The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

FORMER FNM Chairman Darron Cash yesterday criticised Prime Minister Perry Christie for his continued perceived failures, insisting that Bahamians no longer “trust” the present administration.

Mr Cash said the instances of Mr Christie not living up to his words are “numerous”, adding that despite the prime minister’s “moral indignation” when questioned about his decision-making, his failures are obvious.

“The country cannot survive two more years of failed and failing governance; whether a self-serving prime minister believes the FNM is a credible option or not,” insisted Mr Cash.

“The only credible way for Mr Christie and his government to regain any moral authority is for the (prime minister) to go back to the people in a general election.

“That will not happen because (Mr Christie) expects that he will surely lose.”

To support his indictment of the prime minister, Mr Cash cited a Tribune report that the government has failed to enact campaign finance laws despite Mr Christie expressing the need for such reform before and after the 2012 general election.

Mr Cash suggested that the Progressive Liberal Party did not want campaign finance laws because it did not want to disclose its donors.

“If he (the prime minister) passes meaningful campaign finance laws I will eat the first five pages of the new law in Parliament Square,” Mr Cash quipped.

In its 2012 Electoral Observation Mission report on elections in the Bahamas, the Organisation of American States (OAS) recommended that campaign finance laws be introduced here.

The OAS said the issue seemed less important to Bahamian politicians than it did to other stakeholders in the country.

Mr Cash said yesterday there is a “middle road” available to Mr Christie.

According to Mr Cash, the prime minister can work with political groups to craft a “meaningful set of laws” aimed at improving government “performance and accountability”.

The former FNM chairman added that if the prime minister fails to craft any “substantial” constitutional reforms, the Bahamian people should define their own set of proposed reforms and vote for them in a “people’s referendum” in October 2015.

“A serious prime minister would move with haste to pass a meaningful Freedom of Information Act, so that he can prove that he has clean hands.

“It is my view that Prime Minister Christie never wants the truth about how his government functions to come out. He can prove me wrong by permitting the opposition parties, the Chamber of Commerce, the press and the Coalition for Responsible Taxation Reform to take a leading role in drafting a substantial Freedom of Information Act with teeth.”

Mr Cash suggested that if the prime minister fails to act on this by Friday, “all the stakeholders who want the system changed should write the law without him.”

“The serious political party will take it and run with it. He should commit to passage before October 31, 2015.

“We need to send a message to Prime Minister Christie that it is time for him to get up off his ‘seat of power’ and do something that we the people demand,” Mr Cash said.