Prime Minister Perry Christie addressing the crowd at a PLP rally in the Marathon constituency on Saturday night.
By AVA TURNQUEST
Tribune Chief Reporter
aturnquest@tribunemedia.net
MAKING it clear that his administration “never claimed to be perfect,” Prime Minister Perry Christie is confident that voters across the country will look past unflagging issues of high unemployment and crime to return the Progressive Liberal Party to office.
Mr Christie told crowds of supporters at a mini-rally in Marathon on Saturday that notwithstanding challenges, his government never stopped providing opportunities for Bahamians and remained the “best investment” in the country’s future.
His comments come as parliamentarians prepare for the dissolution of Parliament on Tuesday, April 11, and the end of the government’s legislative agenda.
“We know that there are those of you who are looking for jobs,” he said, “who are looking for security, and who feel that more could have been done. We have never claimed to be perfect but I tell you this, we have never stopped working and providing opportunities for the people of this country.
“And I have no doubt whatsoever that in the quietude of your homes when you think about it, you know if you’re going to make an investment in your future, the best investment you can make is in the PLP.”
Mr Christie maintained his government’s record investment in education, and development of the Family Islands.
“Those who want their children or grandchildren to be educated,” Mr Christie said, “they must know, and if they don’t know, we have to tell them that at no time in the history of this country has more been done to lay the basis of the best possible education for our children.”
Mr Christie continued: “We live in a country that is spread over 100,000 square miles of water. People live through these islands they have come to expect that their government would show that they are aware of their needs.
“At no time in the history of this country have you had a government that has done more on all the islands together in the history of this country than my Progressive Liberal Party. We want to thank the birthday boy for an incredible job that he has done in the field of education in securing the future for our children.
“So when people have to make a choice when they ask themselves who they should vote for, look at the record. Look at the record and then when they look to the future and the challenges that will be in front of this country they must ask themselves, one by one as they examine the candidates in this general election, which party has put up the team that is the best team.
“I have no doubt that your Progressive Liberal Party has the best team.”
The mini-rally marked the birthday of Marathon MP Jerome Fitzgerald, and the continuity of government jobs and projects was a central theme for most of the candidates that took to the stage at Claridge Park to energise their party’s base and elicit support for ground campaigns.
Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell remarked that area residents have approached him about the cessation of government job programmes. Making a clear distinction between the former administration’s 52-week plan, and his party’s “empowerment programme,” Mr Mitchell said there would be nothing to worry about if the PLP were re-elected.
“You’ve been hired by the government and the only way that will change is if you elect the FNM to be the government. What you need to do on Election Day is make sure the PLP is the government and then you don’t have to worry about losing no job.
“Last year, the PM announced that 3,500 public servants would go on the permanent and pensionable and that is happening right now as we speak. So the only thing you have to worry about is if the FNM takes over in May.
“If you vote PLP you don’t have to worry about whether you’re going to lose your job after election, so don’t come asking us what’s going to happen after Election Day. You have that power in your hands, vote PLP, you don’t have to worry.”
Free Town candidate Wayne Munroe urged supporters to “keep the FNM out” if they wanted to ensure that the Urban Renewal 2.0 programme, and other community investments continue.
“If they want the government to continue to love them they should vote PLP,” Mr Munroe said, “that is the only party that constantly shows its love for the people instead of things.”
For his part, Southern Shores MP Kenred Dorsett said: “This election is one of the most important elections in this country’s history if you want National Health Insurance vote PLP . . . if you want more jobs vote PLP.”
Comments
realfreethinker 7 years, 7 months ago
What a bunch of bullshit. The same old promises that have not been fullfilled in the last five years. “If they want the government to continue to love them they should vote PLP,” Mr Munroe said, “that is the only party that constantly shows its love for the people instead of things.” What ba joke. Love don't feed the children or pay the bills. If this is their campaign strategy,they will be wiped out next month.
realfreethinker 7 years, 7 months ago
Don't these people realize that the country is suffering from Perry and plp fatigue?
BMW 7 years, 7 months ago
They have no idea of the garbage they spew. Everybody is suffering from perry and plp fatigue.
TalRussell 7 years, 7 months ago
Comrades! Before you get too excited - no political party in the 2017 race have even attempted to satisfy a single voter that the "envelopes" will not pass under and over the table - if it's their party that forms Bahamalad's new government! Neither of the parties even talk about doing away with Poverty - that is so possible and not expensive in our Bahamaland.
We will still imprison those under represented citizens. The politicians will from all parties will still use our civil and criminal libel laws to silence those who dare to publicly expose them.
HarryWyckoff 7 years, 7 months ago
Actually, the FNM has promised an FOIA and Fiscal Responsibility Act on Day One.
So now your 'envelopes' part collapses in a pile of yellow dust.
As to doing away with poverty - how, exactly? Further taxes on the people with jobs will help those in poverty now, but send just as many into poverty.
While ending poverty is a great dream in a utopian society, how does one fund it? Where does the money come form? Is the money just free money, perpetually, for those who are in poverty regardless of why they are in poverty?
Poverty exists in every nation in the world - governments can only assist in relieving it - they can't just 'magic' it away.
How can it be relieved? Through focusing on expanding the economy, developing a brighter path for those with local businesses so they can hire those without work.
This is done by more focused spending, fiscal responsibility at a government level - cutting down on waste and spending (Oh... like the FNM's Fiscal Responsibility Act the PLP will never enact!)
The path is not "raise taxes and rob the treasury blind" as the current administration seems to believe!
banker 7 years, 7 months ago
Take a look at this from the Guardian:
An article published yesterday by thedailybeast.com suggested continued foreign investment in The Bahamas by the Chinese government and Chinese investors has amounted to them being “in control of a country just 180 miles from the coast of the United States”. The article goes on to call The Bahamas a Chinese “client”.
That is the legacy of the PLP -- selling our sovereignty and putting the Chinese in control. No Crisco Butt, you are far from perfect -- you are a traitor to all Bahamians.
TalRussell 7 years, 7 months ago
Comrade Banker, we can debate the degree of the Chinese's grip over the economy, but if there is a issue be concerned with, shouldn't you have used the moment to lay the blame squarely at feet of both the former law partners PM's?
Do not lose sight that many years had passed when Izmirlian couldn't get any other investor other than the Chinese to back his dream of building a French Riviera on Cable Beach.
There is little ever done in Bahamaland, that doesn't have the hands of both former law partners on them.
You're only fooling yourselves, if you think there is a message from either party leaders that much, or anything, will change once the votes are made official this 2017 General?
banker 7 years, 7 months ago
You are demonstrating a favourite trick of apologists. When the guilt//corruption/ morals/ perfidy is apparent even to the blind, the response to defending the indefensible is to blame others as well.
Hubert Alexander Ingraham was the only patriotic prime minister of the Bahamas. End of story. He re-built the infrastructure. He governed the ungovernable. It doesn't matter what you PLP sycophants believe or say, history will show it.
TalRussell 7 years, 7 months ago
Comrade Banker, Wasn't it Minnis, who after becoming red party leader - - attempted to be brutally honest that the 'Papa Hubert era was rightfully over' - was then forced into being quiet and never to again mentioned Papa's regime in a negative way?
Get back to me after Minnis - get's his government issued car and license plates, back from Long Island's "Reheasa?
banker 7 years, 7 months ago
Typical PLP sycophant -- and what I demonstrated in the previous post. We were talking about the crimes the PLP and Crisco Butt, and you bring in a government opposition car into the convo. Nice try, but focus. Think of the disrepute, criminality and kleptocracy that the PLP brought to this country -- diminishing it. Typical. SMT.
realfreethinker 7 years, 7 months ago
banker I have long stop responding to talrussell it's just a waste of typing time. Nothing coming from the tip of his finger makes sense. Just another plp fraud
HarryWyckoff 7 years, 7 months ago
An investor is far different to an owner.
We now have Chinese owning a massive chunk of a major industry our economy depends on.
This is bad.
Period.
TalRussell 7 years, 7 months ago
Comrade HarryWyckoff, it will all come down to, if 2017 General Election voters, want to believe that the Red Party out desperation has sold it's soul back to the UBP oligarchs wing the party?
themessenger 7 years, 7 months ago
I don't think that's the case Tal, but if it was would that be so bad? Growing up in the fifties and sixties this country was a much different and better place to live regardless of your skin color as racism has never flourished so much as it does now, just ask Fred Mitchell. No the the UBP were not as pure as the driven snow but at least then there was a semblance of honor among thieves, the Rule of Law still existed, we had a thriving economy and no national debt. I mean look at all of the social and economic strides we've made since Majority Rule, if we are honest with ourselves the only black people our new Masters have really empowered in the last fifty years are themselves. Ask anybody living in Masons Addition, Bain Town or the Grove what any of their new political masters every did to lift them up, its been all for me baby for a long time.
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years, 7 months ago
@banker - Here's a history refresher that you are clearly in need of. It was none other than Hubert Alexander Ingraham who brought Red China to our shores many moons ago. This was not done by Pindling or Christie. It was an Ingraham-led administration that announced to the entire world in May 1997 that the Bahamas had decided to abandon Taiwan and adopt the one China policy. From that point on, Red China saw us as an easy target for its spread of imperialism.
licks2 7 years, 7 months ago
So now the PLP is changing its election theme again. . ."WE EEN PERFECT" is new noise coming from . . . we been telling yall that from jump street. . .yinna did not even cared to listen to we dutty peoples them and acted like we did not matter. . .total disregard for our trust placed in them when we voted them in government. . ."NOW THE RABBIT GAT THE GUN". . .now the PLP is dutty to us with PM Christie as its leader. . . he is a waste of time as a government leader. . .
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years, 7 months ago
Christie's single greatest weakness as a politician has always been the valuing of loyalty to the exclusion of all else including competency, honesty, integrity, and work ethic. Pindling and Ingraham each had an initial five year term as PM (although some would argue an initial ten years in the case of Pindling) without succumbing to this most serious weakness of valuing loyalty above all else. Often the great loyalty needed and sought has been bought over many years by turning a blind eye to flagrant abuses of office by cabinet ministers and other key political appointees like the attoney general who are very much prone to engaging in corrupt activities of one kind or another. As a result of suffering from the 'loyalty above all else' syndrome, Christie has failed to bring into active politics a much needed new and younger generation of well educated Bahamians (from all walks of life, not just lawyers, doctors and accountants) armed with fresh ideas and the innovative technology skill sets demanded by today's world. Christie values the old tried and tested status quo so much so that he no longer even sees a need to periodically re-shuffle his cabinet ministers and other political appointees. After all, why bother to re-shuffle them? Most of them are grossly incompetent and many of them have flourshing and well-entrenched corrupt side dealings associated with their ministerial portfolio and/or political office. A re-shuffling would therefore be most disruptive in the case of the likes of Obie Wilchcombe, Brave Davis, Shane Gibson, Allyson Maynard-Gibson, Baltron Bethel, and so on. It is indeed most unfortunate that Minnis too shows definite signs of valuing loyalty to the exclusion of all else; presumably as a means of staying politically relevant given his many other serious shortcomings. As for McCartney and the DNA, well, lets just say that they remain an irrelevant distraction in active politics. Sadly, very few reputable and highly qualified Bahamians decided to throw their hat into the ring as independent candidates at a time when we are essentially left with only two very great evils to choose from. The big question for me is: Can we really afford to fatten up another batch of grossly incompetent and likely corruptible (if not already corrupt) politicians?
DDK 7 years, 7 months ago
You actually had me in your corner today, right up to "It is indeed most unfortunate that Minnis too shows definite signs of valuing loyalty to the exclusion of all else; presumably as a means of staying politically relevant given his many other serious shortcomings". Please lay off the Doc!
Greentea 7 years, 7 months ago
Well_muddah_take_sic is right DDK- and your inability to only see half of the picture through your partisan glasses is the kind of viewpoint that brings corrupt politicians joy and a comfortable sleep each night. That Lanisha Rolle - a sycophant of Minnis, who clearly demonstrated her loyalty as well as her complete unsuitability for public office was ratified for Sea Breeze only proves his point.
Reality_Check 7 years, 7 months ago
@ Mudda - I don't think too many of us will find most of what you say here disagreeable. I certainly agree that new hands in the cookie jar are not going to help us any, and may even be much worse for us ........ especially if they must fatten new hungry bellies.
kairosmatt 7 years, 7 months ago
How has no one picked up on this quote:
"at no time in the history of this country has more been done to lay the basis of the best possible education for our children.”"
NO TIME IN HISTORY!!!! LOL.
If we are not a failed state, our education system and those comming out of it are a COMPLETE failure. F. Not D- because they keep changing the standards. And D- isn't something to be proud of anyway.
We can't read, add, subtract, think. But at NOT TIME IN HISTORY has more been done for those who want their children and grandchildren to be educated! FAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years, 7 months ago
No worry! Minnis is planning to greatly increase the funding necessary for incentivizing and developing inner-city small businesses by all those who can't read, write, or do basic maths and have absolutely little or no financial acumen. Translation: A costly social welfare program on steroids is headed our way which will do nothing for our country's productivity/GDP, but is guaranteed to take our annual deficits and national debt to new heights! A Minnis-led government would likely be even worse than the one we have had the last five years under Christie, especially when it comes to maintaining the failed public education policies aimed at producing uneducated and undiscerning voters who can be easily manipulated and therefore unlikely to vigorouly protest rampant corruption by our elitist political leaders and their cronies.
Greentea 7 years, 7 months ago
You are on a roll! Who owns the majority of properties in the "inner-city"? By and large it is not the people who actually live there. So who will benefit from these incentives? How will it be monitored? Sounds good, but no sound plan regarding implementation can be heard, because like the GOP healthcare plan in the USA - none exists.
DDK 7 years, 7 months ago
Perry Christie: LIAR! LIAR! PANTS ON FIRE!
John 7 years, 7 months ago
Perry Christie, never in his wildest dreams imagined that there would be such a massive shift from him and the PLP as has happened in the past few weeks. He never thought Hubert Minnis could ever organize and polarize his party with so much cohesion. But that is not the end of the story. A lot of people are waering their PLP shirts and attending PLP rallies and pretending to be supporters only to get election goodies and to cover their backsides should the PLP win and they don't plan to be left out in the cold. Hubert Minnis is in the mall shopping for a rocking chair for Peerry, Bernard Nottage, Bradley Roberts and some of them young ones too. They young set gonna sit on the step and be taught. Voters will not look beyond High Crime and High Unemployment and corruPTION! That is what you and the PLP campaigned on that you wouold fix, crime, that you will stop the murders, that you will put Bahamians back to work..and your government will be accountable.
TalRussell 7 years, 7 months ago
Comrades! Regardless of which capitalist system political party wins as the new 2017-2022 government, we are on course to be stuck as a nation that is too wealthy not to have a plan for eradicating Poverty, by the year 2027.
I wonder why the capitalist parties - are so afraid of eradicating Poverty - when its so much more affordable for all?
Rather than leave the bigger pie with the numbers operators, why not use that pie to create a National Lottery - that alone can be a major partner to eradicate poverty, by the year 2017!
ohdrap4 7 years, 7 months ago
you don't say!!!!
Greentea 7 years, 7 months ago
Dear PM, Bahamians never asked or expected a perfect government, but we asked for and deserve a competent one. You have not been able to provide either. At this point, the greatest public service that you and your seemingly loyal four blind mice can do for the political life of this country is to bow out of frontline politics, step aside and go away.
TigerB 7 years, 7 months ago
In the Guardian i see the PM is talking about the crowd, Well its interesting. The old space that was used by both parties here in Freeport that property was sold to Island Luck. So they use their PLP building grounds. I estimated the site may be about 70 by 70. hence the crowd spilled into the road making it look big. I was there in person. Its nothing like the PLP crowd I am used to seeing... maybe the PM need glasses now!!
jamesg30 7 years, 7 months ago
No more additional consumption taxes. This country needs an income tax. Why shouldn't those that make more, pay a little extra? Why should the poor and those on fixed incomes pay the same for a loaf of bread? This is a Christian country? Where are the fancy pants pastors of the Mega Churches on this one? I guess an income tax would not let them top off their Gulfstream jets so easily at their favorite FBO. There needs to be a rework of this messed up taxation system. The IMF knows it. Moody's knows it. The boys in charge seem to be in denial as long as they can make a quick get away. They can afford to flee to Atlanta, or some gated community, but when.... when are the people in power, truly going to think about their brothers and sisters of this country and not their grubby little fat fingers jamming dollars into their pockets. Shame on them and shame on the constituency for continuing to elect the same thieves back into power. Our people better get control and get control soon or we are "Royally" screwed for generations. At least the Royals were an outside monarch. To see how our own are treating our own has no explanation, accept if you have ever read the book, "Animal Farm". Then it all makes sense. I am done now.
avidreader 7 years, 7 months ago
Pleased to see some very intelligent comments here today. My greatest fear is that we should find ourselves in a situation where the Bahamian Dollar suffers the pangs of devaluation. Our unexposed people for the most part have little or no experience with currency exchange rates and the serious consequences of a currency devaluation, especially upon a country that cannot feed itself and depends too heavily upon imports paid for in another currency. I have to assume that no sitting government wants to be associated with a currency devaluation and the resulting crippling inflation that can be expected as a result. Are our students even told about Stafford Sands pegging the Bahamian Dollar to the United States Dollar in May of 1966? Are they aware that we used pounds shillings and pence before that date? How many of our people are aware of what happened to the economies of Jamaica and Guyana as a result of the serious devaluation of their currencies over a period of years? Doesn't it say somewhere in the Bible "my people are dying from lack of knowledge"?
TalRussell 7 years, 7 months ago
Comrades! When it comes to not tackling to eradicate poverty by the year 2027 -: it's only going get that much more expensive to not only be poor but for the middle class to avoid tumbling down to join the poor.
It's already too damn expensive be poor.
How poor is poor? When the bank charges you crazy high fees for writing a cheque and you have insufficient funds in your bank account to even cover the cheque amount - much less the damn bank's fees.
sheeprunner12 7 years, 7 months ago
The PLP three big post-2012 achievements to date ........ 1. Bahamar ......... 2. BAMSI .......... 3. VAT ............. Now if any sensible person wants to call that almost "not perfect" ..... GO FIGGER
sheeprunner12 7 years, 7 months ago
Then consider the follow-up to the Top Three: .......... 4. UB .......... 5. BPL .......... 6. Junkaval .................. GO FIGGER
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