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Last Updated: Mar 24, 2017 - 2:33:24 AM |
 Nassau, Bahamas - Remarks Honorable Dr. Hubert McInnis, MP Leader of the Free National Movement Eastern New Providence Rally on Thursday, 23 March, 2017
It’s Too Late for the PLP to Say Sorry
F-N-Ms:
Good evening. Let me welcome the many Bahamians watching on TV and the Internet or listening on radio.
When I look at this crowd, all I can say is:
It’s the People’s Time!
We were in Grand Bahama last Friday.
I told Grand Bahama that Perry Christie is like cotton candy: A bunch of sweet words and plenty, plenty hot air – but no substance. Let me give you my advice as a medical doctor: Too much cotton candy will make you very sick. It will give you diabetes and bad teeth. It might taste good in the moment. But it is only empty calories with no nutrition.
FNMs:
Grand Bahama is ready for change. They been ready.
They asked me if Nassau ready for change.
Are you ready for change?
Is Yamacraw ready for change?
Melanie gone, gone, gone. Even PLPs keep telling me how much they like and prefer Elsworth Johnson.
St. Anne’s is rock solid. Brent will bring valuable experience to government.
Elizabeth, let me hear you. The PLP gave you one of the worst and laziest MPs in the House of Assembly.
Ryan never looked back for you. He was too busy being grabalicious; too busy taking care of himself.
Elizabeth: Give the FNM a chance. Give Duane Sands a chance. It’s time for change.
Sea Breeze: Give me Lanisha Rolle. Are you ready for change? Let me hear you See Breeze for Lanisha Rolle.
Is Fox Hill ready for change? Let me hear you Fox Hill! Let me hear you Fox Hill!
Fox Hill: Do the whole country a big, big favor by getting rid of Frequent Flyer Fred. Since he likes packing his bags, flying all over the world spending millions of our VAT money on God knows what, send him packing once and for all.
You won’t have to look all over the place for Shonel Ferguson. She will be right in Fox Hill serving you.
In response to some of the things Cotton Candy Christie is saying about me, one of the newspapers offered him this advice:
“We give this hint to Christie in the simplest language: We want to be saved from you.”
“We know [Christie] has nothing left to give The Bahamas. He has lost the magic. Unable to focus, he drifts from crisis to crisis …”
“If Christie is reelected prime minister the status quo will remain.”
“There will be high crime; there will be a high unemployment rate; there will be incoherence coming out of the Office of the Prime Minister.”
“If the PLP’s message is that Christie is needed to save The Bahamas, we can tell that party now that that message will fail.”
Fellow Bahamians:
You know, many times people only say sorry when they get caught. But, it’s too late for the PLP to say sorry. It’s too late for them to say sorry about 600 murders on their watch, and the worse crime record ever in The Bahamas. It’s too late to say sorry to the thousands of Bahamians who lost their jobs, even though the PLP promised 10,000 jobs in their first year.
The sad truth is that the highest period of unemployment ever experienced in the history of The Bahamas occurred not under just any PLP administration. It happened under this PLP administration! It happened on Perry Christie’s watch!
It’s too late to say sorry for wasting millions upon millions of VAT money. We still don’t know where the VAT money gone! It’s too late for the PLP to say sorry about the absolute mess they made at BAMSI. The FNM will fix BAMSI and get it right. It’s too late for the PLP to say sorry for the corruption at Urban Renewal, and the scandals at the Bank of The Bahamas. It’s too late to say sorry for going against the results of the gambling referendum.
It’s too late for the PLP to say sorry for spying on Bahamians through the National Intelligence Agency. Don’t forget how Jerome Fitzgerald obtained and then illegally read people’s private emails in the House of Assembly. And, of course, it is way too late for the PLP to say sorry about the dump fire. Just like the PLP exposed Bahamians to danger and potential health problems with the Rubis oil leak -- they let the situation at the dump get way out of control.
Someone working at the dump told me they never seen it so bad there.
By the way, Christie only said sorry for sticking his middle finger up at the Bahamian people because someone took a picture. If there wasn’t a picture, he never would have apologized.
The truth is that Christie and the PLP ain’t sorry for nothing.
If they get five more years they will be even worse.
They don’t know the meaning of “sorry”!
It’s too late for the PLP to say sorry! It’s time to vote them out.
Fellow Bahamians:
The PLP should be, but they are not sorry for being the Masters of Disaster at Baha Mar. The FNM will welcome the opening of Baha Mar. Like the rest of the country, we’ve been waiting and praying for it for five long years. But, let me be clear: This is about more than a hotel opening and public relations for the PLP. Getting Baha Mar opened is about the livelihoods, jobs and economic opportunities for thousands of Bahamians and their families.
The FNM will work to ensure job security for those employed at Baha Mar. Getting Baha Mar opened is about economic security for our country, for our people and for our future. What we should be working toward at Baha Mar, is long term gains for everyone, not short term political gain for one party.
The full opening of Baha Mar may not happen for some time under the PLP. The so-called April opening is a public relations gimmick for the PLP.
It is the FNM who had to clean up the PLP’s mess at Baha Mar last time. The FNM will likely have to do so again. If the FNM had been in charge, 6000 Bahamians would now be working at Baha Mar for the past two years and four months.
The way this deal is being done by the PLP offers no assurance to anyone that this is anything more than political grandstanding. We don’t know really who the buyer is, what the contract is, or what parts of the resort will be open for any length of time after the election.
It is the PLP who are responsible for thousands of Bahamians losing their jobs and livelihoods at Baha Mar. Remember that Baha Mar was supposed to open in December 2014. This is now March 2017, two years and four months later. And guess what? We now know that the resort is not sold because the terms of the deal are sealed. Why did the PLP encourage the deal to be sealed? Because they don’t want you to find out what they gave away before the election. That’s why.
They promised to unseal the deal before Baha Mar opens. This is very cute because they have now made many announcements about when Baha Mar will open.
None of them have come true. Not a single one. So, why should we believe the grand promises they are now making? Just like the PLP is not being honest with the Bahamian people about other things, they are doing the same with Baha Mar.
Don’t forget, they promised to tell you about the two percent deal with BTC. Nothing happened! They promised to tell you about the BAMSI deal. Nothing happened! What about the Bank of The Bahamas? Nothing! Rubis leak. Nothing!
Because of the mess the PLP made at Baha Mar, our economy has collapsed; our GDP and economic growth went into a downward spiral; and tour companies and travel agents are weary about booking guests. Christie and the PLP cannot manage large projects. We thought that they had learned a lesson from the Ginn failure in Grand Bahama.
FNMs:
I am not surprised that Emperor Christie continues to believe that governing has more to do with speaking and little to do with doing. He has run the most talkative and least productive government in the history of The Bahamas. At every stage in my life when he was talking, I was doing. Maybe one day Christie will understand that there is a difference between campaigning and governing. Maybe one day Christie will come to understand that no one is listening to him anymore. He does not have a track record of failing to speak. Nobody can beat him talking. He has a track record of failing to do anything while wasting the people’s time and money.
I am proud of having a track record of doing much but talking little. This is precisely what the Bahamian people desperately need today. Enough talk Perry! Go do some work!
Being prime minister requires many traits. As prime minister, I will bring a strong ethic of hard work. My government will boldly and resolutely embark on a new era of reform and modernization for a 21st Century Bahamas. Unlike Christie, I will be fully in charge of my cabinet! I will bring direction and focus, qualities Christie sorely lacks. I will bring discipline to government -- something Christie is incapable of doing. I will not run a late-again government. Unlike Christie, my administration will be decisive.
Unlike Christie, I will be in charge of my government. My ministers and colleagues will be held to high standards, no matter what their last name is, who their daddy was, or how much money they have.
The Cabinet Office may be located on Bay Street, but the heart and soul of my government will reside with the Bahamian people. The poor and disadvantaged will be front and center in a Hubert Minnis administration.
My government will not waste the VAT money and other revenue on lavish travel, Carnival and massive waste by ministers. Carnival will be privatized.
My government wouldn’t even dream of giving away 20,000 acres in Andros to foreigners. The FNM will not allow foreigners to do commercial fishing in our waters. Unlike the PLP, my government will be accountable and transparent. I will expose the PLP’s wheeling and dealing over the past five years.
FNMs; Fellow-Bahamians:
Remember when the PLP talked about the Gold Rush last time? Remember that? It was a Gold Rush all right. They rushed to get the gold for themselves, for their friends and for their families. The gold was not for you. Despite his terrible record, Cotton Candy Christie is brazen and arrogant enough to say that the country needs him.
Talk about delusional. Child please! Christie is so delusional and mixed up that he couldn’t even find his way to the microphone at a PLP event the other night. Christie no longer has the energy and strength to lead this country.
I am not by nature a loud man like Christie. But I am a man of great resolve and great determination, with the energy and strength to lead the FNM in rescuing and restoring our Bahamas.
Brothers and Sisters:
The PLP understood how their promises last time would win votes. But the failure that we see all around, tells us that they were never serious. They were utterly incapable of doing what they promised. We need to fire all of them because of their broken promises. The Bahamas desperately needs change. Once the PLP got your vote you saw their true colours. This time around they will come with even more big promises; promises that they will never keep.
But we won’t be fooled this time because:
It’s the People’s Time.
Whose time is it?
Whose time is it?
On behalf of the FNM, I ask for your support, so that together, we can rescue and renew our Bahamas.
Send Elsworth Johnson; Send Brent Symonette; Send Shonel Ferguson, Send Lenisha Rolle, and Send Dr. Duane Sands to be your voice and your change agents.
Keep the torch high and keep the fire burning!
The time for sorry and excuses is over!
It is time to vote them out! It is time for change!
It’s the People’s Time!
Let us continue to seek God’s guidance.
Thank you and good night.
© Copyright 2017 by thebahamasweekly.com
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