“DPM defend decision to fund BAMSI, Urban Renewal” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest said before the government considers cutting allocations for certain programs it criticized the Christie administration on, it must consider the human capital and fully review each program.

Turnquest was referring to Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) initiatives such as Urban Renewal and the Bahamas Agricultural and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI), both of which are controversial.

The government has maintained the budget allocated for both programs.”

During one of his last campaign appearances as Prime Minister and as leader of the Progressive Liberal Party Perry Christie made the claim, that a change in government could put [the] national at risk, he went on to say, “I don’t want this country to enter a period of instability.’

I don’t want to see the country lose the progress we’ve worked so hard for.

‘……good things, big things are underway and the danger of the FNM is all that and more is at risk.  We know the FNM’s record of stop and cancel.”

As usual former Prime Minister Perry Christie was attempting to pander to the fears of the persons that supported the PLP party and he counted on this fear to seal his victory at the polls but the former Prime Minister did not count on persons remembering what he and his party had done over the five years that they claimed that they brought about “big things” as he still promised same said “big things” on the campaign trail, just how long were the people to wait for him to turn things around and deliver these ‘big things’?

It was most unfortunate, for the country, the manner in which the former administration was able to take initiatives such as Urban Renewal and BAMSI, whose objectives were noble and turn them into entities surrounded by questions and controversy, but it would seem to be the very same fashion in which they took the core principles of the Progressive Liberal Party itself and only used them at their convenience but never consistently to advance the lives of the people that they claimed to have cared about.

Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon. Peter Turnquest says, “…it [the Free National Movement government] must consider the human capital” when reviewing these programs and he is correct; peoples livelihoods must be considered which did not seem to be a consideration of the Progressive Liberal Party when it took office in 2012 and released over 80 workers from the Urban Renewal programs in New Providence and in Grand Bahama; telling these people that they had to renew their contracts while they [the PLP] government purportedly replaced who they considered to be Free National Movement [FNM] supporters with ‘loyal supporters’ of the Progressive Liberal Party [PLP].

The Free National Movement which former Prime Minister Perry Christie described has yet to materialize and send the country into to ‘instability’ and I doubt that it will be seen under Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, and yes the people of the country would know the difference because the country has been unstable since May of 2012. 

Now a new Free National Movement has emerged and has promised to consider everyone, whether you voted for them or not.

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

END