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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
Nassau, Bahamas -
 Dr. Minnis, Leader of the Free National Movement (FNM), issued the following statement on the possible implications of secret fisheries proposal with the People’s Republic of China:
“How can anyone proclaim to have the best interest of Bahamians at heart when one allows our Ambassador to China, under the directions of Minister Alfred Gray, to negotiate away 20,000 acres of Crown land and our farming and fishing rights? These actions are outrageous and an affront to the good people of The Bahamas who are more than capable of farming and fishing our lands and waters. In fact our people want to fish and farm our lands and waters – not have our precious heritage recklessly given away to the PLP’s foreign pay masters and business partners.”
“What is just as outrageous as their actions is the out-going Prime Minister’s refusal to stop these negotiations or even to address them publicly. As we have said before, silence is not a sound strategy for a Government that should be answerable to the people it serves.”
The out-going Prime Minister and this PLP Government should realize this, as more and more people continue to come forward opposing and questioning their ill-advised and ill-conceived deal. Every day, groups including University of The Bahamas Professors who founded the Climate Change Initiative and others want to know the repercussions of this startling deal on our precious environment. The University of The Bahamas Professors point out that this current proposal would leave The Bahamas in a difficult position to enforce laws and regulations with hundreds of new boats fishing our waters. Has this Government even considered the irreversible harm they could be causing to the environment and our already diminishing fishing resources as a result of their deal? Basically, it would mean that we would have no way to regulate our fisheries under the current laws and treaties. Of course the government has not thought about this. They haven’t even confirmed if the out-going Prime Minister was aware of these harmful negotiations, let alone stop them.”
“The people want – and deserve – to know if the out-going Prime Minister and his PLP Government think their deal is worth the risk for a quick dollar that everyday Bahamians will never see? We do not believe that this ill-conceived proposal is right for The Bahamas, especially with the sensitive state of our fisheries. Even though respectable environmental groups are opposed to their deal -- the Bahamas Reef Environment Educational Foundation, the Bahamas National Trust, and the Bahamas Commercial Fishers Alliance, among others, the PLP has ignored all of them. When will this Government start to listen and end their absurd secret proposal that will do irreversible harm to our country?”
“It is time for Prime Minister Christie to finally address this ill-advised, ill-conceived and shady deal directly. The people want to know: what did the Prime Minister know; and when did he know it? The people want to know whether he knew about it before it was leaked to the media and supported it, or did he find out about Minister Gray’s proposed deal the same way that we all did – through the media? His stony silence to all manner of questions on this is starting to indicate a disturbing answer; an answer that does not bode well for Bahamians. He cannot allow his Minister and his Government to go forward with this theft of our birth right. He must join us and the people and put an end to it now.”
“Thousands of Bahamians have signed a petition against this secret proposal. We once again reiterate our call for the Prime Minister to fire Minister Gray for his previous indiscretion and misleading of the Bahamian people in the Mayaguana Magistrate matter, and now for his current insult on the intelligence of the Bahamian people and their work ethic. The Bahamian people deserve leadership that will put their interests first, second and always, and the FNM will provide this leadership for The Bahamas.”
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