The Tribune

PRIME Minister Perry Christie and his government have been engaged in a deliberate, dishonest, deceptive and disgraceful secret campaign of “confuse, divide and conquer”, FNM chairman Darron Cash has said.

In a statement, Mr Cash said the PLP should just tell Bahamians that when it comes to the issue of online gaming, Bahamians “need not apply”.

“Let me make it abundantly clear that it is the considered view of the Free National Movement that Prime Minister Perry Christie and his government have been engaged in a disgraceful secret campaign in order to achieve predetermined objectives on the issue of gambling. It is now clear that agenda does not involve development and expansion of the gaming industry for the broader benefit of Bahamians—as they tried to suggest over the last year. The Prime Minister’s often-repeated statement that his government had “no horse in the race” was a (untruth). The reason for the scheming and conniving was to serve a much narrower constituency. The PLP government was toting water for the major hotel owners.

“Bahamians who scratched their heads at the high level of incompetence displayed by the Government in the execution of the gambling referendum now have a better appreciation of the context of the apparent incompetence. While it was fairly easy to believe that Prime Minister Christie’s amateurish and incompetent handling of the recent referendum was simply “classic Christie”, the recent release of the draft Gaming Act 2013 and the related Gaming Regulations 2013 suggest that even though the government did not have the nerve to tell the people what their real intentions really were, passage of the new bill and regulations was what Mr Christie planned to do all along. They spent an entire year and over one million dollars lying to the people. They knew all along what they had planned and played the people for fools. That type of behaviour is indecent and anti-democratic,” Mr Cash said.

The FNM’s chairman said Mr Christie and the PLP ‘wanted the referendum to fail.’

He added: “They wanted to clear the field for the international casino operators. They had no intentions of opening anything up for Bahamians. The Bahamian people would have been less insulted if Mr Christie had the backbone to simply come out and tell them the truth about his government’s true intentions. They should have told the people that when it comes to online gaming, Bahamians need not apply.”

Mr Cash rejected a PLP claim that FNM leader Hubert Minnis had ‘flip flopped’ over the issue.

“Like many of us the leader acknowledged the powerful arguments and subsequent position of the church, but believed strongly that every voter would have to be given the facts and then make up his or her own mind,” he said.

Mr Cash said this is why from “day one” Dr Hubert Minnis and the FNM argued in favour of having an informed electorate on referendum day. This, he said, was the government’s responsibility.

“When it became clear that the Prime Minister was determined to shirk his responsibility by being missing in action during the national debate, the FNM cautioned the Prime Minister about the potential damages his absence from the debate would have. He did not listen. Whether it was incompetence of indifference, or both, we do not know, but Prime Minister Christie decided to press forward in wilful ignorance. In view of the Prime Minister’s incompetence, the FNM determined that the best advice we could offer to the Bahamian people was “If you don’t know, vote No.” We encouraged Bahamians that if the government refused to be open, honest and undertake meaningful research and analysis of all aspects of gaming, it was in the Country’s best interest to “vote no” and give themselves another chance to get this done right.

“The people did give themselves another chance. We all expected that the Christie government would hear the message and govern itself accordingly. They refused to listen. Since the referendum the PM has maintained his position of wilful ignorance and no horse in the race. But with the leak of the draft bill and regulations, the Prime Minister has been exposed as a naked Prime Minister with no leadership attire. He is a political schemer of the first order. He had a horse in the race all along - just not any Bahamian horse. Believe in Bahamians, just another dream sold by the PLP.”