Sometimes I really feel that it would be in the best interest of Fred Mitchell, Chairman of the New Day Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) to just remain quiet but a part of his duty is to defend his party, one that he seems to take very seriously; but what happens when his party policies do not line up with the best interest of the country?

As an elected official I feel that accountability to the country should come first but according to Mitchell sometimes answering questions isn’t worth the trouble.

“Mitchell says answering questions ‘isn’t worth the trouble’ sometime’ “– The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article;

“Amid backlash over a Cabinet minister’s revelation that the government rehired nearly 500 retirees, Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell said sometimes it “isn’t worth the trouble” to answer questions in this country.

He made the comment in a voice note on Monday as he again lamented the reaction from the Free National Movement (FNM) and some in the labor movement to the rehires.

“In many respects you can see why sometimes answering questions in this country, it isn’t worth the trouble really,” Mitchell said.

 “I get the impression that people don’t want to know the truth. All they want to do is find something to row about,” he said, questioning why critics want to attack police officers or teachers being rehired to fill needed gaps.”

First of all let me dispel two pieces of misinformation and spread some truth that Chairman Mitchell wishes to “hide” here; first, it is not only the FNM that has questioned this latest move by the New Day government and two, the criticism does not “attack police officers or teachers” as is being stated by Chairman Mitchell.

 We all know that Fred Mitchell and by extension, the New Day PLP party/government whom he represents, are not fans of  Freedom of Information, as they opposed the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA). What they fail to realize is that it is their responsibility as a government to answer plausible and reasonable questions put to them by the opposition and the others i.e. the public – it is something that we call transparency and accountability.

It now appears that the PLP party/government does not think too highly of these concepts, it would appear that they are foreign to them.  What I find curious is that if Chairman Mitchell truly got the impression that some “that people don’t want to know the truth”, he would not take to putting out his pointless voice notes three times a week in order to “set the record straight” and in order to disseminate “the truth” to “right thinking PLP’s”. It appears that he does feel that people want to know the truth or “the PLP’s truth” and this is where I feel were a conflict comes in.

It seems that the Chairman of the New Day PLP party/government is more upset that “the truth” that he seeks to disseminate is not being readily digested as he would like it to be by others out of the sphere of “right thinking PLP’s”.  It would appear that Mitchell and the New Day PLP government party/government are seeing themselves as governing a nation that does not think and therefore does not question any of their actions; it would appear that the New Day PLP party/government have come to believe that they are catering to a mindless citizenry, it appears that Mitchell and his New Day party/government are wrong – except for the few that regurgitate anything and everything that the PLP puts out without even attempting to rationalize it for themselves without fear of making themselves look at stupid as the person whom the follow blindly.

It is a very sad situation that an elected official would some to the rationalization that it’s better not to answer the public that hired them because they feel that that that population is intelligent enough to question him and the party/government that he represents.  It is sad that followers of his party believe that what he says actually makes sense, as they do not seem to see that it casts them in a very poor light.

The Bahamas deserves better.

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) fails for one reason, it is their nature.

END