By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FORT Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins defied a recommendation from Acting Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis to meet with him yesterday. Nor did he resign as chairman of the Gaming Board.

A reliable source confirmed to The Tribune that despite Mr Davis’ call in the House on Wednesday night for the outspoken parliamentarian to meet with him and “do the honourable thing,” no meeting had taken place between the two men.

Mr Davis made the suggestion after Dr Rollins launched into a tirade against Prime Minister Perry Christie, calling for “new political leadership” in the country.

Dr Rollins emphasised on Wednesday that he cannot resign from a position he does not hold, insisting that he was not Gaming Board chairman because government board appointments had expired on June 30 and the prime minister had yet to announce reappointments.

However, Mr Davis said Cabinet had extended the appointments to August 31 and that a letter had been sent to Dr Rollins to that effect. Dr Rollins said he had not received the letter.

During his verbal assault on his own party, Dr Rollins said he is “sick and tired” of hearing the prime minister quote the same scripture in the House adding that he would “go to church” if he wanted to hear a sermon.

He also lashed out at Mr Christie for using a debate as “critical” as the one on Value Added Tax (VAT) legislation to “threaten” younger members of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) who have expressed divergent views from the party line.

He said: “The political threats uttered by the prime minister and the minister of finance this morning left me with one impression and that is, we need new political leadership in this country. When a leader and prime minister, a minister of finance, could take a debate as important and critical to the pockets of the Bahamian people as VAT and spend most  of his contribution threatening members on this side, it is evident that we need new leadership. He spent more time and energy trying to threaten us rather than give comfort and hope to people that are leery and tired.”

Mr Christie was not in the lower chamber at the time because he was set to travel to Las Vegas for a work-related trip. However, Mr Davis rose to his feet to rebuke Dr Rollins for his “out of line” comments.

“It pains me to know that the member for Fort Charlotte crossed the line today,” he said. “When I say cross the line, I mean the fact that he is on that side, does not make him any different from us on this side. Perhaps because he is sitting there it has influenced him to think that he is (in the) opposition. He crossed the line. He called the prime minister’s leadership into question and it was not right to do that. . .

(Because of the large numbers of PLP members in the House, some of them, including Dr Rollins, have to sit on the Opposition side of the House).

“Dr Rollins crossed the line when he called into question the leader and his motives and in fact suggesting that he should no longer be leader. I will say no more, he (Dr Rollins) and I can meet, (Thursday) morning, as acting prime minister and acting leader of the party and we can discuss the manner in which he can do the honourable thing. I say no more.”

Dr Rollins was one of the “new generation” PLPs that were brought into the party shortly before the 2012 general election.

Before that, he was leader of the now defunct third party the National Development Party (NDP).

On Monday, the prime minister announced that Dr Rollins had resigned as PLP whip because he did not support some of the Constitutional Amendment Bills.

Dr Rollins has previously been outspoken about the government’s plans to introduce Value Added Tax and discriminatory elements of a draft Gaming Bill which would uphold the ban against Bahamians gambling in casinos.