By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

A FORMER Cabinet Minister has accused the current House Speaker of being the worst in Bahamian history.

George Smith, who served as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Transport and Local Government in the Progressive Liberal Party during the Pindling administration, expressed total disappointment in the way Parliament is being run and also the governance of the country.

“The person who was to preside over the conduct of Parliament is clearly the worst Speaker in the history of the House of Assembly that goes back to 1729,” he declared. “I think that he didn’t fully understand that he presides over the lower House of our Parliament.

“His job is to facilitate the functioning of the government by virtue of facilitating in Parliament the contributions that have to be made by various ministers. But, at all times he is to protect the rights of the minority to have their say as the alternative government.

“He clearly started off with a vendetta towards the Opposition and overly facilitated the governing side and as time went on he ran amuck with the government. It is important that the Speaker of the House has a working relationship with the government and a respectful and accommodating relationship with the Opposition.”

The former Minister said clearly the House Speaker lost the relationship that he should have maintained with the government and he never fostered a sensibly accommodating and working relationship with the Opposition.

Not only was Mr Smith upset about the running of Parliament, but he also blamed the House Speaker for what he called a colossal failure of the Boundaries Commission. “It was an approach that was bound to fail and it was evident by the colossal failure not only as Speaker of the House, but as chairman of the Boundaries Commission,” he said. “He failed there too. This is the first time in Parliamentary history that the functioning of the Boundaries Commission that has certain basic guidelines has had a chairman that failed to bring about a majority report.

“The majority report puts fairness of the people’s rights to have a properly constituted boundaries revision as is required every five years or thereabouts. This colossal failure points to there isn’t anything to credit the Speaker for conducting himself properly and maturely.”

Mr Smith also had a sharp word of criticism for the Minnis administration.

“A Prime Minister may call an early election if he believes firmly and with good reason that his party has the advantage,” he said. “Short of that, it is unwise to do. Anybody who thinks that the FNM is at a stage where they have an advantage over the Progressive Liberal Party is clearly delusional.

“If you poll any ten Bahamians and ask if they are better off today than they were prior to the 2017 elections, all ten would say, ‘certainly not’. If you can find one that says they are doing better, then they are only doing better because of their peculiar relationship with the government. That would be those who got lucrative contracts and those who are extremely, personally close to the prime minister.

“He (the Prime Minister) picked what can clearly be described as the worst slate of elected representatives in possibly our history. So they had no experience. Most of them got into politics for the wrong reason. Unless you are extremely devoted to the service of the Bahamian people, and you clearly know that you belong to an organization that you will keep relevant to the people’s needs, you are not going to be focused.”

Mr. Smith said even though the FNM won the 2017 election by a landslide he believes the party only won because of what he called the “unpopularity” of former Prime Minister, Perry Christie.