The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

Gregory Moss, leader of the United Democratic Party (UDP), is calling on “all patriotic” Bahamians who want to see the country advance and progress to join the fledgling party.

“Your country needs you,” Moss declared in a press statement this week.

The MP for Marco City, who resigned as a member of the governing Progressive Liberal Party and formed the UDP party last year in Grand Bahama, said that Bahamians are worse off now than 20 years ago.

Although Mr Moss indicated that the UDP intends to contest every seat in the 2017 general election, the party has not yet announced the ratification of any candidates, nor has it held its convention planned for July 31.

In a statement released on Monday, the MP said both the PLP and Free National Movement politicians continue to play politics while poor and middle class Bahamians continue to suffer.

“These are sad times. But this is also a time for progress,” said Mr Moss.

“As Leader of the United Democratic Party, I call upon all patriotic Bahamians who are sick and tired of the politics of corruption, incompetence and impoverishment, and who want to see our country advance, to come together for the good of our people.”

He said: “It is time for us to honestly look within ourselves to decide the kind of Bahamas that we want for ourselves, our children, our grandchildren and others and to have the courage to be the change that is necessary to bring that Bahamas into being.”

Mr Moss stressed that politics continues to take precedence over progress in the actions of the PLP and the FNM, adding that both parties have only paid lip service to equitable income tax laws to tax the rich and bring tax relief to the working poor and middle class, and to effect freedom of information legislation which would allow the people to bring corrupt politicians to justice.

The Grand Bahama MP said the majority of the politicians, together with their families, friends and cronies, have prospered although they have no visible sources of income, or have sources of income which are clearly not sufficient to account for the wealth which they have accumulated.

He stated that the Bahamian people are in “despair” at the return of the “business as usual” politics under successive governments.

Pointing to the unpreparedness of the FNM to successfully challenge the PLP in the next general election, and the FNM’s dissatisfactory previous term, Mr Moss said governance of the country is in a “state of despair” at the prospect of another five years of governance with either party.

Mr Moss believes that the Democratic National Alliance party is also a disappointment.

“It has, sadly, shown itself to be a very small grouping of people who believe that control of a coalition government will fall into their laps by default.”

Mr Moss claims that the DNA party is hoping to force a coalition with either one of the two majority political parties, knowing it cannot win the election but hopes to win enough seats to force either the PLP or FNM to form a coalition with them to form the next Government of the Bahamas.

Mr Moss also talked about many opportunists who have formed undeclared political parties, masquerading as civic organizations.

If elected to office, Mr Moss said the UDP will repeal Value Added Tax, and the Grand Bahama (Port Area) Investment Act, if the Bill is enacted, and will enact laws to protect the country and to empower the Bahamian people.

Mr Moss noted that some $764 million has been stripped from the working poor and the middle class between 2014 and 2016 with implementation of (an FNM drafted and PLP enacted) Valued Added Tax. He said it is projected to take another $2.03 billion from between 2016 and 2019.

He said: “The PLP, with the support of the FNM, now wants to enact the Grand Bahama (Port Area) Investment Incentives Bill which will have the effect of giving foreign businesses in Freeport a tax break of at least $2 billion over the next 20 years in return for the Grand Bahama Port Authority and Hutchison Whampoa agreeing to do nothing more than what they are already obligated to do under existing agreements with the Government.”

Mr Moss said that what the Government is claiming as a good deal is, in fact, nothing more than a continuation of the same problems that have stagnated Freeport and the rest of Grand Bahama over at least the last 20 years.

He noted that since the imposition of a Real Property tax would not have any affect on businesses owned by Americans, Europeans, Canadians and other foreign persons from democratic countries, a real property tax exemption will not adversely affect businesses owned by them.

He explained that “those real property tax breaks will only be a benefit to foreign companies from non-democratic countries, such as the ownership by the communist Chinese in the Freeport Container Port, the Freeport Harbour Company, the Grand Bahama Airport Company, the Grand Lucayan Resort and the Grand Bahama Development Company (which owns the vast majority of all land in Grand Bahama) since they will have to pay those taxes in The Bahamas even where they are not required to pay them in their undemocratic countries.”

Mr Moss stressed that the purpose of the Grand Bahama (Port Area) Investment Incentives Bill is to give a tax break to the Chinese and to allow the Chinese to artificially keep the price of land in Freeport beyond the reach of most Bahamians.

“They would not have to pay real property taxes on such land and, therefore, would be able to continue to hoard Bahamian land at no cost to them,” he said. “These kinds of things need to be stopped.”

Mr Moss said that there is no doubt that the Bill will be enacted under a PLP and FNM government, if elected.