The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

THE appointment of controversial talk show host and activist Rodney Moncur to the Senate by Opposition Leader Loretta Butler-Turner has been branded a “failure of ingenuity and promised political advancement” by one of the Free National Movement’s (FNM) founders.

Maurice Moore, regarded as one of the party’s founding fathers, yesterday condemned the appointment as a blight to the legacy and core nature of the FNM.

Mr Moore told The Tribune that his long-held belief of Mrs Butler-Turner has finally been supported by merit and public action. “She wants to see the party destroyed,” he claimed.

The Long Island MP assumed the post of Official Opposition leader after spearheading a parliamentary revolt against current party leader, Killarney MP Dr Hubert Minnis, earlier this month.

Mrs Butler-Turner, along with six of her parliamentary colleagues submitted a letter of no confidence to the governor general and House Speaker Dr Kendal Major blasting Dr Minnis as a poor leader.

Addressing Mrs Butler-Turner’s Senate appointments yesterday, Mr Moore issued a strong rebuke of the Long Island MP, insisting that her “poor, vindictive and spiteful concept of politics is now up-front and obvious.”

“She can’t hide it anymore,” Mr Moore added. “This act was spiteful and nothing about it showed she is aware of what goes into leading this country.

“When you make moves like this, this appointment, the country can see that you are lost as you can be. There is no recovery from this.

“Dr Minnis, yes you two had issues, but he offered an olive branch on several occasions and all you did was stab that man in the back and for what, to get in the big chair and run our party through the mud?”

He added: “That is why I laughed when they compared the selfish, ego-driven actions to what we did back in the day. This party was established by men who made extreme sacrifices. That is what we did, it had nothing to do with any of us wanting to take (former Prime Minister Sir Lynden) Pindling’s spot. We want our country to improve, be better for our kids and an overall betterment of our society.”

The FNM was established through dissension within the first independent Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government.

Mr Moore joined seven of his colleagues known as the “dissident eight” to take issue with how Sir Lynden and his Cabinet managed the country after Majority Rule.

The current parliamentary dissenters, known as the “rebel seven,” now face disciplinary action that could lead to expulsion from the party.

In a statement earlier this month, the MPs slammed the party’s response to their actions.

The statement said: “To be clear, it is absurd and perverse that our party would entertain the thought of expelling us for taking the same actions that the dissident eight – the founders of the FNM – took against Sir Lynden Pindling and the PLP in response to our country’s first preoccupation with the cult of personality in a post-Majority Rule Bahamas.”

Mr Moore continued yesterday: “Our motive back then was completely different. We were a part of the government, our attitude was that (Bahamians) had the control of their resources for the first time, we thought the government ought to have put more into our educational system and training systems.

“We were leaving a party that could destroy our lives and our families for generations to come. Don’t give me that nonsense about what you did being on par with what we did then.

“We put our lives on the line, all we had worked for on the line. We knew it was up to us to put principles first and put in place a guard against the PLP and what the wanted to do. That was the Free National Movement.

“(Mrs Butler-Turner) will do anything for power and political fame. She and everyone else association with her needs expelled because all she is doing is strengthening the PLP. Every move, all her actions have been to make a mockery of the FNM. This must stop. She has gone too far this time.”

On Monday, Mrs Butler-Turner appointed Mr Moncur; former FNM Senator Monique Gomes and Long Island native, Jude Knowles to the Senate. Democratic National Alliance (DNA) Leader Branville McCartney was appointed leader of opposition business in the Senate last week.