The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

FOREIGN Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell yesterday branded Fort Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins as the “prime example of wasted opportunities”, asserting that the Progressive Liberal Party’s political machinery positioned a novice Dr Rollins to inherit the “ranks of leadership” over time.

The Fox Hill MP explained that Dr Rollins was sought by the PLP after showing flashes of brilliance during his involvement in the 2010 Elizabeth by-elections.

Mr Mitchell said the veracity and bravado displayed by Dr Rollins at that time made him a valuable political protégé.

He added that it was with all of these thoughts in mind, that he had to consider Dr Rollins’ present political outlook as the result of wasted opportunities.

“People in politics can be lucky or they can sweat their way through real hard struggle,” said Mr Mitchell.

He continued: “Some people just get chosen. You know, it is like you are a character in a Charles Dickens’ story…… what would happen is that people in depressed circumstances would suddenly have someone who would pick them and you know, take care of them and they just succeed.

“He comes from that school. He comes right out of dental school, comes back to the Bahamas, forms a political party, involves himself in the Elizabeth by-election and debate; the leader of the opposition then was Perry Christie who was sitting at the back and (Dr Rollins) just wow the crowd with his presentation he makes in the debate.

“All of the PLPs sitting in there, stalwart councillors and everybody else, said we want that one and they go in and choose him and gave him seat where the machinery was all set, he didn’t have to do anything.

“He just had to walk through the community, shake hands, kiss babies, smile and say the right things.

“He gets elected. Next thing, they gave him the chairmanship of the Gaming Board, again, staff is all there and the Chairman of the Gaming Board signs ordinances, goes on tours, looks on casinos, comes back and so on.

Mr Mitchell added: “I said to him, in time, giving the age of all of us, all he had to do was sit and wait. In 10-years, the organisation was his. But, he didn’t choose to do that.”

Mr Mitchell spoke to The Tribune while on a courtesy call with the President of the University of Bahamas’ Union of Students, Keyron Smith.

On Wednesday, as a part of a lengthy diatribe in Parliament that touched on several matters of public interest – including the economy, the fire at the New Providence Landfill and Baha Mar - Dr Rollins confirmed that he would not be running in the next general election.

The Fort Charlotte MP said his run in politics over the last five years had not been about personal interests, but rather his opportunity to be the voice of Bahamians who feel they have been silenced.

He said the harsh critique of the government was not to gain political brownie points, because he would not be seeking re-election in the 2017 general election.

For his part, Mr Mitchell, who clashed with Dr Rollins in Parliament on Wednesday, yesterday used his former colleague as a case study for what wasted opportunity could result in.

Mr Mitchell, addressing the group of students, said that while Dr Rollins’ political script had not yet been completed, his inaction and failure on several fronts proved that no matter how much regard is given to a person, success is often up to them.

He told The Tribune on the sidelines of yesterday’s event: “He is a young man and when that is the thing with young people, my mom used to tell me when I used to do things that she told me not to do, ‘no one can tell you nothing’; and I am an old man now, so I imagine that is his response.”

He said: “The more serious point is that when you have an opportunity, you are suppose to use that opportunity for the greater good. Not come off as if you just like pulling wings off of butterflies.

“That is not why you were given the opportunity. You were given the opportunity to help people and move the project a little further along the way.

“In so many instances, his opposition to the gender equality referendum just shocked me philosophically, that a young man could take that position. But, you win some and you lose some.”

Addressing Dr Rollins’ future, Mr Mitchell claimed: “He says that he is an FNM, but as I have said, the script isn’t written as of yet. You never say the well from which you would not drink.”

Dr Rollins entered the political scene as leader of the now defunct National Development Party. He ran unsuccessfully as the fringe party’s standard-bearer in the 2010 Elizabeth by-election.

He joined the PLP before the 2012 general election and won the Ft Charlotte seat on the party’s ticket. He quit the PLP in 2015, after months of publicly criticising Prime Minister Perry Christie, and joined the FNM later that year.