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Last Updated: Dec 29, 2011 - 2:18:31 AM |
The FNM is pleased that the Official Opposition visited the site of the National Stadium last week so they could see for themselves the progress being made towards the completion and opening next year of the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium. On the occasion of that tour it is important to state some facts for the public record.
When the FNM came to office in 1992, the PLP was on the verge of appointing an ambassador to Taiwan. In the national interest, the FNM stopped, reviewed and cancelled that decision. In 1997, The Commonwealth of the Bahamas, under an FNM Government, officially recognized the People’s Republic of China. We are happy that the PLP have joined us in observing the One China policy.
That diplomatic recognition paved the way for the eventual gift of this national stadium, as has been the practice of the People’s Republic of China in the Caribbean following such diplomatic recognition.
The gift of this national stadium is an opportunity. While the PLP took the photo opportunity to tour the site of the new stadium, when in government they miserably failed to prepare for its construction. As is their practice, the PLP rarely miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity, except if it is a photo-opportunity.
The PLP’s initial failure to diplomatically recognize the People’s Republic of China, the donor of the new stadium, is in keeping with its failure, in office, to do the detailed work needed to begin the construction of the new stadium. The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture will lay out the details on this matter in due course.
This failure to govern is why the PLP also failed to organize a single Bahamas Games over the course of five years. Indeed in the 2004-05 budgetary cycle, funding for the Games was stripped entirely from the budget. Neville Wisdom, the PLP’s hopeless and helpless Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture has now publicly admitted that he was unable to persuade his colleagues to continue the Bahamas Games. This was but one of several failures by Mr. Wisdom. He also failed in getting his colleagues to actually begin construction of the new stadium.
When the Bahamas Games do eventually resume they will be held in the modern Thomas A. Robinson Stadium that will be completed on the FNM’s watch in mid-2011, and that the PLP was unable to start or complete during their lackadaisical and lazy term in office.
When granted a photo-opportunity Perry Christie is delighted to prance and dance before the camera. But he fails miserably when actually given an opportunity to govern. The PLP’s failure to begin construction of the new stadium is in keeping with its failure to begin construction of the new Lynden Pindling International Airport, the Straw Market, the new port for New Providence and other major projects throughout the country.
© Copyright 2010 by thebahamasweekly.com
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