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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
Nassau, Bahamas - The following are remarks by
Bradley B. Roberts,
National Chairman,
Progressive Liberal Party:
That familiar FNM refrain of oppose and delay, reprobate and approbate is stale and rings hollow and after forty years of the same old tune is simply tiresome. Such was the case this morning in one of the dailies when Dr. Minnis called for yet another delay in the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI).
The FNM claimed to support independence, but not in 1973; they thought the country was not ready for the College of The Bahamas in 1974; wrongly predicted economic catastrophe with National Insurance; they opposed ZNS national television; they said no to the Royal Bahamas Defense Force in 1979; opposed Bahamianization; they opposed national service and canceled the National Youth Restorative Program; so Bahamians far and wide were not surprised when Minnis as FNM leader called for another delay in the implementation of NHI. History has well recorded FNM short-sightedness and ideological bankruptcies in the form of opposition to all of the major public institutions that collectively form the modern Bahamas. This is a terrible legacy that he perpetuates to this very day. The record is clear; the FNM opposed all progressive initiatives for the Bahamas.
One needs only look to FNM opposition to fiscal reform; gaming reform, Urban Renewal; Swift Justice; and Carnival to see their legacy of error on pivotal and transformational policies. The public can only expect opposition, delay and one red herring after the other and in the end history has proven the FNM wrong on one national issue after the other. How much longer and how many more times the FNM must find themselves on the wrong side of history before they come to their senses?
With more than half of our Bahamians brothers and sisters without health insurance for one reason or the other, the time for talk about implementing this important transformational policy is over and the country must act in the national interest.
Minnis and the FNM are about playing politics with the health and wellbeing of Bahamians while the PLP believes that access to affordable and quality health care is a human right and not a privilege. This is a fundamental tenet and value of the PLP.
The PLP fully supports the government’s plans to implement National Health Insurance in January 2016 and commends them on this bold initiative.
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