The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

PETER Turnquest took an angry swipe at Free National Movement (FNM) leadership candidate Loretta Butler-Turner last night amid fractious scenes at the party’s convention, insisting “respect must be earned”.

In the keynote address on the second night of the convention, the party’s incumbent Deputy Leader targeted the Long Island MP, reprimanding her for far exceeding her allocated 25-minute time slot.

In a two-minute diatribe preceding his prepared speech, the East Grand Bahama MP said the FNM was not built on the chaotic and fractured practices on display so far at the convention.

“If you want respect, you must first show respect. Respect must be earned,” he shouted to resounding applause by hundreds of delegates. “The party I knew way before I knew what politics was is nothing like this.”

Mr Turnquest, much to the chagrin of his detractors in the room at the Melia Nasau Beach Resort, emphasised that the unseemly scenes would be brought to an end on Friday, firmly implying that an overwhelming victory was on the way for him and leadership candidate, Dr Hubert Minnis.

Directly addressing Mrs Butler Turner’s five-point strategic plan she outlined earlier in the evening, he contended that symbol of the starfish, the logo of the plan openly displayed by the Long Island MP at the rostrum, did not matter.

Mr Turnquest stated emphatically: “The only symbol that matters tonight is this, the torch.”

Mrs Butler-Turner’s camp were believed to be unhappy about chants of ‘Roc Wit Doc’ during her speech coming from Dr Minnis’ supporters and claiming it was disrespectful.

With chants of “Peter” ringing through the convention hall, an angered Mr Turnquest suggested that he had to “find a way to calm down”.

At the end of his speech, he returned to the fractured nature of the FNM, calling on delegates to make the “smart and best choice” when voting on the leadership positions today.

“Delegates and Bahamians, I encourage you to stay the course with Dr Hubert Minnis and Peter Turnquest. Make no mistake about it, our only objective is to see all Bahamians succeed and to create wealth for our citizens. We are dreaming big and we know with your support and prayers we will achieve great things for our country together.

“Let us ‘Roc wit Doc’, who has demonstrated respect for all of his colleagues despite being bated into public arguments, whose temperament speaks of self-confidence, control and a spirit of tolerance.”

Dr Minnis and Mr Turnquest face a challenge from Mrs Butler-Turner and Dr Duane Sands for the leader and deputy leadership respectively today with the result announced tonight.

Having regained his composure after his initial outburst, Mr Turnquest criticised the government for its many failures during its time in office.

Mr Turnquest highlighted the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) referendum record, inability to sustain its heavily touted “bridge to the future and laughed off the government’s “Bahamians First” mantra.

He juxtaposed the Christie administration’s many botches with the FNM’s record with the Princess Margaret Hospital’s Critical Care Block, Emergency Room facility at the Rand Memorial Hospital in Grand Bahama and success of the roadworks project under the last Ingraham government.

“I hope that all Bahamians now fully realise that this PLP government is not good for The Bahamas and that this fabled bridge is as incomplete and rickety as the designers and planners who conceived it. It’s time for them to go.

“For two years we have had ministers flying up and down to China wasting valuable man hours and money - because everyone goes first-class - with absolutely nothing to show for it and no accountability. I suppose they forgot the Chinese are pretty good with technology and teleconferencing is possible today with amazing clarity.

“With an unemployment rate in New Providence said to be 13.2 per cent and in Grand Bahama 14.7 per cent - most of which represents women - with youth unemployment in excess of 30 per cent, this PLP government should be the last to talk about Bahamians First.”

Mr Turnquest called the government’s employment numbers “shameful and disgraceful”.

He recommended the establishment of platforms for education, crime, energy reform, fiscal responsibility and innovative industry development. The East Grand Bahama MP said he wants to see biomedical facilities in The Bahamas and software developers creating new software. He said the next FNM government will introduce real education reform to give children a foundation for the “building blocks to knowledge”.

“The fabled double investment in education continues to fail our children and our future,” he said. “Thousands of children continue to leave school, with only about 50 per cent actually graduating, with little to no skills and a job market unprepared to receive them.

“Your next FNM government will continue to equip our discipline forces, including a new Corrections Facility where our hard-working officers are not made prisoners themselves by virtue of having to work in that hell-hole eight hours a day.

“An FNM government will make trade and industry a key focus of our program to grow our economy and provide new careers for our people. The FNM will bring relief to this situation with a short, medium and long term plan centred on the immediate engagement of PPP (public-private partnerships) arrangements with known generation providers and a plan to develop alternate fuel sources right here at home. Whether it be solar, bio fuels, wave or geothermal technology, a serious effort to reduce our reliance on costly fossil fuels will be undertaken.

“The FNM proposes programme-driven expenditures, where each initiative is evaluated and costed for its effectiveness verses its cost, tangible and intangible. We also propose a fiscal rule where these large unexplained contingent amounts we see in the annual budgets are reduced or eliminated. Where any expenditure over a defined variance is brought back to Parliament or to a Committee of Parliament for review and approval,” he added.