The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FORT Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins could be reprimanded, refused a nomination in the 2017 general election or suspended for up to two years by the PLP’s National General Council based on a report from a disciplinary committee formed last week to determine his fate.

The possible sanctions are outlined in the PLP’s constitution.

However, the defiant and outspoken MP can only be expelled from the party if the issue goes to a vote at the party’s convention, a senior member of the PLP told The Tribune.

The PLP’s disciplinary committee was activated on Friday by Chairman Bradley Roberts, little over a week after he formed a separate four-person committee to review Dr Rollins’ actions.

Valentine Grimes, a PLP stalwart who was chosen to head the former committee, said Dr Rollins’ comments last week have prompted a different course. “The committee that I headed was an attempt to be conciliatory, (however) the dispute has taken a direction which showed we had to go a bit further,” Mr Grimes told The Tribune.

When asked what the disciplinary committee will do to Dr Rollins, Mr Grimes repeatedly referred this newspaper to the PLP’s constitution.

When asked if he thought Dr Rollins would leave the PLP for another party he said: “I don’t see another party picking him up.”

Former PLP Cabinet minister George Smith said he believes the disciplinary committee will exercise due diligence in considering the “gravity” of Dr Rollins’ statements while answering the crucial question of whether he has damaged the party in any way.

“The operative words here are damage to the party, not individual, the party. Attacking someone may rise to the level of damaging the party – but it doesn’t have to,” Mr Smith said.

Dr Rollins has taken an adversarial stance against the government over the past few months. In August he lashed out at Prime Minister Perry Christie in the House. At the time he called for new political leadership in the country.

Last week, he refused to apologise to Mr Christie despite a recommendation from the party’s National General Council that he do so.

Despite this, Dr Rollins continues to assert that he still believes in the PLP as an organisation. His antagonistic stance against the government has dominated headlines over the past few months.

However, Mr Smith said he doubts the controversy will still be relevant by the time next year’s convention is held.

“I doubt it will get to convention,” he said. “I think these things have preoccupied the public’s attention sufficiently. We have a high crime rate; we’re working on trying to improve the economy, which, to the prime minister’s credit, seems to be turning the bend. We have problems in health care and people are facing the challenges of coming to terms with value-added tax. These are issues that should be getting our attention far more than Dr Rollins.

Both Mr Grimes and Mr Smith said they believe this is the first time the disciplinary committee will have to determine the fate of a PLP member since former prime minister Hubert Ingraham was expelled from the PLP in the mid-1980s for his outspoken commentary about corruption in the party.

Mr Smith said he would never recommend that someone be expelled, adding that he was among those who voted to let Mr Ingraham remain in the party when the issue arose in the 1980s.

“If the man was prepared to run as a candidate for the party, no matter what, we must be mature adults and find a way to reconcile the differences.”

Mr Smith added that if the issue were to arise at the PLP convention, the party would be more accommodating to Dr Rollins than it was with Mr Ingraham because they don’t see Dr Rollins as posing as significant a threat.

“Ingraham had a well laid out, methodical plan of what he wanted to accomplish,” Mr Smith said. “Rollins I think is just shooting from the hips. Ingraham is a first class political strategist. Rollins is very bright, very conscientious, but he doesn’t have that level of political acumen so people are not threatened by him, therefore, they would be more likely to try to get him to appreciate the appropriate approach to doing things.”