The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I have read many letters in the press recently, some of which I can fully subscribe to, hence I hesitated to write one of my own. But certain events have now compelled me to write.

In talking to a friend a while ago, I asked the question “what typifies the PLP and its supporters?” My friend gave a very succinct answer – “they are disingenuous” – so pointed, so correct!

Here is a party that so-called “birthed” what we know as the Bahamas they had power for 25 uninterrupted years and 30 of the last 45 years.

It was in their power to shape a much different country than what we see today. They had no “master plan” for the timely co-ordinated development of the country – they now say they want to better education – yet they mismanaged it all along – the old government high school was opened in 1960 – a bastion of good learning, yet it was closed by them in 1975 – just 15 years later – a campus that was planned for a much longer useful life than that.

They have put up billboards showing the murder count – they were in power when the genesis of the social decay that we are reaping today began – you can’t just blame the FNM for this – as a matter of fact I think that if both parties were doing what they are supposed to do – carrying out capital punishment – we won’t have this present predicament. Forget the vacillating of the “religious leaders”– I don’t think they know more than God concerning this.

I am sure that people have been upset by the road-building programme – I personally felt that it should have been “managed” better by our own Ministry of Works – i.e. with them directing the proper approach to doing the work and minimising the potential for cost increases by the contractor.

What is interesting is that the PLP did not continue the road-building programme (yet they are for Bahamians?) The roads and infrastructure benefit us all – but then again they had power for a long time and kept the whole country back ¬– they can talk about “sure seats” in the “blackbelt areas” – unthinkable – doesn’t say much for the people of these areas. The roads caused some disruptions and I’m sure it’s given some traction to the PLP – but at least something was done – and the cost overruns were published much unlike how the PLP tried to hide the true details of the Baha Mar deal for instance.

Yes they are disingenuous – they would want to rewrite history, but – the commission of inquiry did happen; the FNM helped to revive the economy in 1992 (via Atlantis – the project the PLP excoriated while in opposition but disingenuously embraced while in power); they did not build the straw market; a recession did happen and is still affecting the world; the FNM does deliver.

I’m somewhat tickled by the PLP’s quotes of Mr Ingraham re: murders etc – I was sitting at Montagu beach one day observing the regeneration of the beach and saw some “inner-city kids” – like those the PLP purport to represent and I was made to remember a statement that Mr Christie made one day – it was a holiday and he commented that after riding around that day he did not realise how little beach access Bahamians enjoy – a very surprising comment. Not only did he not act on his findings – i.e. to change that situation for the better, he then went out and allowed Albany to cut up Adelaide beach; he championed the causes of Baha Mar, Mayaguana project land giveaway etc, etc.

Disingenuous – Yes!

I have saved some news clippings from the last election and one headline to an Insight article dated April 30, 2007 says: “Only one way ahead – analysts say it’s a choice between social progress and third world chaos”.

I believe this still applies and that best choice is still the FNM.

LFA

Nassau,

May 2, 2012

(“They have put up billboards showing the murder count – they were in power when the genesis of the social decay that we are reaping today began – you can’t just blame the FNM for this” says this letter writer. He is so right.

(Today the PLP are trying to blame the FNM for the country’s growing crime. They fail to remember that large oaks grow from small seeds, and refuse to accept that they were the ones who planted those small seeds. They were also the ones who created a materialistic mind-set in the country that nourished the growth of those socially destructive seeds.

(On the floor of the House of Assembly on October 2, 1920 — that’s 42 years ago– in the fight to prevent the passing of a PLP-sponsored Bill that threatened to destroy this country’s free press — specifically The Tribune – the late Donald d’Albenas lamented the decay that a PLP government had left in its wake.

(“The Progressive Liberal party,” said Mr d’Albenas, “rode in on a religious-racial campaign, and today there is evidence of a decline in our religious beliefs that is shocking…Our country was financially sound, growing and spending as our means allowed, and today we are facing a serious financial collapse.

“The Bahamian people, as well as expatriates, lived in freedom of thought and speech, while today many fear to express themselves, threatened by the possibility of victimisation.

“Our once united people are divided. Our people are confused…” and so he went on.

(If Bahamians want answers to today’s crime figures, they should examine the background that led to the breakdown of the moral fibre of our people. They should recall the drug years and the government that gave the drug lords safe haven. It certainly was not an FNM government. — ED).