“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result” – Albert Einstein

I am sure that there is someone within the Progressive Liberal Party’s camp looking to justify the failure of this referendum, and they are most likely attempting to intimate that it was due to the ‘ignorance’ of the people causing them not to vote in their own best interest.

I was really hopeful and sure that bills #1 and #3 would have been received more favorably by the people; # 1,  giving the overseas born children of Bahamian fathers or mothers the right to citizenship provided that these parents did not obtain their citizenship through Articles 3(2), 8 or 10 of the constitution, deleting Article 9 and;

#3, allowing for Article 14 to give overseas born children of unmarried men the same right to citizenship that other enjoy, provided that paternity is proven but it was not to be.

As the agents of the PLP would seek to blame the ‘ignorance’ of the people for the failure of this very important referendum, who was it that was actually charged with the responsibility of educating the people so that an informed electorate went to the polls?

If the government feels that their education campaign was a success then the electorate was not ‘ignorant’, so what was the problem?

I am sure that agents of the Progressive Liberal Party will now go on to blame the church and the Free National Movement for this colossal failure, this is nothing short of asinine, as the only reasonable explanation is that the people cut of their noses in spite of their face due to the great frustration, distrust and lack of confidence that they have for this PLP government.

If this government used this as a ‘litmus test’ for the next general elections, I cry shame on them as I did when former Prime Minister , the Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham made the statement that whoever won the 2002 referendum would win the election, we all saw how that turned out and who really wins or loses?

As the Chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party lays the ground work to smooth over the results of yesterdays referendum results with “The will of the the Bahamian people was expressed unfettered in the historic June 7 gender referendum as Bahamians respectfully and peacefully exercised their voting franchise.  I thank them for their solemn and reverential respect for the democratic process”, I question his statement of “His hands on approach cannot be understated as Mr. Christie met personally with the Christian Council and the church community who influenced the wording of the final constitutional amendments to ensure that The Bahamas adheres to its abiding Christian principles”, I sort of remember some statement by a certain PLP minister along the lines of some of these people need Jesus, be that as it is I wonder if this very same member of parliament is a man of his word and as he stated in 2002 ,“On the other hand we have nothing but scorn for this jackass that we call our Prime Minister.  He had to concede defeat just after 9.30 p.m. on the night of the referendum.  But the next day, he was back true to form.  He refused to resign making some spurious distinction by saying this was a vote not against the FNM and himself but against the issue raised in the referendum.  This is utter foolishness and is at variance with every known convention of the constitution.”  I wonder now what statement Prime Minister Perry Christie will make, as he has been very silent and will this minister now ask for him to do the honorable thing, as he requested of Hubert Ingraham, and step down.

This is truly a sad indictment on us as a people and a country, when we seem to feel that the best course of action is to go against our won best interest.  What is worst is when you feel so powerless that you feel that this course of action is your only course of action.  I do find solace in the fact that some persons that have expressed great distain for the present government voted in the best interest of the country.

The Progressive Liberal Party saw the results and ramifications of the 2002 referendum ad decided to follow the very same path by making it political.

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

END

There is a sense in the air that the upcoming gender equality referendum being put forth by the present Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government just may not succeed and it may not for several reasons but one of the main reasons is because there is still a lot of confusion surrounding some of the questions being asked and this confusion has been due to a lackluster educational campaign out forth by the government through their Yes initiative.  While many find it hypocritical that the government would fund a “Yes” campaign and not a “No” campaign also but not neither thereby leaving the choice up to the general populous, this has also led to a lot of the confusion and distrust that has the chances of the referendums success on ‘life support’, so the government has put forth an ‘exit strategy’ by hedging its chances by finding someone else to blame if case the referendum fails and boy have they gotten lucky, as they have found two persons to place the blame on; one being some religious leaders and the other being the Opposition through its leader, the Hon. Hubert Minnis and as luck would have it the church and the leader of the opposition are not heavily favored in the eyes of the public at this time.

“Yes campaign urges Minnis to find ‘courage” – The Nassau Guardian – May 3oth 2016

Excerpt from this article; “Should Free National Movement (FNM) Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis ‘locate courage if his conviction’ and campaign with the ‘yes’ team he would see firsthand the inspiring and extraordinary work being done to ensure our sons and daughters are equal in the constitution and under our laws,’ Yes Bahamas said in a statement yesterday.”  I am amazed at the language used to twist the arm of the leader of the Opposition from his current position of advocating for a responsible approach to the referendum by the Bahamian public.  “Locate courage of his conviction”, really?  I thought his conviction was for persons to become educated and vote their conscience but of course this is why Prime Minister branded Dr. Minnis a ‘hypocrite’ for failing to push a yes vote, after the Official Opposition supported the bills in Parliament.  Why push a yes vote when the general populous are the ones that should be required to ‘show courage of conviction’, educate themselves on the bills and vote their conscience; why would asking this been viewed as ‘cowardly’ or hypocritical especially by a government who when in opposition in 2002 lacked the ‘the courage of conviction’ to support the bills once they had voted for them in Parliament, actually they went out and actively campaigned against equality for women at the time.

“Yes campaign urges Minnis to find ‘courage” – The Nassau Guardian – May 3oth 2016

Excerpt from this article; “Should Free National Movement (FNM) Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis ‘locate courage if his conviction’ and campaign with the ‘yes’ team he would see firsthand the inspiring and extraordinary work being done to ensure our sons and daughters are equal in the constitution and under our laws,’ Yes Bahamas said in a statement yesterday.”  I am amazed at the language used to twist the arm of the leader of the Opposition from his current position of advocating for a responsible approach to the referendum by the Bahamian public.  “Locate courage of his conviction”, really?  I thought his conviction was for persons to become educated and vote their conscience but of course this is why Prime Minister branded Dr. Minnis a ‘hypocrite’ for failing to push a yes vote, after the Official Opposition supported the bills in Parliament.  Why push a yes vote when the general populous are the ones that should be required to ‘show courage of conviction’, educate themselves on the bills and vote their conscience; why would asking this been viewed as ‘cowardly’ or hypocritical especially by a government who when in opposition in 2002 lacked the ‘the courage of conviction’ to support the bills once they had voted for them in Parliament, actually they went out and actively campaigned against equality for women at the time.

Picking up on the narrative being set by the Progressive Liberal Party, that of Minnis being a weak leader because he failed by others standards to support Yes Bahamas, we have persons within his very own party, especially those of the faction that want him gone like ‘yesterday’ that continue to openly bash him without a logical argument or any sound reasoning on this matter, so here the Progressive Liberal Party has already began to set the background story that is this referendum fails it did so because of the direction that Dr. Minnis took on it, not bowing to the wishes of the government and its agents but then there is more.

“PLP Chairman Hits out at opponents to bill” – The Tribune 04.20.2016

Excerpt from this article; “PLP Chairman Bradley Roberts said the Save Our Bahamas group did not have any evidence to support its opposition of the fourth Constitutional Amendment Bill.

Mr. Roberts said the religious group did not have a good reason for opposing the bill, which seeks to end discrimination in the Constitution based on sex.  Questions based on the four bills will be put to the electorate in a referendum.

He urged Bahamians to pay attention to pay close attention to the facts so as not to get distracted by the ‘tremendous amount’ amount of misinformation that will be placed in the public domain.”

They only reasons why there will be a ‘tremendous amount of misinformation’ would be because either the government did not do a good enough job informing the people through the Yes Bahamas campaign that it funded or because the Bahamian people no longer trust the present Progressive Liberal Party or both and as for trusting them I would not blame them to trust this government

Yes Bahamians just may have good reason not to trust this present government that once voted campaigned against women equality, in 2002, citing as one of their reasons that the Church was not consulted, now the church has been consulted, the church has expressed their views and the church has been attacked for expressing their views, as a saying goes “Do not ask for my opinion and then get mad when I tell you the truth”.

“Mitchell: Deception by Vote ‘No’ side is a sin” – The Tribune 06.05.2016

Excerpt from this story “Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell yesterday spoke out against religious leaders opposing the four referendum bills, claiming that their ‘deceptive campaign’ against the gender equality vote is a ‘sin’.

He also insisted that some pastors are using ‘false stories’ to frighten Bahamians to vote against their ‘own interest.”

“A Sick, Sick Man”

“The Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and his party the Free National Movement went down to resounding defeat on Wednesday 27 February 2002.  Their spin doctors and apologists are trying to make-up all sorts of stories about the whys and the whereof.  The simple fact is they were beaten and beaten convincingly.  This senator believes that his position from the start that he would vote no has been vindicated.  The lesson for the PLP is that the role of a political party is to shape public opinion, not the other way around.  We must congratulate the Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie and his team for the skillful manner in which this whole thing was handled.

On the other hand we have nothing but scorn for this jackass that we call our Prime Minister.  He had to concede defeat just after 9.30 p.m. on the night of the referendum.  But the next day, he was back true to form.  He refused to resign making some spurious distinction by saying this was a vote not against the FNM and himself but against the issue raised in the referendum.  This is utter foolishness and is at variance with every known convention of the constitution.”

Fredmitchelluncensored.com

As Minister Mitchell pointed out in this opinion piece after the 2002 Gender Equality referendum, he had intended to vote NO from the very beginning and really gives no real valid reason as to why either than the ‘scorn for this jackass we call a Prime Minister’.  Minister Mitchell admits to setting back gender equality by fourteen years due to the spite and contempt that he held in his heart for one man but yet seeks to now convince us that the “religious leaders opposing the four referendum bills claiming that their ‘deceptive campaign’ against the gender equality vote is a ‘sin’, minister Mitchell was it a ‘sin’ fourteen years ago?

What is this man on?

Indeed, the Progressive Liberal Party has already set the narrative for the upcoming referendum; if it succeeds they seek to set themselves up as Champions of the people, righting an age old wrong of our society, no matter the fact they contributed to it being a part of our society for fourteen years longer than it should have, and if it fails

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

END

These have been some very trying times for the Leader of the Opposition, Free National Movement (FNM) Dr. Hubert Minnis.  From being heavily criticized for proposing that citizens become more aware and think for themselves to being ‘attacked’ by those within in very own camp, one such ‘attack’ coming seemingly because of what hi9s [Dr. Minnis’] supporters have said about recent criticisms of him on social media.

“PM: Minnis is a hypocrite” – The Nassau Guardian 05.30.2016

Excerpt from this article; “Prime Minister Perry Christie has branded Dr. Hubert Minnis a hypocrite for failing to push a yes vote, after the official Opposition supported the four gender equality referendum bills is Parliament in March.

Minnis said Bahamians should educate themselves on the referendum bills and vote their conscience.

But Christie told National Review, ‘He’s a hypocrite in that sense, a deep hypocrite in that sense, because I indicated to him that we don’t have to do this, and I’d only do it if you were willing.

‘And the fact that he is so far removed from his colleague, the former deputy, Loretta Butler-Turner, that amazes me, but we have to deal with issue as we have it and his leadership will be judged on how he deals with matters of this kind.”

When our Prime Minister makes such statements I am simply baffled and amazed that so many people actually follow this line of rhetoric.

“And the fact that he is so far removed from his colleague….” Is a clever statement only interjected for the purpose of attempting to further foment a perceived mistrust between the leader of the Opposition and the Member of Parliament for Long Island.

The Leader of the Opposition has stated his position of the four bills, as he has noted that they are recorded on the record of the House of Assembly; while the Hon. Prime Minister seeks to brand another as a ‘hypocrite’ he needs to be reminded of 2002 when he and his party voted for the Gender equality bills in the House of Assembly and then went out and campaigned against them; how hypocritical, how shameful or should I say shameless?

Then we have “Rollins: Minnis has no vision – FNM leader ‘is using tactic of a demagogue’- The Tribune 05.31.2916

Excerpt from this article, “Infighting in the Free National Movement (FNM) took another dramatic turn yesterday as Fort Charlotte MP Dr. Andre Rollins lambasted supporters of Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis, accusing them of espousing a tactics of a demagogue interested in dumbing down the debate because the leader has no substance or vision for his country.

He insisted that those FNM members characterizing recent actions by him and several others of the party’s parliamentarians as a move by ‘elitist promoting a UPB agenda’ were only underscoring the ‘weakness’ of the current leadership.”  I find this an over simplification of the position that some FNM supporters have put forth and what I  have actually heard from some supporters of the governing Progressive Liberal Party but it is an over simplification nonetheless that begs for an explanation. How does what supporters of the leader of the Free National Movement equate to a showing of weak leadership unless you are purporting that the leader himself is giving the message and if he is then is he also giving to the PLP supporters that have relayed it to me?  I caution Dr. Rollins be very careful of whom you consort with, simple but through it all it is true Dr. Rollins, if Dr. Minnis is meant to be the leader then the trials and tribulations will bear it out, right?

END

“Judiciary should only interfere in Parliament when all else fails” – The Tribune

Excerpt from this article; “A Judge was told of Friday that judicial interference in internal affairs of Parliament should only occur when all other avenues have been exhausted when an issue arises.

In a substantive hearing on a constitutional motion before Justice Indra Charles concerning her injunction relating to the recent disclosure and tabling of private Save The Bays (STB) emails in Parliament, Crown representative Dr. Lloyd Barnett stressed that Section 54 of the Constitution entrenched the powers and responsibilities of Parliament.

He said that the current action ‘would be a direct interference with proceedings and trespass on internal affairs.’

He said judicial interference could only occur in the rarest of instances when all other avenues have been exhausted which could not be said in of the matter presently before the court.”

The first and most obvious question, to me, here would be what other avenues was STB’s to take when their private correspondence was being tabled and read in Parliament, as we seemed to have reached a point wherein we still seek ‘someone’ to define what is the ‘worst of the worst’ as it pertains to capital punishment; who will now define when judicial interference becomes necessary in the ‘rarest of instances’ when all the avenues have been exhausted?  When we begin to get serious in this country in the protection of the basic rights afforded to our citizens by the very same Constitution that Crown representative says gives the governing party the right to deny citizens the right to privacy without recourse? 

In a variation of Bill#4, as proposed in the upcoming referendum on gender equality, a hand out from the “Yes” Campaign says “[The] Bottom Line”: Prevents Parliament from passing any new laws that discriminate against either men or women, so that our sons and daughters are considered equal under the law”, and here it is a Environmental group cannot seem to avoid Parliament from violating their constitutional right to privacy.

All this time the parties looking to reveal the private emails have yet to give an explanation as to how the material was obtained while the crown representative speaks to “Section 54 of the Constitution entrenched the powers and responsibilities of Parliament.” as if this government has every acted in a responsible manner.

Shame!

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

END

As Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie presented his Budget Communication for the year 2016 to the people of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, a budget communication short on achievements but long on promises, a budget communication that could have only been scotch taped together; with so many parts missing i.e. the audits from various ministries and the progress of the newly formed government agency ‘Resolve Bahamas’, we would have expected those with the requisite skill set to refute it with fact, but sadly this was not to come because it would seem that some of these persons had ‘different agendas’.

“Cash: it is time for new leadership” – The Tribune 05.26.2016

Excerpt from this article; “Former Free National Movement (FNM) Chairman Darron Cash yesterday blamed FNM leader Dr. Hubert Minnis for the ‘dismal state’ of the Official Opposition and said it is now time for the party to seek ‘fresh, new leadership.

In a statement, Mr. Cash said Dr. Minnis and his entire leadership team must give a full accounting of his stewardship of the FNM.  He also said a full convention with all the accountability factors built in is the right way for it to happen and called for it to be held in the next 90 days.

Mr. Cash also lamented that the FNM has become ‘a shadow of its former self’ and risks being ‘sink by an anchor of leadership that has been found wanting’.

‘There are many people who share responsibility for this unfortunate position, but there is no escaping the harsh reality – the current dismal state of the FNM goes to leadership.’

‘More specifically, it goes to the leader Hubert A Minnis,’ Cash said.”

First of all, I will not sit here and say that I have applauded each and every decision that Dr. Minnis has made as Leader of the Free National Movement, nor would I say that he has been a stellar success as the leader but I will say that I have seen an improvement since he has been elected leader of the party.   I feel for anyone to claim that either Perry Christie or Hubert Ingraham were exemplary leaders when the first became leaders of their respective parties would either be looking to mislead the public and is probably delusional themselves; as Hubert Ingraham was a work in progress and Perry Christie, in my opinion, will never achieve the necessary skill set to ever be called a leader; lying to the Bahamian public constantly does not make one a great leader but I have the propensity to digress.

There is fundamental difference between the Free National Movement and the Progressive Liberal Party, in the way that we handle our ‘leaders’.  As poorly as Perry Christie has performed over the years, his party members seek to prop him up and pick up the slack even to the point of threatening those that would dear criticize him; as for the Free National Movement, we have the tendency to choose a leader and tell them ‘do it’ and if he falls we back away lending little to no support only to look at them with distain and then seek to share our distain to any and everyone that would listen, this I find very disappointing.

Now we have a former Chairman saying that “It is time for new leadership” as he says that Minnis and his entire leadership team must account for the party’s failure but wasn’t he a part of this party’s leadership as we began our decline, as he and other would put it?

We as a party have become our own worst enemy. 

END

“Minnis ‘failing’ to lead on vote’ – Former FNM senator says leader has not communicated position” – The Tribune Excerpt from this article; “Former Senator Heather Hunt has suggested that Free National Movement (FNM) Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis has not shown effective leadership because he has failed to communicate his position on the four constitutional […]

via My Morning Paper – May 25, 2016 – Disturbing Behavior — My Morning Paper

“Minnis ‘failing’ to lead on vote’ – Former FNM senator says leader has not communicated position” – The Tribune

Excerpt from this article; “Former Senator Heather Hunt has suggested that Free National Movement (FNM) Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis has not shown effective leadership because he has failed to communicate his position on the four constitutional equality bills.

She told The Tribune yesterday that Democratic Alliance Leader Branville McCartney falls into the same category.

Mrs. Hunt is one of the co-executive directors of the YES Bahamas campaign and said that it was her hope that neither of these party leaders falls into a trap of using the equality bills as a political ‘football’

Instead, she said both Dr. Minnis and Mr. McCartney should use the opportunity to inform voters of what they plan to do differently should their party ascend to power.” 

Here Mrs. Hunt has me confused, while I do agree with her when she says that they “use the opportunity to inform voters of what they plan to do differently should their party ascend to power.”, this would come about only if they are in opposition to the bills and to this point I think only the Leader of the DNA has voiced opposition to the bills.

“Minnis: Vote your conscience – FNM leader urges voters to get educated” – The Nassau Guardian – 05.17.2016

Excerpt from this article; “Opposition Leader, Dr. Hubert Minnis is urging Bahamians to vote their conscience in the June 7^th referendum on gender equality.

‘With the entire referendum, I have said to the Bahamian public and I say again, listen to the issues, be educated, analyze, understand because you are voting for a future,” Minnis said.

‘Understand what you are voting on. You must be properly educated, then vote your conscience’ When asked how he intends to vote, Minnis said, ‘I said what I said.

 My vote in Parliament is on record’

Minnis voted in favor of all four bills in Parliament.” 

From this one can reasonably conclude that Dr. Minnis plans to vote ‘yes’ on the proposed bills but is not going to shove his opinion down the throat of the Bahamian people, much like the government is doing as it funds the ‘Yes Bahamas’ campaign. 

It is beyond me how this is perceived as weak leadership, to allow democracy work in the way that it should.

I gather from Ms. Hunts comments that she would have been more satisfied with Dr. Minnis telling 65,633 (give or take a few thousand) persons [the number of persons that voted for the Free National Movement in the 2012 General Election] to vote ‘yes’ and he should not encourage them to think for themselves.  I have been informed that this is the stance that the supporters of the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) has taken, the ‘no’ position to the proposed bills; so now 13,225 person (give or take a few thousand) are expected to follow suit?  Is this true democracy?  If it is indeed, then Branville McCartney would have been pleased with each and every decision that the Free National Movement made when he was a part of this political organization, so surely this cannot be the official party position or what they expect from each and every one of their supporters as this stance is utter foolishness and only expected of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), who now seeks to chastise the leader of the FNM to vote ‘YES’ as they seem to see that the entire referendum is indeed in trouble and maybe this is why Mrs. Hunt now seeks to attempt to do the very same, as she also sees that the referendum may be ‘Dead on Arrival’.

It is indeed disturbing behavior when citizens of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas wish to have their leaders to think for them and actually encourage them to.  It is disturbing behavior when a group of people would expect for their leaders to ‘make up their minds’ for them especially during such an important democratic process such as this one.   Maybe the criticism of Dr. Minnis and Branville McCartney have come about as those of the ‘Yes Bahamas’ initiative have failed in their efforts to properly educate the people as a lot of confusion still exists.

END

“Minnis hits out at Ministers who failed to table audits” – The Tribune

Excerpt from this article; “Free National Movement leader Dr. Hubert Minnis has criticized Cabinet ministers who have failed to table audits of government institutions as required by law, saying the issue highlights the need for greater accountability measures in government.

Dr. Minnis was responding to revelations in a Tribune article last week about gaps in the public record concerning audits of the Public Hospital Authority (PHA), the Water & Sewage Corporation (WSC), he Bahamas Broadcasting Corporation, the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation (BMC), the College of the Bahamas (COB) and the Hotel Corporation of the Bahamas.

‘The Government has shown a wanton disregard for transparency, accountability and the rule of law’ Dr. Minnis said Friday.”

With the Budget Debate set to commence in very short order and while the country is being distracted by the Gender Equality Referendum, it is my person opinion that the present government is making an attempt to distract from their current fiscal failings; as has been seen in the audit of the Department of Social Services, the Road Traffic department and the Urban Renewal Program.  It must indeed be quite embarrassing when you had hoped to speak to the success of tax reform in Value-Added Tax (VAT), as you continue to claim that it is exceeding all expectations yet there has never been a repeal in any area to aid in the lives of the average Bahamian citizen; when you seek to speak to the ‘tightening of the fiscal belt’, the reigning in of public expenditure even to the point of cutting subsidies to the College of the Bahamas, the deficit reduction but yet each and every government institution that you audit shows an ‘unexplained’ loss of public funds.

How does one present a complete and concise economic picture of the country when a lot of the economic statuses of the institutions that make up the ‘bigger picture’ have just not been provided?  It is simple, you cannot provide a clear and concise picture, so with these glaring omissions to what should be the final Budget Debate before he next General Election; a reason for the present government to prove why they should remain in power, there seem that we will still be left with more questions than answers but this has been this governments way, to provide more questions than answers while expecting not to be questioned.

Now before I am accused of misleading the public, lest I be compared to this government, let me just clarify that just because audits have not been tabled does not mean that they have not been carried out but could it be that the ministers responsible have just failed, for whatever reason to table the audits?  The obvious concern by the rest of us is that maybe something ‘bigger’ is being hidden.

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

END

On June 7^th, 2016 the Bahamas will go to the polls for a Gender Equality referendum that has been delayed for over fourteen years.  Many are of the opinion that some of the questions being asked are a waste of time and can rectified by Parliament and the money better spent on correcting other issues in our constitution.

Today, two branches of government, the Executive and the Judicial, are caught up in a legal battle and it would seem that the constitution is insufficient to offer clarification.

“Mitchell: Injunction is nonsense” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “As a Supreme Court Justice was hearing a constitutional motion from Save The Bays (STB) regarding private emails being read in the House of the Assembly, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Fred Mitchell was in Parliament yesterday, again blasting an injunction issued by Justice Indra Charles that prohibits MP’s from releasing those emails.

Mitchell dismissed the injunction as ‘nonsense’.

‘I want to make this clear,’ he said.

‘I do not consider myself bound by an injunction issued by any court in so far as it applies to any attempt to stifle what I say and do in this place.  I will act accordingly.’

STB members are seeking a declaration from the court that they have a right to privacy under Article 23 of the constitution and that it is an entrenched fundamental right which trumps parliamentary privilege.”

A line has been drawn; one side seeks to invoke privacy laws as laid out by the constitution and the other seeks to violate these same laws by seeking to use parliamentary privilege as laid out in Article 53 of the constitution but this is only made possible by “Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, Parliament may make laws for the peace, order and good governance of the Bahamas (Article 52), which would tend to suggest that ‘good governance’ is a factor in the application of Article 53; so if the minister seeks to ‘act accordingly’ will he err on the side of caution by not violating article 23 of the constitution?

One of the main issues of these emails, beside them being private is the manner in which they were obtained.  The good Minister for Marathon, Jerome Fitzgerald claims that he found them in his political ‘garbage can’ and I can only feel that that he can only be referring to his mind when he uses this term but how did you obtain private emails of private citizens?

Mr. Mitchell actually makes a very relevant point when he asks, “You know even if we broke the injunction what was the court going to do?  How were they going to enforce it?, he asked” and this is where the constitution would have to make a clarification on which article actually trumps the other and what would be the possible ramifications for members of parliament violating the article.

Minister Mitchell goes on to ensure that all these emails are important because “When the facts reveal that there was, in fact a conspiracy to destabilize the government…..”, if this has not been proven to date and the minister has to violate Article 23 of the Constitution to do so then I would suggest that he has already lost this battle, but yet he forges ahead.

“Mitchell also sought to assure this constituents that he would not ‘blink or stutter’ and [he would] continue to serve unswervingly their interest in this place”, if only he had stepped forward in the Baha Mar crisis – serve the best interest of the people, but if by serving their best interest and ‘acting accordingly’ he seeks to act against the constitution itself, then what great purpose has he served?

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

END

“Halkitis: FNM playing politics with Road Traffic Dept” – The Nassau Guardian

Except from this article; “Minister of State for Finance, Michael Halkitis said he is not surprised that the Free National Movement (FNM) is avoiding responsibility for the ‘long-standing’ issue of fraud and malfeasance outlined in the auditor general’s report on operations at the department of Road Traffic.

The report found among other things, that a minimum of $10 million at the department had been lost due to a ‘severe lack of order and control around the safe guarding of assets, collection of revenue and reporting of the same.

The general audit covers the period July 1, 2012, to June 30 2015.”

I find it quite interesting that any minister of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) would seek to take any report produced by the Auditor General’s office and prosecute anyone based on same said report when they refused to take action when the Auditor General’s report questioned certain practices within Urban Renewal but now they seek to make claim that others are making matters ‘political’, this is shameful.

Looking beyond the fact of Mr. Halkitis claiming that this matter is being made political by the Free National Movement, he then goes on to clarify his government’s position on the matter, “I don’t expect to them (the FNM) to take responsibility, because this is political season and I can say that over the four years of this administration, we have had precious few constructive intervention from the Free National Movement on any topic,” Halkitis said.

Having said that; we know these things are long-standing – I’m not going into a, it happened under yours or it happened under ours; discussion – it is long standing.”  I recall a ‘when pigs fly’ comment by a PLP minister but also like to point out, Mr. Halkitis, this is what you just did , gotten into what you claimed you would not get into but leaving all of this alone; there is still is the matter of how the auditor general’s report are only relevant when this governments says and it seems to have become pretty relevant in what this minister calls ‘political season’, after he has openly admitted that his administration has had four years to deal with working on correcting the problem; the ‘long-standing’ one that he claims that ‘the previous administration failed to identify’ and only seems to have taken his administration four years to identify, even after claiming “….the prior Christie administration had made efforts to modernize road traffic, but the Ingraham administration didn’t continue the plans.”, I feel Mr. Halkitis is being a tad bit dishonest here but if one were to take him at this word one would question why they spent millions on Junkanoo-Carnival, re-vamped Urban Renewal but allowed the corruption to continue at road traffic for over four years, are they that incompetent and inept at governance?

In no way do I look to excuse the previous administration for not identifying the problem in this department and others but to have ‘work’ begin in them to ‘correct’ these problems one year before a general election just is a bit suspicious to me, especially when the auditor general’s reports are now being used to make this corrections in light of the way in which his report was handled in the Urban Renewal matter, may I remind the Minister of State for Finance that his government went out and commissioned an ‘independent’ report when the auditor general issued one on Urban Renewal, maybe someone at Road Traffic needs to request another audit done, this government has turned the system into a joke.

So, Mr. Halkitis, wishes to end his comments with, “The fact of the matter is that this administration has identified where the weaknesses are, and we’re addressing it, and that is the bottom line” and I continue to winder will this be the same bottom line with urban Renewal?

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

END