Christie fails to clarify Wells issue

As of Friday, October 3, 2014

Prime Minister Perry Christie

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie defended his capacity for making tough decisions in the House of Assembly yesterday while renewing his commitment to address the controversial signing of a letter of intent with a waste-to-energy company by Renward Wells.

However, more than a month after pledging to “imminently” address the issue, the Prime Minister offered no new insight into the controversy that has grabbed headlines for three months.

“The member for Bamboo Town knows my position,” Mr Christie said, “and you could assume if I spoke to him on day one, that my position has not changed and therefore (if) I am sitting here in the Parliament when a member is defying me, I have the capacity to tell him get out.”

“And he understands exactly what my position is and I hope that when the House meets (again soon) he will be able to say so. I told him in the presence of a member of parliament downstairs that he should not let an MP speak in such a way where he is able to denigrate what he is and by implication question his integrity and question mine at the same time. Speak, and speak truth, that’s what I told him to do because when it is my time to act, even with respect to that member, that member knows I will act and he knows exactly what I would do. But he knows exactly what I am doing now and it has to do with the national interest of the country. I will explain it in time. Do not fear, member for Montagu, of my capacity to understand what I am doing and to make the decisions with respect to the portfolio of prime minister that I have responsibility for.”

Mr Christie’s comments were in response to Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn, who had said earlier that the country is embarrassed by Mr Christie’s failure to address the matter. Mr Lightbourn also referred to an unconfirmed report published in The Nassau Guardian that Mr Christie asked Mr Wells to resign months ago because of the issue.

Mr Christie continued: “But also remember this. When I have arrived at a conclusion, however colossal an error of judgment may have been, I will speak to it. But when I arrive at a conclusion that does not impinge on dishonesty, and dishonest intention, my conclusion, when no harm is being done to the country, my conclusion because I will explain why I did what I did and I will do so in the not too distant future. I take full responsibility for the position that I have.”

Last week Mr Christie told reporters that he told Mr Wells he would have to speak on the issue before the House breaks for the summer.

Power struggle

Mr Christie also dismissed concerns of Fort Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins, who on Wednesday had said Mr Wells, the Ministry of Works parliamentary secretary and Bamboo Town MP, is caught in a power struggle between Mr Christie and presumably Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis.

“I don’t know what the experiences are by the member for Fort Charlotte with regard to intriguing, conspiratorial exercises inflating within the PLP, except to say this: every single member of the Progressive Liberal Party will understand the process it will take to move me from the leadership. We are a democracy and we have a democratic understanding and I would’ve thought that as every man is entitled to make his observations, as every man is entitled to see what he sees, let me just assure you, I am not going to march to the drum of any other drummer than myself.”

Mr Christie also spoke out against implications from critics that his government is corrupt, saying he finds the criticism confusing.

Since deciding to ignore the results of last year’s gaming referendum in order to legalise and regulate the gaming industry, numerous people have insisted that the government took this route as pay back to web shop bosses who allegedly made financial contributions to the PLP.

Mr Christie said: “I ask the question, what do you think these people, what this government has done, what would they have to pay someone like me if this is a payback, for politics? What would they have to do, give what to whom? The member for parliament for Bain and Grants Town is entirely correct, this loose talk or loose implication about ‘pay back,’ what are they going to compensate me for what I’m doing in the interest of the Bahamian people?”

proudloudandfnm 10 years, 1 month ago

Man Perry has to have Alzheimer's.....

dehavmoss 10 years, 1 month ago

What in the hell did the PM just say?

ThisIsOurs 10 years, 1 month ago

Oh, you too, good, I thought it was only me...

B_I_D___ 10 years, 1 month ago

'Christie Fails'...boy ya know with a headline like that our oh so grand and divine leader PGC is having heart palpitations over his 'legacy'.

realfreethinker 10 years, 1 month ago

Cobalt 10 years, 1 month ago

People who truly care about Perry Christie, including his family, need to usher him out of the political arena and get him some medical (neurological) help. He's displaying the early signs of dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease. Seriously.

SP 10 years, 1 month ago

The only plausible reason for all back and forth LOI nonsense is there HAS TO BE some under the table shenanigans afoot that Christie and or Brave cannot allow to be revealed.

It is totally unconscionable that well known "sticky fingers Davis" would have allowed a $600M deal to pass through his hands without his usual PERSONAL tax, lotion, grease, consultation fees!

Get real PM......NOBODY is going to believe otherwise until all cards are laid on the table.

Altalk 10 years, 1 month ago

wow Its official Lord bull has some type of dementia....our country is heading towards the dung hill fast...........

Well_mudda_take_sic 10 years, 1 month ago

WELL WORTH REPEATING: Christie and Davis want stupid foolish Wells to put his head on the chopping block in public before they take him out to the wood shed and finish him off but good! Wells is just too dawn stupid to realize that once he lies to the public and says he received no directive from higher ups regarding his signing of the letter of intent, then Christie and Davis are in a position to do with him as they see fit no matter what he may subsequently say in public. Nothing Wells may say after he perjures himself in public (by saying he made a mistake without receiving a directive of any kind from anyone) will be heard or paid attention to by anyone. At that point, Christie and Davis (and the entire PLP machinery for that matter) will make their move on Wells in the more traditional vindictive way. Poor fella's only chance is to speak the truth and not take the false hope being promised for doing otherwise. Why should much younger Wells put his political future on the chopping block for the likes of Christie and Davis who are now both in the twilight zone when it comes to the short remaining span of their political careers and dismal legacy? Wells needs to get some of that fire and fortitude in his stomach that Rollins is showing to the people lest he be remembered as a coward with no future in politics in the post-Christie, post-Davis, and post-Roberts era; although many think Roberts has been nothing but a noisy mouth piece of the PLP in recent years.

PKMShack 10 years, 1 month ago

What did you say is correct? TAL and Birdie please translate what the hell he said? PLP all the way! to NOWHERE. PGC should ask his friend HAI to borrow his balls because he sure does not have a pair that works.

SP 10 years, 1 month ago

HAI only has one ball left! ......He lost the other one betting Bahamians would fall for his "PAPA" "PROVEN LEADERSHIP" & "TRUST AGENDA" bullshyt.

PGC better check Fred Mitchell to borrow some balls. Freddy Boy has no use for them anyway!

TalRussell 10 years, 1 month ago

Mr. Speaker and I rise this time in the 'first person’ to rephrase what I should have spoken as the Da Right Honourable Prime Minister and Member for Centerville, when I previously rose in my customarily 'third person' role to have launched into a lengthy embedded explanation of the prime ministerial powers I know's I hold . And in so doing I should have spoken in a language the common man's and woman's on the streets would understand and have simply conveyed to all Honourable House Members present in a clear and precise format - that I will not allow myself to be lectured by the Honourable Member for Montagu. Not now, not never.

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