The Tribune

THE PLP has hit out at FNM leader Dr Hubert Minnis after he called for the resignation of Deputy House Speaker Dion Smith.

PLP secretary general Barbara Pierre said Dr Minnis has a “short and selective memory” and his demand on Mr Smith cannot be viewed as credible.

She said that when the FNM was in office, the former deputy director of public prosecutions claimed verbal abuse against then Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham.

“At that time Dr Minnis did not think that it was ‘unbecoming’ for the former Prime Minister to retain his position ‘with such divisive claims hanging over his head’ as he now seems to think about Mr Smith,” she said.

“Further, when his former cabinet colleague was publicly accused of using his position as state minister of finance to cause a family member to enjoy an unreasonable advantage or benefit, Dr Minnis’ silence on that serious charge of malfeasance was deafening.”

She said the PLP agrees with Dr Minnis that “for this country to grow, we should move beyond these racial divides” and that is why the FNM leader should have acted when another colleague allegedly engaged in an “unseemly and racially laced tirade in the House during the budget debate,” Mrs Pierre said.

“Dr Minnis is demonstrating the classic traits of a double-minded flip flopper who does not believe his own words.

“If his public interventions and lines of reasoning can be so effortlessly challenged, rebuffed and smacks of duplicity, then why should anybody bother to listen to Dr Hubert Minnis?” she asked.