild and improve once past mistakes are not made again.
“Because we have lost so much credibility with the Bahamian people our future success will not only be determined by what we say, but instead and more importantly by what we do. We will move forward because we have sought out our mistakes, confessed them and committed to never making those mistakes again. We will move forward because we will rebuild and revitalise our organisation. We will move forward because we will return to every community that gave us life. And finally we will move forward with a new, fresh and vibrant leadership,” she said.
Sir Lynden, who led the PLP for 25 years, died in 2000 and guided the country into independence.
The reaction to Ms Pindling’s speech at the Melia Hotel was hardly rousing, though in the room some nodded and cheered her dissection of the party’s problems.
It was an analysis some in the party have resisted embracing; after delivering a speech that struck a similar tone several months ago, Exuma and Ragged Island MP Chester Cooper was criticised by some senior party officials.
Outside of Ms Pindling’s speech, most of the speakers last night urged PLP supporters to begin turning their attention to the 2022 general election.
The crowd was particularly enthused by the speech of former Senator Robin Lynes, whose own critique of the party centred on its neglect of party branches.
“The first thing we have to do if we are serious about reconnecting to our people, is we have to get back to basics,” the former senator said. “In order for us to move forward, we have to take a step backward. Article 5.1 of our constitution, it says that ‘the basic and most important unit of the party shall be the branch.’ Let me tell you something, it’s not our leadership, it’s you.”
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years ago
Monique Pindling is a fine one to talk about the greed and dishonesty within the PLP. According to the Royal Commission of Enquiry held in the 1980s regarding drug trafficking through the Bahamas by Colombian drug lords, her father (SLOP) had hundreds of thousands of dollars deposited to his bank accounts that he could not explain the source of. Also, her mother, Lady Poodling, is a well known tax dodger. And, as if that's not enough, her brother, Leslie Pindling, was the beneficiary of very lucrative contracts with the Red Chinese concerning The Pointe Project, among other things. These people clearly have no shame and will never change......it's always gonna be all about them and what they can take for themselves....and to hell with everyone else and the country!
Greentea 7 years ago
she can say whatever she wants. she wasnt named in the commission of inquiry her father was. if we hold children accountable for their father's sins in the bahamas no one would gave the right to say a gat dayum ting. lets get real. dont reember her brother or mother running for public office either. stop barking at parked cars.
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years ago
All of the Pindlings have something in common with you ......they are die hard PLPs to the very core. But did you get the same benefits as they did from all of the corruption embraced by the elitist few within the PLP?
Reality_Check 7 years ago
Monique Pindling has the gall to say the PLP of yesterday under her father SLOP was a better PLP! It was her corrupt father SLOP who paved the way for the corrupt FNM and PLP governments led by Ingraham and Christie, respectively, starting in 1992!! Try as she may, Monique Pindling cannot re-write history and change the cursed course that her father SLOP charted for our country!!!
DDK 7 years ago
Clever girl trying different tactics! That's all. Chip off the old block.
SP 7 years ago
Monique Pindling suddenly see's the light only AFTER her PLP party suffered a crushing defeat at the polls!
Where was all this insightful self-critique at the last PLP convention when it was blatantly obvious that the dancing clown had over-stacked the odds in his favor?
Monique insults our intelligence and thinks Bahamians are stupid fools. She is in no position to use her late father Sir Lynden Pindling as a "good example" as a 1984 Commission of Inquiry to investigate the drug trade and official corruption in the Bahamas review of Pindling's personal finances by the Commission found that he had spent eight times his reported total earnings from 1977 to 1984. According to the Inquiry: "The prime minister and Lady Pindling had received at least $57.3 million in cash! Witnesses in the trials of both Carlos Lehder, a founder of the Medellin drug cartel in Colombia, and Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, the deposed Panamanian dictator, testified to payoffs to Sir Lynden, and some United States officials had long recommended that he be indicted on drug-trafficking charges."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynden_Pi…
My having personally always been a swing voter with absolutely no allegiance to any party, the PLP has lost ALL political currency and relevance their last time around. They will ALWAYS be associated with corruption and equally identified as a criminal organization as is the UBP morphed former FNM!
WE THE PEOPLE stand firm in wholesale rejection of the PLP and former FNM and WILL NOT return to friends family and lovers governance ever again!!!!
ThisIsOurs 7 years ago
and WILL NOT return to friends family and lovers governance ever again!!!!
It's already happening. Friends family lovers and election campaign supporters.
sheeprunner12 7 years ago
Her half-breed pa has us in this mess right now ............ SLOP created this PLP albatross after he threw out the real Founding Fathers of the PLP .......... Please shut your "entitled child" mouth
SP 7 years ago
Sir Lynden was a half-breed what? Jamaican or Haitian?
http://www.bahamasb2b.com/news/story?ti…
http://www.bahamasb2b.com/news/story?ti…
Pindling, Ingraham, and Christie are all of a foreign lineage. It's no wonder Bahamians were NEVER properly taken care of when the countries leaders all had more interest of others.
TheMadHatter 7 years ago
So they allowed her to speak instead of Glenys Hannah Martin. Wow.
SP 7 years ago
2012 saw dancing clown Perry Christie standing serious faced on a podium making the same promises of change, respect for the electorate, honesty in governance, putting Bahamians first, etc', only to IMMEDIATELY do the exact opposite on day one of gaining power.
The PLP is full speed ahead, right back to business as usual. They have learned absolutely nothing since May 10th!
A leopard cannot change its spots. Now it's "forgetful Davis" using unfair tactics against Glenys to sway the leadership election in his favor.
After all the criticism of distasteful characteristics that led them to failure, the PLP are once again proving they are incapable of changing their basic gangsterism characteristics.....Only THEY cannot see it themselves because it is normal to them!
We can easily envision the ensuing result of Davis bringing back all the political hyenas in true PLP fashion should Bahamians be foolish enough to vote these gangsters back to office!
stillwaters 7 years ago
Some in our party even became anti-Pindling but (were) quick to quote or call his name when it was politically expedient to do so. Now they trotting out another Pindling ( Monique herself) and using her too, when it is politically expedient to do so.
John 7 years ago
And then there’s Donald Trump who can’t get along with his own ma who birthed him. Smt
SP 7 years ago
Lol .... Trump is the biggest joke of a president the U.S. could ever have imagined in their worst nightmare!
Nobody respects Trump. He makes the typical lying politicians look like saints.
licks2 7 years ago
She is not her father. . .she is the first PLP who had the guts to tell them crooks the truth. . .
baldbeardedbahamian 7 years ago
Most all plps are addicted to Greed, But only free money can assuage their need, Free money that comes from contracts corrupt, They stole from us all, with the devil they supped. Instead of using a spoon that is long, They sat close and cosy while feasting on wrong. Dis "new" set they got will be just as bad, Cos most is the same as the ol' set we had.
baldbeardedbahamian 7 years ago
SP. To the best of my memory swindling pindling's father was from Barbados. He came here to work as a police. The political rulers had this funny idea that Bahamians would not make good policemen. They obviously had the wrong idea as our murder rate is only 160 people gunned down so far this year.
SP 7 years ago
WHAT? Now a third theory of Pindling's ancestry? One thing for sure, nobody seems inclined to believe Sir Lynden was of Bahamian lineage.
Perhaps now that we have a "real" Bahamian PM, our people will FINALLY be afforded the opportunities others have had and have a fair chance to compete in our own country.
sheeprunner12 7 years ago
Perry was a real Bahamian ...... He was just shittin
Mr2Questions 7 years ago
I agree 100 percent with Ms Monique Pindling! Well said and long overdue! I wrote that Former Prime Minister about an issue of national import and I have yet to hear from him! I then wrote the current FNM Prime Minister and haven't heard from this nut case! Its clear to me the FNM dont know any about governance and the country is now adrift!
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