The Tribune

By MORGAN ADDERLEY 

Tribune Staff Reporter 

FORMER Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) MP George Smith said party members who urged former Prime Minister Perry Christie to keep his promise to step down as party leader in the middle of his last term were were “not treated respectfully and appropriately” by the previous administration. 

Mr Smith, in an interview with The Tribune, also questioned the timing of Mr Christie admitting this week that he stayed in politics “too long”.

Mr Christie has previously said he did not commit to stepping down mid-term if re-elected for a second, non-consecutive term, but was misinterpreted. 

However Mr Smith alleged those in the party who attempted to hold Mr Christie to this reported promise were victimised.

“When (Mr Christie) won again in 2012, he had promised to remain for a portion of the term. And during that period before the 2017 election, a number of people said that he ought to have kept that promise and that he ought to have recognised that his time had come to leave,” Mr Smith said. 

“Well, many of those people (in the PLP) were not treated respectfully and appropriately by the government. Myself included, Philip Galanis, Raynard Rigby, we and many others said that he ought to have kept his word and leave mid-term, as he had promised. He changed his mind, led the party into the devastating 2017 election.

“Frank Smith… was denied the Freetown nomination really because he had not joined that band of… people who, according to Mr Christie, had said that he ought to stay (in office).”

Mr Smith also questioned why Mr Christie would make the revelation at this time that he stayed in politics too long. 

“First of all, I don’t think that his recognising what others recognised before is something worthy of praise. It isn’t (praiseworthy) unless he then would have gone on to say, ‘and those who agreed that I ought to have gone (or) demitted, they were right, and in retrospect, I owe them an apology. And those who were just asking me to stay because they (knew) that that is what I wanted to do, they were wrong (because it was) contrary to what was agreed.’

“The (nation) seemed to have recognised that the party and the country and the government would have been better served if (Mr Christie) had kept his initial promise. But saying it at this stage really only focuses attention on what turned out to be bad judgment on his part.

“But I wish him well, as all PLPs do, and I think that the party must now recognise that we must see into the defeat of 2017 an opportunity to rebuild the PLP, to reconnect with the Bahamian people, to form an agenda that is based on how people benefit from the service of the organisation and from individuals who are honoured to represent them in Parliament.”

In an interview with Wendall Jones on the Jones Communication Network on Sunday, Mr Christie reflected on his legacy. 

“When I apply retroactive thinking to it, objectively, I can make the judgement that I have been in politics too long,” Mr Christie said.

“Take for example how I dealt with Centreville, I should not have lost that seat in Centreville, it is impossible virtually, but I did not campaign. I reached the point where I dedicated myself to finishing policies, one of which was a major intervention on the supply of electricity at an affordable price for Bahamians and I left in place a package that we will talk about later on... People seem to want me to stay in politics because when you tell egregious ignorant lies about me, it really bothers me... I have had an exceptional run in public life and I owe a great deal of gratitude to thousands of Bahamians who made it possible for me to sustain myself in public life for so long.

“I am in the company of Sir Roland Symonette who did 50 years and Sir Lynden Pindling who did 41 years and when you add my public life it’s 43 years and so I am in very rarefied company in terms of the history of our country. There have only been three of us who have been able to put that kind of time in.”

In response to Mr Christie’s comparison of his tenure in office with that of Sir Roland and Sir Lynden, Mr Smith said: “It isn’t the years you put in that’s important, it’s what you put into the years.”

He said while Mr Christie had some successes during his first term, from 2002-2007, such as economic growth and stability and the part-opening of Baha Mar in his second term, the former prime minister’s legacy cannot be likened to Sir Lynden, the country’s first prime minister.