thebahamasweekly.com - Chairman Collie on "PLP’s Failure to Protect Women"

From:TheBahamasWeekly.com

Bahamian Politics
Chairman Collie on "PLP’s Failure to Protect Women"
By The Free National Movement
Jun 14, 2016 - 1:32:13 PM

Nassau, Bahamas - Sidney Collie, Chairman of the Free National Movement (FNM), issued the following statement on the PLP’s failure to protect women:

How can this Government claim to care about women’s rights when at every turn these last four years they repeatedly failed to implement policies that would protect them from violent crimes? They constantly serve us broken promises and empty rhetoric but in reality they have been ignoring the hugely, dangerous spike in sexual assaults over these several years.

This weekend we saw once again our ever increasing murder rate go up but along with that we saw another sexual assault splashed across the front page of our newspapers. The National Task Force of Gender Based Violence reported this year that The Bahamas ranks among the top ten countries in the world – the world – where rape is common. How can this Government say they care about women’s rights when they don’t take steps to protect their safety?

Costly PR stunts, false claims and their empty rhetoric have done nothing to make our families safe. In fact their failed leadership now has The Bahamas leading the Caribbean in the number of recorded rapes and gender based violence. I can think of no more dubious categories to lead our neighbors.

Violent crime affects all of us, sexual assaults impact every community - it is time for real action and leadership on this important issue. The people deserve leaders that put the safety and protection of our communities above their efforts to enrich themselves. True rights for women start with safe, protected neighbors to live their lives free of threats of violence. The PLP is full of empty rhetoric and broken promises and will do anything to not talk about the increasing crime rates in this country. The FNM though will stand up to protect all Bahamians; we won’t hide behind false government statistics telling everyone everything is all right. Every victim needs a voice and the FNM will be that for them.