By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

FORT Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins yesterday blasted PLP Chairman Bradley Roberts over his appeal urging Bahamians to donate to the political party’s Hurricane Joaquin relief fund.

The independent MP said by facilitating its own fund, the PLP has implied that it wants Bahamians to believe that they can trust a partisan political organisation more than well-meaning private citizen groups to get aid to those in need.

He further claimed that FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis allowed himself to be “paraded” around with the government on storm assessment trips, adding that the invitation for Dr Minnis to travel with the prime minister had nothing to do with promoting bi-partisanship.

Dr Rollins said the government has so badly managed the response to the storm that it wanted to put forward an image that hurricane relief is shared equally between the government and the opposition. He said it had absolutely nothing to do with promoting bipartisanship and the PLP’s notice is proof of that.

“First, they parade Dr Hubert Minnis, leader of the opposition, around with them to declare that hurricane relief is not a partisan effort and that Joaquin did not see red or yellow when it hurtled through our archipelago,” Dr Rollins said in a Facebook post in response to Mr Roberts’ announcement of the party’s plans for its relief fund.

“Then, both the government’s social media supporters and the leader of the opposition discouraged members of the public from making donations to reputable private citizen groups for storm-ravaged islands.

“Notwithstanding any of this, the PLP, the nation’s governing party, uses this advertisement to politicize the hurricane relief in violation of the prime minister’s, and leader of the opposition’s, statements that the response would be bipartisan and apolitical.

“Additionally, they see fit to use their vast social media presence to advertise the means by which the public can make financial contributions to their political (party) – not a recognised government or charitable entity – on behalf of hurricane relief, but have not seen fit to convince the government, although they operate as one in the same, that there should have been a media blitz to inform members of the local and international community about how they can contribute to the government’s national disaster relief body - NEMA - or the local Red Cross.”

He added: “So, what this says is that even though they have already contradicted themselves, they want Bahamians to believe that we can trust a partisan political organization more than we can trust well-meaning private citizen groups to get aid to those in need, and that their philosophy is that they would wish for Bahamians to be dependent on, rather than independent of, politicians for their survival.

“Think about that for a minute and now you understand why the culture of political dependency is so pervasive in our country – that is the only way for ‘old school politicians’ to survive. If you have the will to help yourself, what use are they to you?”

He went on to question why both political parties did not hold a joint press conference encouraging Bahamians to contribute to NEMA or the Red Cross.

Dr Rollins urged all Bahamians with the means to do so, to contribute to NEMA or the Red Cross or any reputable private humanitarian relief groups that have registered with the government, because it is they who are designed to provide relief in the wake of humanitarian crises and not political parties that are designed to collect monies or material to wage political campaigns.

In a press statement on Monday, Mr Roberts said in the wake of the devastation the party has opened a bank account to facilitate a fund-raising drive to further defray clean up, recovery costs and reconstruction costs that have already been estimated in the tens of millions of dollars. He said every “red cent” counts in this national and international effort that both tests and demonstrates our humanity towards each other.

He said the party planned to join the disaster relief efforts by making a cash donation to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to assist in the ongoing disaster relief efforts.

Senator Alex Storr, the party’s deputy chairman was appointed to head the party’s Disaster Relief Committee, Mr Roberts said.