The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement Chairman Darron Cash believes Fort Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins owes it to the Bahamian people to disclose what he knows about the controversy over Renward Wells’ signing of a $650 million letter of intent with Stellar Waste to Energy Bahamas

Mr Cash spoke to The Tribune about the matter after Dr Rollins told NB12 “there is more than meets the eye” in the Renward Wells controversy.

Dr Rollins added that if Mr Wells, his friend, is fired as parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Works, he is prepared to “say who also should be fired”.

Mr Wells signed the letter of intent on July 4 without Cabinet approval, according to reports. This prompted political observers to call for Mr Wells to resign or be fired.

Prime Minister Perry Christie said nearly a month ago that he would address the matter, but has since failed to do so and has given no indication of when or whether he will deal with the matter.

“The comments from Fort Charlotte MP Andre Rollins really underscore several fundamental points about Prime Minister Christie and his government,” Mr Cash told The Tribune. “The first is Christie is weak as a leader and it underscores the need for new leadership at the level of prime minister.

“The next thing is it plays into the prevailing narrative of a compromised government. By his admission and the admission of Leslie Miller, Tall Pines MP, and Renward Wells, there is the sense of a government of many secrets where there is so much wrong doing going on that it is a case of one for all or all for one. (It seems) the prime minister is so terrified of executing that he is paralysed because he is afraid of their dirty little secrets coming out in the open.

“Unfortunately,” said Mr Cash, “what Dr Rollins states about his threats really makes the point” that the prime minister has been put in a position “where he cannot act because he fears the entire regime falling part.

“The other part about Rollins’ comment is it is rather unseemly for the MP, and I know this is not his intent, but he has to understand how it comes across. He is showing a degree of loyalty to Renward Wells by saying if he is fired he will disclose facts about the ordeal. This is unseemly because it begs the question of who Dr Rollins accountable to. To whom does his duty and loyalty rests: his friend or the Bahamian people to whom he owns a duty to disclose any act of compromise of democratic principle that occurs within the government? I believe many Bahamians are like me, finding it amazing that the government is being extorted and that the only people being shafted in the face of this wall of silence and secrecy is the Bahamian people.”

Dr Rollins’ recent statements are not the first time a government member has threatened to disclose information.

Last month, amid rumours that he would not be reappointed chairman of the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC), Tall Pines MP Leslie Miller told The Tribune that if the government caters to the wishes of unions who wanted him removed, he would tell his version of the debacle at BEC “in full colour.”

“Whether they like it or not, I was not sent here to appease unions,” he said. “Now if the government policy is that they got to cater to the union and cater to them at the expense of the Bahamian people then I have a serious problem with that, and when that time comes you all will hear from me in full colour.”

At the time Mr Miller’s statement was criticised by Bahamas Electrical Workers Union President Paul Maynard, who said he had “gone too far” by “threatening the prime minister.”