By CELESTE NIXON
Tribune Staff Reporter
cnixon@tribunemedia.net
THE former government was unable to grasp the true value of Urban Renewal according to Prime Minister Perry Christie.
Speaking to the press yesterday, Mr Christie criticised the FNM government for “dismantling” the programme – and claimed former Prime Minister Mr Ingraham did not understand the concept behind it.
He said: “I think he has always been uninformed, really and truly uninformed, about what Urban Renewal is actually all about. He purports to represent an era when he had responsibility for housing but I don’t think he truly understands the significance of the Urban Renewal effort.
“That is community policing at it’s highest and at it’s best; to criticise it and to take the action that the FNM took in the past is uninformed and I think counterproductive to the best interests of our country, they were wrong in dismantling what we had in place.
Mr Ingraham criticised Urban Renewal 2.0 following the tendering his resignation letter at Parliament last week.
He suggested the government is carrying out an unlawful act by clearing derelict, abandoned houses and properties in the inner city without first giving home and property owners due notice.
“Aren’t there laws that govern this?” the former Prime Minister asked. “You must give the occupier notice, you must give the owner notice, and they must have the opportunity to make representation. You cannot just go and do so (tear down a house). That’s what distinguishes a democracy from a totalitarian society,” he said.
“The reality is there are laws and there are rules that you ought to abide by and the government ought to set the example.”
Mr Ingraham also insisted that the public must be notified by police officials when a police officer is involved in shooting and killing a suspect.
“We have a high crime problem in society, but what we cannot do is permit policemen to act outside the law,” said Mr Ingraham.
“It cannot be that you shoot two armed robbers or crooks one night and you tell me nothing about it.”
Explaining the programme, Mr Christie said Urban Renewal is a police-driven campaign with the objective of gaining the trust and confidence of the public, so that community challenges can be identified and addressed by the government.
“Urban Renewal is where we are going into communities with the mandate to go to every house and discover what the challenges are then to take the information we have found and inform the relevant agencies of the government, so that the government’s policies can be relevant to what exists in the community – that is the basis of it,” said Mr Christie.
“We are slowly introducing our programmes to fight crime and the fear crime – watch what happens,” he said. “You will see a shift in the mind-set of people, a shift in the confidence coming into communities and you will see the results being different in terms of crime.
Comments
jasoncooper456 12 years, 4 months ago
Yet again politicians are being vague and dancing around the subject. Hubert seems to be criticizing something irrelevant just to shake the bees nest. If the houses are abandoned and run down, obviously no one is around to represent it or they just don't care, or they just can't afford to do what the government can. The government isn't planning on taking the land over just getting rid of eyes sores, and potential dens of mischief, crack houses, places where women can be raped, etc. Perry doesn't seem to grasp urban renewal either, urban renewal isn't just finding out the problems and notifying the branches of government. What is that going to solve? How are you going to find out the problems of the household exactly? Are the police going to come in sit the people down and force them to just tell them all their problems? Very unlikely. Getting the people to trust the police is a whole other issue that kind of speaks for itself on how difficult to impossible that is these days.What the government needs to do is put extra curricular activities in place to get the kids away from home and interact with them on a daily to weekly basis. You will find out everything you need to know that way, and you can instil values and discipline they aren't getting at home. Its just one of many suggestions they can address. Besides the basis of solving any problem is finding the root cause not the effect, just a thought. MY BLOG: http://tis242.blogspot.com/
GlassBeadGame 12 years, 3 months ago
I see little more than another chance to point fingers and assume authoritative high ground. The endless potshots and leveraging between parties is laughable and seems to totally envelope any potential for worthwhile, sensible conversation between the two.
The Bahamian people have been so thoroughly divided by partisan allegiance they are little more than walking votes for each political party. Its not an issue of PLP VS FNM, Christie VS Ingraham,
No, with the blind division and widespread hopeless faith in Government, it is more realistically Bahamians VS Themselves.
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