Loftus Roker
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POLL: Do you agree with Loftus Roker that the PLP is in “as worst a state as it has ever been"?
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By RICARDO WELLS
Tribune Staff Reporter
rwells@tribunemedia.net
IN the face of allegations of corruption while in office and a lack of unity on the way forward, former Progressive Liberal Party Cabinet minister Loftus Roker said yesterday the party was in “as worst a state as it has ever been.”
The Pindling era politician said he has watched with great angst the “slow, but public” demise of the PLP, saying people have had enough of “arrogant, know it all attitudes” displayed by members for much of the last 10 to 12 years.
He predicted this could be the end of the “great PLP” if the party does not return to its original message of 1967.
“This is a new low, my friend,” Mr Roker told The Tribune when asked for comment on the recent accusations levelled at the previous Christie administration.
“There were days of gloom, but never days of this sort of doom. I don’t think we have ever been to this degree before, but it didn’t happen overnight. We have been creeping in this direction for some time now,” the former immigration minister added.
Since losing the May 10 general election, the former administration has been dogged by allegations of misfeasance and wrongdoing.
Of the ordeals, Mr Roker on Monday said the “pompous and condescending attitudes” by PLP officials had pushed the public to a point where it could no longer “suck it up and go ahead with business as usual.”
“Are you kidding me, there were candidates going to persons and asking them for support, the same persons who in years past would seek and get support just to look at the people and tell them, ‘Settle down, I know what is best for you, you don’t.’ You can’t be serious.
“To a man hurting every day, that kind of attitude is hurtful. To a man hurting every day, that kind of attitude comes across as disrespect and a shove in the face. That is what it was, and after years and years of that, it pushed the party’s base as far away from the party as it had ever been.
“Check the record,” Mr Roker continued.
“When this party got started, it was done so on the back of the common people. They had the idea that the movement was their movement and the fight was their fight, because it was.
“This group over the last dozen or so years, flipped that. It became a movement of, ‘Leave it to us, we know how to govern, leave us to it because we know what is best.’”
According to Mr Roker, this shift in “political values” disenfranchised many of the country’s working class and inner-city voters—sections of the country that often supported the PLP.
Mr Roker said that this, when added to the country’s bleak economic outlook, high crime and education issues gave voters very little to “admire when headed to the polls.”
“They had nothing to vote for, nothing positive at least, and the one thing you could have depended on, the PLP being the party of the people, you took that flipped it completely. By the time we got to May 10, it became, ‘the PLP, the party against Bahamians.’”
The Free National Movement won 35 out of 39 seats in the House of Assembly on May 10, wiping out the incumbent Christie administration.
The PLP only captured one seat in New Providence and was driven out of many of its strongholds including Centreville, which was represented by former Prime Minister Perry Christie for 40 years.
“Look at the results, my friend, people who loved and revered this party all of their lives pushed to a point of no return,” Mr Roker told The Tribune.
“You had mothers who were raised in the PLP way, tell their children not to vote for the party. You had fathers who earned a living under the PLP, encourage their kids to look for a better option.
“To top it off, you had people that were sure in their minds that the FNM had little to nothing to offer say, ‘I rather go with the unknown before I give the PLP another chance.’
“So when I listen and look at what is happening today, I’m concerned by the state of the party because you have members who are still refusing to come around on their failures; they are refusing to make amends and some are refusing to make the necessary corrections.
“The PLP has to get back to the party’s original message, that 1967 message and regain the faith of the people; if not, I hate to say it, but this could be the end of the once great PLP.”
Earlier this month, George Smith, another former Pindling era Cabinet minister suggested the “cocky, arrogant and dismissive” attitudes of the Christie administration MPs were to blame for their defeat on May 10.
Mr Smith said he believes the PLP should seek forgiveness from the Bahamian people, and not continue to make excuses and blame others for the party’s loss at the polls.
His comments were in line with those by Exuma and Ragged Island MP Chester Cooper, who in a recent speech before the PLP’s National Progressive Institute, said the party lost the recent election because it ignored scandals and condoned behaviour it should not have.
Mr Cooper also said the party lost touch with the people it sought to help.
According to The Tribune’s analysis of the official election results, the PLP received 37 per cent of votes counted in the 2017 election, at least 11 per cent fewer than what it received in 2012.
Comments
Reality_Check 7 years, 3 months ago
Is this the best The Tribune can do to try titillate us into visiting its web site? Get your journalists out there to do some real, albeit costlier, investigative reporting of the kind that is much more meaningful to your readers but puts less profits in your owners' coffers!
TalRussell 7 years, 3 months ago
Comrades! Just you be patient for some real Tribune investigative reporting - like when the news gets out that Dr. Duane is drawing up plans to create some additional operating rooms space at the Princess Margaret Hospital - by relocating the hospital's morgue up to the Eastern Road. Just you wait until the red shirts minister, does park one them full dead people's freezers -- right next door to a big shot red shirts Eastern Road residence....... cause for damn sure the reds are not going dispatch dead people to Bain's Town and Centerville?
Itellya 7 years, 3 months ago
Moving it is a great idea. We do have a staffed coroners office. Other parts of the world they are the ones that house bodies.
jujutreeclub 7 years, 3 months ago
Tal. You mixed up like barracuda salad. You think any morgue will be located on eastern road or any area east or west. You would see that spikenard road before that.
sealice 7 years, 3 months ago
New Lows guys - that's what they are reporting on .... a long time card carrying member of your gang of cronies has admitted it finally..... we sucked before but now we are at a "new low" HAHAHAHA dumbarssesss.....
sheeprunner12 7 years, 3 months ago
While Roker fits the loud mouthed Pingdomite mentality ............. did Roker disavow support for V Alfred Gray in MICAL in the 2017 election?????? ............ Did he support the removal of V Alfred Gray from Cabinet after the disgraceful Mayaguana judicial fiasco?????? ......... Did he speak out against the past & recent gross mismanagement of public finances and hirings in MICAL?????? ......... If each before his doorstep swept .......... the village will be clean
jujutreeclub 7 years, 3 months ago
Sheep. He did campaign against V Alfred Gray and was one of the only to speak out about the foolishness happening while the PLP was in office. He's a straight shooter.
licks2 7 years, 3 months ago
HE DID SAY THAT HE VOTED AGAINST GRAY TO SHOW THE PLP HOW FAR IN THE BUSHES THEY HAVE GONE SINCE THE OLD DAYS!
TalRussell 7 years, 3 months ago
Comrade JuJuTreeClub. no - I'm not mixed-up like barracuda salad. The estimates the previous PLP administration received to build and equip a modern day Coroners Office was in the region of $7 million. The PLP rejected it as one of those things the country badly needed but they lacked the resources to move forward with....... And since "KP" done told Dr. Duane - that the public treasury is broke - not to come running to him for any money..... a morgue is something Dr. Duane would need fund by himself......cause "KP" done warned - it's dead on arrival."
I would also like think a new morgue is something the three Papa Hubert administrations had also taken look at and rejected due to lack of public resources to fund it? And, lets not forget that "KP" done committed to borrowing a BILLION Dollars - not to fund new projects like a new morgue but to payoff the PLP's 2017 general election promises....and to fund the PLP's old budget...cause ""KP." never wrote out his own Budget. { No, I can't make this up }.
Sickened 7 years, 3 months ago
With all the money that is no longer being stolen by government officials, this new government should have a lot more flexibility to get things done. Every month that goes by this new government is probably saving more than $10 million that would have been going into some PLP cronies' pocket. I have very high hopes for this new government; they had better not mess up!!!
birdiestrachan 7 years, 3 months ago
Mr.Roker was never a fan of the news media. they pull him out when they wish to say mean things about the PLP Party. They use him and he allows himself to be used.There was nothing to mean and low that they did not wright about him now he has become their go to man. With all due respect to Mr: Rocker he is a mere mortal who does not know the future, He voted against the PLP and he was elated when they lost. is in not enough for him?
pileit 7 years, 3 months ago
Look here, carry your yalla teet from roun here spewing your pungent bile! Een noone into you, BE GONE!
MassExodus 7 years, 3 months ago
It's your D- average that hurts to read Birdie. You grammar is poor. Do you read what you write? Not to mention your message is one of a paid PLP idiot Bahamian cancer.
John 7 years, 3 months ago
When you watch some of the things that are being printed and hear the things the PLP are saying, they still feel they have done nothing wrong. In fact the PLP, vis a vis the likes of Fred mitchel belive they have the only God given right to rule over this country. They are the masters we are the slaves. You can't expect apologies from people who feel they did nothing wrong. In fact they believe the Bahamian voters are wrong for voting against them and should be punished for it. And if you vote them back in office any time soon the real witch hunt will begin.
banker 7 years, 3 months ago
You are talking straight about this.
SP 7 years, 3 months ago
There is absolutely N-O-T-H-I-N-G Pillage Loot Plunder can ever do to regain my trust!
Perry Christie fooled the electorate by bringing in new young faces, then booted them to the sidelines immediately after winning 2012.
No thanks PLP, we have had enough of your stupidity!
happyfly 7 years, 3 months ago
Perry will go down in history as the guy who obliterated the PLP from the inside out with his sycophant lust for power over the Bahamian people, which really only turned out to be good old fashioned lust for money. All he did was get up every morning and think about how he was going to abuse his position to enrich himself to the point of no return for him and the lousy bunch of leeches that enabled him
baldbeardedbahamian 7 years, 3 months ago
Lthe honourable OFTUS ROKER., EDUCATION IN THE UK AS A LAWYER was PARTLY or mostly PAID BY SIR HAROLD CHRISTIE BACK IN DAY BEFORE THE UBP WAS EVEN THOUHHT OF. a minister of national security in swindling's government he came under public criticism for using dogs to track down illegal black Haitian immigrants. he maintained that he was just doing his job. maybe he was , I still do not know how I feel about this use of dogs but it does seem to hark back to the slavery era of the southern states chasing escaped slaves fleeing to the north. roker then gained much credibility amongst the discerning part of our society by resigning from pindling's cabinet because of the degree of corruption he perceived. as such his opinions are to be valued.
banker 7 years, 3 months ago
Thank you for killing the all-capitals button. What you say is true dat!
baldbeardedbahamian 7 years, 3 months ago
I just found this button that is labelled CAPSLOCK. I was wondering what it was for. Smile.
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years, 3 months ago
Pindling, radical QC student Sean McWeeney, Loftus Roker and others like them that followed are responsible for our D- education system. Their callous treatment of many dedicated and highly qualified expatriate teachers in the 1970s forced most of them to leave the Bahamas on very short notice, to be replaced by unqualified Bahamian teachers because qualified ones were in such short supply. This all but assurrd that generations of Bahamians to come would not receive the same quality of education that these lousy disrespectful scoundrels benefitted from. The behavior of these abhorrent scoundrels in the 1970s served as the catalyst for the very deliberate 'dumbing down' of generations of future voters. To this day Roker still has an evil side to him that no one deserves to ever experience.
sheeprunner12 7 years, 3 months ago
That was part of the Pindling plan to disenfranchise Bahamian black people ......... regardless of what the SLOP disciples say ........ He was no national hero ........ He created the "one size fits all" public secondary schools that continue with little reform .......... He protected and encouraged the private schools that continue to cater to the social "haves" who benefit from tertiary education scholarships .......... even though they leave and do not come back home............... Pindling is the blame for the squalor, dumbness and crime of the ghettos today
baldbeardedbahamian 7 years, 3 months ago
As I recall A.D.Hanna was the chief instigator and architect of the bahamianization program that you refer to. Like Swindling's immovable property act, it was an idea with some merit that had unfortunate and unforeseen consequences. We lost so many young highly motivated, highly educated teachers. This is partly why we have a national D minus average today.
sheeprunner12 7 years, 3 months ago
Are you saying that that the pre-Independence foreign, white, mostly unlettered teachers are better than the trained, degreed Bahamian teachers today???????? ................. That is a slippery slope, my friend
The dysfunctional educational system with built-in misguided national developmental and legislative policies is a bigger issue ........ Recheck
baldbeardedbahamian 7 years, 3 months ago
Slippery slope it is, but perhaps true none the less. I am talking about the post independence . time not pre. And how else to explain the fall to D minus, I do not think the students suddenly got less intelligent, the system stayed essentially the same, the difference was in the quality of the teaching staff. If we refuse to honestly recognize problems however uncomfortable then how can we implement change?
sheeprunner12 7 years, 3 months ago
Please go and read about the state of (public) education in 90% of the USA ....... We have copied their style of educational curriculum, GPA standards, union interference, technocrat culture, discipline protocols etc. ..... What else do you expect????? ....... The (public) classroom teacher is battling a home environment and policy challenges that are far more influential than him or herself today
BTW: The "D-average" argument is a moot point ...... Separate the private school (25%) from the public school (75%) and you have two extreme averages that reflect "Two Bahamas" ......... It is not One Bahamas
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