Remark by Senator Fred Mitchell Rally PLP HQ
Majority Rule Day: No Lie Lasts Forever
16th January 2019
Let me be the first to welcome you all here to the grounds of Gambier House, the headquarters of the PLP, the oldest political party in The Bahamas, founded on 23 November 1953. This has been our headquarters since 1969 when the building was commissioned by then Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling. There is a plaque marking the occasion on the eastern and western walls of the building.
The western plaque tells the longer story of who was responsible for its construction. You cannot mention Gambier House without speaking of the late Aaron Kiki Knowles Senior and the late Sir Clement Maynard. This building and where we are now were once in the Gambier Constituency. The representative for Gambier in the House was Sir Clement Maynard. He and his people built this building. It was donated to the use of the PLP as its headquarters. It takes its name from the old Gambier Constituency.
It was remodeled in the Christie years and the halls inside became known as the Lynden Pindling Centre in honour of the late Prime Minister and longest serving leader of the Party. So welcome.
Welcome also to what I now declare the 2019: the year of the hump.
We are on the cusp of year three in the term. Once we get over this hump, we know that the general election is near. This must then be a year of preparation. Many branches have accepted the instructions we sent out to begin looking for candidates for the next general election. I hope to convene a meeting in the not too distant future to speak to branch Chairs who will have the awesome task of distilling who the branch wishes to recommend to the National Party as a nominee for their constituency, subject the national party’s due diligence criteria.
I want to advise Branch Chairs that the decisions you will make and guide are quasi judicial decisions. You have a duty to act fairly toward everyone and not become a captive of anyone, particularly the first person who comes along. Everyone who expresses an interest in running in your areas should be given an opportunity to have access to the branch, its meetings and you must fairly and judiciously review their work, activities and reputation before making a recommendation to the Chairman of the Candidates Committee. The Branch chair must be neutral in these matters.
Those canvassing should not give the impression by the unauthorized use of PLP designed letters or the party symbols and colours that you are the endorsed party candidate.
In this year of the hump, we shall also be dealing with policy issues.
You will have noticed a number of policy pronouncements from the party over the past year. You can expect that these will become more frequent and the platform committee of the party is likely to be convened and to begin distilling our potions for the general election.
You should note also that there will be a convention this year. A new constitution will be ratified. We will also mark the occasion of our founding by a specially designed event in and around the Aurora Hall where the party held its first convention in June of 1954.
We must build on our history and take up the challenge left to us by the late Sir Lynden Pindling: that of economic empowerment for our people.
Our eyes are on Abaco. This morning I received a heartfelt video from Emmet Bottle and he explained how the FNM has been spiteful and vindictive in taking away the busing contracts from he and others like Kevin Ferguson in Grand Bahama and bus drivers in Eleuthera. These were acts of pure political spite. Mr. Bootle made a compelling case: he said he got the contract under Hubert Ingraham. The contract was continued under Perry Christie, but under Hubert Minnis in the middle of the contract with a mortgage to pay based on a five year contact, it has been taken away. He has two children in school and a mortgage to pay. His livelihood has been stripped away for political reasons.
That is he FNM for you.
In the meantime, The Bahamas Fast Ferries has ousted the Albury family from taking passengers to Bakers Bay in Abaco. The Bahamas Fast Ferries has as one of its shareholders the Minister for International Trade Brent Symonette. Mr. Symonette's pockets were just lined by a resolution of Parliament giving him the right to get a contract with the Government to put the post office in his company’s building the Town Centre Mall. You will remember that our MPs in the House also revealed that the Prime Minister is also a shareholder in Bahamas Fast
Ferries and now that company has ousted a smaller Bahamian firm from doing business in Abaco. You have to ask these folk in the FNM: what more do you want?
The answer is they want it all. They are greedy, mean and corrupt.
The situation is a similar one with the contracts for garbage collection. Some smarty pants in the FNM decided that the people who collected garbage under the PLP were all PLPs. They made a political decision to stop the contracts as of 31st December. The only problem is the people who they gave the contracts to, supposedly all FNM voters do novae he quiet to collect the garbage. So the garbage remains uncollected on our streets.
That is the FNM for you. In competent, greedy and corrupt.
We need to look in our next term at anti competitive legislation to stop what Bahamas Fast Ferries is doing. To stop companies like 700 and Bristol Cellars tied to wholesalers competing in the retail business. Wholesalers should be wholesalers and should not be allowed to undercut their retail dealers in the market. We are in need of anti competitive legislation.
To our dear Prime Minister newly returned home from meeting with high ranking European Commission officials. He returned home with his cap empty. He went like those groveling mendicants, the monks of old with their caps in their hands begging: please sir can I have some more. There is no way that a Prime Minister should be going naked as a jay bird and meeting with officials of lesser rank.
Has he no confidence in his Minister of Finance or International Trade Minister or did he carry a script from a special interest group? The optics alone looks bad.
The PLP pledges to bring sanity back to governance, First we must get over the ear of the hump. Listen to our young people tonight and our leaders as they plot the way forward.
Thank you and good night.
