The Tribune

PRIME Minister Hubert Ingraham launched his most scathing attack yet on the PLP's record in office last night - and had an FNM crowd in stitches as he turned the opposition's own campaign slogan against them.

The opposition, he noted, has taken to referring to its campaign as the "Gold Rush", but Mr Ingraham said this is a misrepresentation.

Speaking at the opening of the FNM's Golden Isles constituency office, he said: "The PLP is engaging in false advertising just like when they lied about all them jobs they didn't produce. The truth of the matter is they ain't gold - they're yellow."

Saying PLP leader Perry Christie "always sounds like he's daydreaming somewhere over the rainbow," Mr Ingraham suggested his rival pay closer attention to his surroundings.

"When you look at the rainbow, the colours go in this order: Red comes first, followed by orange, then yellow," the Prime Minister said.

"And guess what - green comes after yellow," he added in a dig at the fledgling DNA party.

According to Mr Ingraham, the public knows what those behind the "Gold Rush" are rushing for.

"They're rushing for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow called the cookie jar," he said.

At the same time, Mr Ingraham said, the PLP deserve credit for describing themselves accurately.

He said: "The Gold Rush in the United States was a sad period when only a few people got rich on the backs of many others. It was a time of greed when many people lost their way and some even died chasing false dreams.

"We know about the PLP and their Gold Rush. That's why they sold off those 10,000 acres in Mayaguana.

"We know about the Gold Rush of the 1980s with the illicit drug trade which laid waste to our good name and values. We are still recovering from that. It's the root of our crime problem today.

"The sad period in our country was a Gold Rush for fast money and ill-gotten gain aided and abetted by a hopelessly corrupt PLP government. In its last term that same PLP mentality was still rushing for gold with shady deals and all manner of scandals.

"They are right to call themselves Gold Rush. Every time you hear Gold Rush just think about them rushing for that cookie jar.

The Prime Minister said the Bahamas does not need another rush for gold, and told the opposition they are welcome to the slogan - as the FNM has a different vision.

"This rushing for gold by any means necessary is fueling the drug trade. This rushing for gold has young men breaking into houses to 'tief your gold jewellery and sell it; snatching people's gold chains from around their necks.

"Let the PLP rush for that fake gold. Our vision is to build a Platinum Nation," Mr Ingraham said.

He said such a nation is a place of law and order, which is why the FNM made the largest investments in a single term since independence in the police and the criminal justice system.

According to Mr Ingraham, a good theme song for the Platinum Nation might be: "Simply the Best".

He said: "This is why we are building simply the best international airport in the region.

This is why we intend to have simply the best general hospital at Princess Margaret. When it is completed we aim to have simply the best National Sports Centre.

"This is also why we are building some of the best roads in this region. Those of you who pass the road and utility works regularly will have noticed the depth of the trenches for our new utility pipes.

"Some along Baillou Hill Road south are as deep as eight feet while on average they are six feet deep.

"You know, some of the sewerage pipes along Market Street were discovered just two feet below the surface. And, between Duke and Lewis Street, they were only one foot below the surface. The implications for public health are terrible. Frightening."

Mr Ingraham said the Platinum Nation also stands for the best in terms of education, employment, health care, economic opportunity and social security.

He said the PLP gave up on improving the Bahamas long ago.

"This is why they did next to nothing for five years. Just as the earlier PLP abandoned the Family Islands, the Christie administration let our capital island become run down and dreary and did nothing about it."

Mr Ingraham accused the PLP of failing to deliver: new schools; a new straw market; National Health Insurance; a new Bail Act; new courts, magistrates and judges; Baha Mar; a relocated port; and clean, honest government.

Meanwhile, in five years, he said, the FNM will have delivered: life-saving prescription drugs; landmark unemployment benefits; brand new roads; safe drinking water; doubled social assistance for many of the most vulnerable; more than 500 new police officers; a Closed Circuit TV system throughout New Providence; new courts and more judges; and a goal to bring serious cases like murder, armed robbery and rape to trial within two years.