The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE public apology Free National Movement Senator Lanisha Rolle made to her colleagues last week after previously criticising them attracted mixed reactions from FNM parliamentarians, with one saying it’s “too little too late.”

Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn – who was among the first to condemn Mrs Rolle for claiming that some MPs in the party are “jealous” of FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis – seemed unmoved by Mrs Rolle’s apology when contacted by The Tribune yesterday.

He said while he had heard about her apology after the fact, he was not forewarned about it.

“It’s too little, too late as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “To take a month or however long, it’s too late. That’s a lot of time for her to rehearse what she wanted to say. If you wanted people to feel like it was an appropriate apology you’d at least tell them when you’re going to give it so they can hear it. But I wasn’t informed.”

Mrs Rolle’s apology was made last week Thursday during an appearance on the 96.9 FM talk show “The Conversation,” the same show on which she had made her initial controversial comments.

She said in January: “Some sitting MPs are, and let’s call it what it is, they are jealous, some are envious of the favour Dr Minnis has with the masses and they are in positions of power.”

She had also made direct criticism of Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner, saying the country would not support her as leader over Prime Minister Perry Christie, adding that the parliamentarian should “humble” herself before Dr Minnis.

She also said Dr Minnis had the support of FNM councillors and “thousands of voters,” adding that only a few MPs “who are holding seats for now” did not back him.

In apologising publicly for her remarks last week, Mrs Rolle said she and Mrs Butler-Turner have a cordial relationship.

Mrs Butler-Turner, however, declined to comment on her apology when asked yesterday about it.

Central Grand Bahama MP Neko Grant – who had released a statement in February calling for Mrs Rolle to apologise publicly for her “unprovoked attack” on him and his colleagues – said he has accepted her public apology.

“I’m prepared to move on,” he said yesterday. “It’s never too late to do the right thing.”

Meanwhile, Mrs Rolle said she hoped the party could focus on unseating the Christie administration instead of internal bickering.

“I did think at the time that certain things needed to be said but, in hindsight, I think it could have been done a different way,” she said on Thursday. “What I was trying to convey, and I hoped that I conveyed, was that the Free National Movement had followed a democratic process according to the (party’s) constitution and I wanted to encourage all.”

“I wanted the (negative) talk to actually cease because our focus is on the Progressive Liberal Party and the fact that they are failing the Bahamian people,” she added.

“To the extent that any person would have been offended by any part or to the extent they would have been offended by my comments, I do apologise; but certainly that was not the intent.

“Certainly I am here to build the party and I support every Free National Movement member of Parliament 100 per cent and certainly I follow and support the leader 110 per cent because he pushes us to the 100 per cent,” Mrs Rolle said.