Nassau, Bahamas - (Press statement) Prime Minister, the Right Honourable
Perry G. Christie, said this evening that he was disappointed in both the intemperate
tone and incorrect content of Baha Mar’s press statement of today’s date (July 6). “It is particularly regrettable”, the Prime
Minister said “that at a time when rationality and cool heads are required to
deal with the current crisis at Baha Mar, the company’s leadership appears to
be going to pieces under the mounting pressure”.
The Prime Minister said that today’s
statement from Baha Mar has given him grave concern for the state of Mr. Izmirilian’s
mind. “As recently as yesterday, Mr. Izmirlian was calling me, completely
unsolicited, to give me his private assurances and to express confidence in me
but now, just one day later, he issues a public statement saying the exact
opposite and in tones resonating with gross disrespect for the elected
authority of this land. Indeed I am at loss to recall any previous instance of
a foreign investor who took it upon himself to publicly excoriate the
government of the day in such a shrill and belligerent manner.”
Moreover, the Prime Minister said
that Mr. Izmirlian should cease and desist from trying to fool his own workers
and the general public. “He must stop playing fast and loose with the facts to
serve his own ends. He ought to know full well that the delay in effecting
payment to the workers had absolutely nothing to do with any stalling or
obstructive action on the Government’s part. Instead, I am advised, that it was
the result of normal informational requirements of the Government’s bankers and
necessary account information-exchanges between Baha Mar and the Treasury.”
Concluding his response to the Baha
Mar statement, the Prime Minister reminded Mr. Izmirlian that the workers and
the country at large are only in the present predicament to begin with because
of his own unilateral decision to go into Chapter 11 proceedings in a foreign
country. “Be that as it may”, the Prime
Minister said, “this is no time for Mr. Izmirlian to buckle under the pressure
and lose his balance. He needs to keep his nerves steady, stop talking
nonsense, and join with the government and all other interested parties in
reaching a speedy and definitive resolution of the current crisis. That is
where my focus is and that is where Mr. Izmirlian’s focus should be as well”.