The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

OPPOSITION leader Dr Hubert Minnis yesterday lashed out at the PLP over their treatment of the “Father of Labour” Sir Randol Fawkes as he fought for the rights of Bahamian workers.

According to Dr Minnis, in 1968, Sir Randol documented in a memoir that the PLP led by former Prime Minister Lynden Pindling “fought me as if I were a devil incarnate and they were determined to destroy me.”

Dr Minnis said the country needs to celebrate national heroes while they are alive the same way it does in death.

He was making a contribution to the debate on renaming Labour Day in honour of Sir Randol.

“For his pains and suffering that he experienced, as I stand here as Leader of the Opposition, I would like to apologise for the pain that the Fawkes family suffered. I urge the government to do the same.”

Later, North Eleuthera MP Theo Neilly said Sir Randol was “stabbed in his back from the government he supported.”

However, Prime Minister Perry Christie chastised the FNM for these comments.

He said the government was in the process of “righting a perceived wrong”.

“I was as fired by Lynden Pindling and you see where I’m sitting. You see which party I’m representing. I was denied a nomination by the PLP, but you see which party I’m in.

“The opposition has clearly determined that this is too significant of an occasion for them not to integrate into their remarks politics.

“This is not the time for that,” Mr Christie said.