Dr Hubert Minnis
By SANCHESKA BROWN
Tribune Staff Reporter
sbrown@tribunemedia.net
FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis yesterday called the Christie administration the “worst government this country has ever seen.” Crime will continue to rise as long as they are in power, he said.
In an interview with The Tribune, Dr Minnis said the murder record is not the only record this administration will break. The Christie administration, he said, will also hold the record “for the most false promises and the most talk with no action.”
On Monday, the country recorded two more homicides, pushing the murder count to 127 for the year, tying 2011’s record for the highest number of murders ever recorded in the Bahamas. That record was set during the former Ingraham administration.
While in opposition, the Progressive Liberal Party frequently called for the resignation of then Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest over the rise in crime and murder. The PLP also campaigned on a general election platform that it had solutions to crime, however violent crimes and murder continue to be a problem.
Yesterday Dr Minnis said the PLP is clueless on how to solve the issue.
“(Prime Minister Perry) Christie and his boys have no clue what they are doing. They have no idea what to do when it comes to crime and governance. They have no direction and no clue on how to fix the crime problem because they blame everyone but themselves,” Dr Minnis said.
“They are truly the worst government this country has ever seen. We put forth a plan to deal with the crime problem. It included a revolutionary concept on community policing, we spoke about police cars being situated in hot spots and we gave them a point-by-point solution that they have not adopted. The PLP is clueless and the country will continue to suffer under them.”
Dr Minnis also criticised National Security Minister Dr Bernard Nottage for remaining silent “while the country burns.”
“Didn’t he say a couple (months) ago, that they were going to do community walkabouts and do something to fix this crime problem? Well I haven’t heard anything since then. Why hasn’t he addressed the public yet? Is he waiting for more people to die, more blood to be shed? This is ridiculous.”
In September, Dr Nottage blamed the judiciary for the country’s crime problem, and blasted judges for failing to impose stiffer penalties and not properly enforcing laws that are on the books.
Speaking in the House of Assembly at the time, Dr Nottage said that some magistrates give lighter sentences to criminals because the accused is someone in society’s “good son”. He said it is hard to believe that some judges live in the same country and still only give criminals “a slap on the wrist” when they appear before them.
Dr Nottage also said the government was “coming back to Parliament very shortly” with new measures to assist in the fight against crime.
“We hope these will assist us in the extraordinary task that we have to reduce and minimise the loss of death of our young people,” Dr Nottage said.
However, this proposed legislation has not been tabled in Parliament yet.
In August, Dr Nottage gave a national address on crime, however, it was widely criticised for “lacking depth” and providing little new strategies for crime fighting.
Comments
TruePeople 9 years, 1 month ago
Until you take over.......
Well_mudda_take_sic 9 years, 1 month ago
YA GAT DAT RIGHT!!!!
birdiestrachan 9 years, 1 month ago
Dr: Minnis can tell big lies with a straight face. Has he lost his memory or does he think the Bahamian people have, crime increased under the FNM The murder rate reached the highest peak under the FNM for the First time. DR: Minnins knows that no political party, no church no minister of the gospel no one knows the answer to the crime problems in the Bahamas. yet he lies and pretends he does. If Dr. Minnis or the FNM has the answer they would have solved the problem while they were in office.
mcatsc 9 years, 1 month ago
Stop pointing fingers and state your solutions!! Let's start with improving our education system and schools.
Cobalt 9 years, 1 month ago
Listen..... I was a teacher for five years, before going into medicine.
My experience in education forced me to realize that the majority of our young boys and girls are NOT interested in education! It's simply NOT an attractive prospect for them because it requires discipline and hard brain work!! The fact that you guys are failing to acknowledge, is that the majority of Bahamian students are NOT interested in exercising their brains! They have become distracted and consumed by the "something for nothing" mentality.
The drug culture has ruined the value of good, honest, hard work in the minds of our young students. Furthermore, it was my parents that pushed me, admonished me, and reminded me of the importance of a good education! And the only parents I see pushing their children (at least in the public education system) are the Haitian parents. If you don't believe me.... go and check it out for yourself. You'll find that the head boys and head girls for many of the government high school are of Hatian decent. They come here and take advantage of our public school educational system.
I agree with you that our school system can be modified and improved. But the heart of the problem is not the schools! It's the HOMES in which these students are coming from!! POOR PARENTING is the problem! Not the educational system! This is 2015!!! Educational resources are unlimited!! If you want a good education, all you have to do is open a book, and study its contents!! Go to any bookstore in the Bahamas. I bet you that they will tell you that their sales are down.
So why should the government spend tens of millions of dollars on education when they're probably not going to see an return on their investment? Now..... when you find one or two individuals that appear serious about their education...... those are the students that you invest the country's money in. Not the masses who aren't interested in books.
BoopaDoop 9 years, 1 month ago
Well said (written). I agree with your observations. Unfortunately, this trend is not reversible. Businesses will eventually have to lower their employment requirements and productivity and service will suffer while crime increases.
BaronInvest 9 years, 1 month ago
This is exactly the problem where the education system fails. You are not teaching the children how to learn, you are not teaching them how to reach their goals, how to have a successful life - where parents fail teachers have to be there - if you disagree change your job.
As a german i take those things for granded, in my country in your early years teachers actually teach you how to learn. The problem you described is exactly where you fail. Especially poor families don't give a crap about their childs education, so if books and internet access isn't free - how does that child have an option ? You are just blaming the parents for your inability to teach those children how to learn.
This is exactly why Bahamians cannot compete with the rest of the world - because you don't want to. And i am shocked that such statements are coming from someone calling them-self a teacher.
At this point i wouldn't send my child to a school in the Bahamas - when it's time we'll sell everything here and get back to europe so our child will get the proper education - even while we love the Bahamas it would not be responsible to send your kid to school here.
TruePeople 9 years, 1 month ago
Lyford cay School is prob the school you want for yah kids.
My2cents 9 years, 1 month ago
When teacher/student ratios are 1:30+ I imagine it is difficult to maintain order, much less teach. Parents have to be more involved and stop using the schools for free babysitting services. Ensuring that kids do their homework and put in extra time in classes where they are behind, is not asking for much. And they don't have to be scholars themselves, just concerned. At the same time the MOE needs to facilitate modern teaching methods and technology to compensate for overcrowded classrooms. If it were up to me, I would charge parents of failing students for wasted resources. If they chose to take the child out of school, they would be charged with a crime. Some people take "free" for granted if there was some sacrifice on their part I'm sure the results would improve.
TruePeople 9 years, 1 month ago
No Hand Outs.... you can't get something from nothing, even in the drug game... and giving free hand out is just encourage bad mentality and laziness... Bahamaians is just lazy like woe jhed... some don't even clean up dey house or yard.... 10 dudes sitting on a bruk-up wall drinking like 7 days out the week, and not one day you is see one of them move to pile up the stone back to fix the wall................................. lazy jhed...... At the same time, the gov't has to stop teefing the monies we do have....
BaronInvest 9 years, 1 month ago
To be honest, this countries problems can be fixed within 5 days. Fix the economy and lower government costs by removing import duties and increasing the VAT to 15% as a flat tax scheme, introduce national health insurance and regulate the medical sector more strongly (capped pricing on certain operations and medicine - e.g. i just bought a medicine in Spain for 40 CENTS which costs 40 DOLLARS in the Bahamas), improve education by hiring foreign teachers (maybe 100 teachers through receiving bonuses/visa), modernize the government departments for health, work, education and traffic with computers/eGovernment processes, enforce BEC to accept/buy solar-powered electricity from on-grid systems, force BEC to implement a wind-turbine based percentage of electricity, give police forces the proper tools to fight organized crime (GPS tracking, phone tapping, crime prediction systems, internet traffic logging - all the nice stuff they obviously don't have) - put it all into a bill called "Better Bahamas Bill". There you go, i just fixed the Bahamas.
TruePeople 9 years, 1 month ago
You sadly overlooked the human factor... 15%Vat will just give the gov't more money to mismanage. Introduce NHI.... well... I've known people who've been fighting to modernize medicine here (like having one standardized blood bank all hospitals can access in emergency) which is an uphill and failing battle.... We already have forgien teachers... mostly rookies on their first teaching assignment.... BEC and Solar power.... this is so obvious.... but still burning coal and administrating rolling blackouts.... As for the police, they definitely deserve better from this gov't, but the real crime (and the biggestcrimes) don't happen in the street they happen behind closed doors be men in suits and ties.
SO yea, alot of things that would be good. But if it's not realistic it's not a solution.
Islandgirl 9 years, 1 month ago
While you are about regulating the medical sector, regulate the legal one to avoid those treacherous and outrageous fees, dishonesty, embezzling and incompetence, and the business sector to improve things on a whole. It may be 40 cents in Spain, $40 here and $400 in the USA, all depending upon the market being served. Capping prices on certain operations, well perhaps you ought to speak to the persons performing those surgeries: they hold lives in their hands, spent a lot of time, youth and yes, money having themselves educated and developing those skills, and have to be accountable for those procedures and their patients' well being, no easy task, so discuss those caps with them before carrying them out. It's interesting that nobody looked at that other than to talk about the "rich doctors". They earned the right to charge their fees, more so than many other professions so before you turn them into slaves, look at everything involved in their profession. I am surprised none of them have spoken up for themselves on this. When you rob them of their living and they turn to another occupation, what then? Doctors are already leaving, in case you all didn't know it. Good ones too.
MonkeeDoo 9 years, 1 month ago
We need to take a page out of Singapore's book and criminalize corruption in any form, public or private sectors, big deals to lunch money, and hang drug dealers as well as murderers. Those sentences also have to disallow appeal to the Privy Council and therefore the Constitution will probably have to be changed. But who would argue with that ? You want to fix the problem or live with it in perpetuity ?.
jus2cents 9 years, 1 month ago
Well...?
It actually IS the worst government the Bahamas has ever had!
Look at the facts and statistics, it is without doubt the worst by a long margin.
They literally can't even organise a music festival!
End Of.
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