The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

FOX Hill MP Fred Mitchell says parliamentarians will “see the second coming” before he apologises to East Grand Bahama representative Peter Turnquest over comments recently made in the House of Assembly.

Last week, Turnquest, called on the Foreign Affairs Minister and Senator Keith Bell to ask his pardon because he claimed that they both called his behaviour treasonous regarding the abuse of Cuban nationals detained at the Detention Centre.

It was also alleged that Turnquest, Mr Mitchell said, had sided with “enemies” of the Bahamas who protest against the government during the situation.

Mr Mitchell was speaking in parliament yesterday where after a brief exchange of words between the MPs, neither admitted wrongdoing.
The minister said: “For the record, I have never made any public statement about the Member of Parliament for East Grand Bahama about this or any matter as far as I am aware or can remember. I certainly never said that his behaviour was treasonous although I have heard it said about the FNM in connection with this matter. But that never came out of this mouth.

“What I said about being enemies of the state was rather more circumspect or studied than a bald assertion. And the question Mr Speaker is whether or not my response was in scale, or proportionate to the comments directed at me by the side opposite. Again, I do not recall and I assert that I never made any such comments directed at the Member of Parliament for East Grand Bahama.”

Mr Mitchell further stated why he believes the FNM and Miami-based Cuban exile group, the Democracy Movement, have been working together.

The Movement staged several protests against the Bahamas including a hunger strike and an attempt to sabotage the Bahamian economy.

“The party then claimed that they had evidence of a report that had been concluded into the matters at the detention centre.

“The next thing we knew in the public domain came documents, including photographs which purported to come from that so called report. The so called report was never tested and its authenticity to this day has not been verified.
“It appeared to me that the FNM put two and two together and made it five and imputed to me knowledge of the so-called report that appeared in the newspaper.

“Shortly after that, the protestors in Miami were enlivened and started the drum beat against the Bahamas.
“What I recall is that there were radio talk shows immediately after that event, one of them which hosted the chairman of the FNM and he spent it defending his party’s decision to say what they said and it was the public who accused them of siding with enemies of the Bahamas. So that characterisation did not come from me originally.”

Mr Turnquest replied by asserting that Mr Mitchell should not have made any generalisations implicating all FNM MPs of anything.