The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

FOLLOWING a crime-filled holiday weekend that brought the murder count to 44 in five months, opposition leader Hubert Minnis is calling on the government to form a non-partisan committee dedicated to fighting the country’s persistent crime level.

Speaking at his office at FNM Headquarters, the Killarney MP explained that crime is not political and all Bahamians must be involved in the fight against crime. He also called on the government to apologise to the public for “misleading” them with election promises.

“(National Security Minister) Dr Nottage, some time ago, had said that we are at war with respect to crime. When a nation is at war, it means that everyone galvanizes together,” Dr Minnis said. “We are beyond politics. The PLP had made crime, political, initially. We always felt that it was not political.”

With families being “destroyed,” young people being killed, and the country’s livelihood being “threatened,” Dr Minnis said, strong leadership is needed.

“This is the time now for the prime minister to form an emergency national strategic, non-partisan committee which would comprise of the opposition, church leaders, civic leaders, business leaders, Bahamians at large, to ensure that we fight this problem together,” he said.

“That’s the only way we’re going to conquer it because our entire livelihood is now being threatened – and when that starts happening, you must deal with it as a Bahamian entity.

“The police force, alone, cannot fight this problem. This is a national problem and therefore we need to deal with this, nationally. We need at this point in time, strong leadership, and I’m asking the prime minister to display that leadership by calling this emergency strategic committee to deal with the issue we face at large before our country is completely destroyed.”

Noting a similar, previous committee that was formed during the prior Ingraham administration, Dr Minnis said the government could look to that former committee, as the way forward.

“See what the FNM has done, and build upon it,” he said. “We must now work together. It is not a partisan issue.”

The opposition leader also criticised the government for “misinforming” the public about the solution to crime – among other things – before the general election.

“A lot of things the previous government said, they said those things to win the election,” he said. “They won the election, maybe it’s time they apologise to the Bahamian people for misinforming them about the solution to crime, misinforming them about mortgage, misinforming them about education, misinforming them about employment, misinforming them about bringing down the cost of electricity.

“They’ve won the election so maybe its time they apologise to the Bahamian people for the misinformation and the untruth or the dreams that they sold them. We must now move forward.”