It appears that the Chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party is either stuck on ignorant and if he truly represents the views and values of his party, then they are also or they honestly believe that we the people are; ignorant that is.

“Politicians ‘unpatriotic’ for protesting” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Bradley Roberts claimed yesterday the actions of the political leaders involved in a demonstration against dump fires on Sunday were ‘unpatriotic ‘ and a demonstration of poor judgment.”

It is amazing the manner in which the Progressive Liberal Party throws around the label ‘unpatriotic’ whenever they feel that they, as a government, are being shown for the failures that they are on the international scene.  I am actually suspired that Mr. Roberts has not deemed the organization of this NON-POLITICAL protest as “Enemies of the State’, but then I have the feeling that it will soon come but indeed the protest as organized by Raising Awareness about the Bahamas Landfill (RABL), was a non-violent and non-political event that was supported by members of the Free National Movement (FNM) and the Democratic National Alliance (DNA), some of whom live in the area themselves and are constantly affected by the smoke from the constant dump fires.  I find it interesting that members of the Progressive Liberal Party and some of its supporters only sought to condemn the protest instead of becoming more involved in a solution to the problem as they promised; are they not affected by this problem or are they as a political organization just not interested in environmental issue; Rubis gasoline spill and Save the Bays being examples.

Playing to the ignorant or attempting to play to those that he perceives as being ignorant, Chairman Roberts then goes on to say, “……..I question the intent and utility of staging the demonstration at or near the precincts of the Baha Mar resort, Cable Beach, the venue of the IDB board of governments meeting,” he said.

The public landfill is not located on Baha Mar’s property on Cable Beach.” 

Well Mr. Roberts if you were at the meeting then that point can be debated but then I digress.  The Bahamas government has secured several loans from the International Development Bank (IDB) to improve the conditions at the landfill and to date, despite the landfill being ‘privatized’ they problems still persists, so this was the ideal venue for this protest and for the Chairman to claim otherwise is to mislead the public but then this is nothing new.

“Mr. Roberts invites the Leaders of the FNM and DNA to immediately discontinue, eschew and condemn all forms of political activism, demonstration of acts interloping that will have consequences of negatively portraying the Bahamas internationally, harming the reputation of the country and people.”  Mr. Roberts seems not to realize that his government does this with each and every new scandal that they are involved in and the IDB will soon question where the money from these loans is actually going.  Also, Mr. Roberts must realize with all persons wearing black then the protest was seen as citizens of the Bahamas exercising their right to have their voices heard and the only way that any members of the foreign delegations knowing who was who is if Mr. Roberts pointed out these people himself.

Finally, I find it interesting that with close to a year of Bahamian citizens complaining about this problem at the landfill not one ‘puff of smoke’ was to been seen during the entire IDB meeting, simply amazing.

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

END