By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Cabinet minister Loftus Roker yesterday characterised the country’s political leaders as a “tainted bag of apples,” contending that the nation was now paying the price for years of unchecked corrupt practices by elected officials.

During an interview with The Tribune, he said he views Prime Minister Perry Christie as “poorly performing” but he does not see anyone else on the political landscape who is fit to replace him.

Mr Roker, who served as minister of immigration in a Pindling administration, said he is gravely concerned over the current direction of the Bahamas and its political development. He said he has had to come to the realisation that “past actions, actions during my time, has brought us here.”

“We didn’t get here overnight - it took sometime and a lot of doing,” Mr Roker said. “We, you and I, we are all responsible because we sat back and said nothing. We picked sides and pointed fingers.”

Mr Roker, who contacted for comment on the PLP leadership race, admitted that his public calls for current Prime Minister Perry Christie to retire following his current term didn’t consider potential replacements.

“I said so almost a year ago that it was well past the time for Mr Christie to retire; backing a saying I heard recently, if you know what it means to spend shillings and pence, you should not be aiming to run this country,” he said.

“But, looking at the full picture, I don’t see anyone that could assume that position. The country lacks leadership at every level, and as bad as the PLP is - in their current state - I think the FNM would be absolutely worst,” he added.

Mr Roker said his remarks should not be viewed as his endorsement of Mr Christie, but as an indictment of every other political leader.

“I regard (Christie) as poorly performing. But you can’t blame Mr Christie; the way politics works, if a person is performing poorly they are replaced. At the party level, they see no fault with this man, and at a national level he was elected as the best option available. So what does that tell us?”

Moving to further clarify his assertions, Mr Roker said FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis’ actions on several occasions have already disqualified him ascending to the nation’s highest office.

He was referring to the fact that a company Dr Minnis has interests in had a rental contract with the Ministry of Health while he was minister of health. The contract continued on a month-to-month basis while Dr Minnis was leader of opposition.

The PLP has said it is a conflict of interest.

Furthermore, Mr Roker said the matter, combined with the recent BEC bribery scandal, has confirmed a thought he has held for quite some time: “There is no fundamental difference between the PLP and the FNM - none.”

According to Mr Roker, the country’s political landscape has devolved into a two-party model in which the two sides have struck a gentleman’s agreement not to allow issues to go “too far”.

“Look at the BEC bribery scandal,” he said. “That is what the politics of the Bahamas has come to. Two political parties with an agreement, no one works to make it better, everyone is working for themselves and protecting each other, not the people, themselves.

“If you don’t believe me, look how corrupt issues are dealt with between the two groups. If I do something crooked and you discover it, I would tell you to mention it, but not to take it too far.”

In July, former Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) board member and former FNM candidate for Fox Hill Fred Ramsey, 79, was convicted of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to steer government contracts to a French power company. The bribes took place more than a decade ago. He was ordered to a pay fine and did not receive prison time.

Mr Roker added: “That is what you see when you read the papers and watch the newscasts, we see the small bits and pieces that they are comfortable with. I dare you, look at it closer, go just a little deeper and you will discover that PLPs helping FNMs and the other way around.

“During his first term as prime minister, there was a period when Mr Christie got ill. If you recall, Mr Christie asked his political adversary and everyday friend to assist (the then Deputy Prime Minister) Cynthia Pratt. How in the world could you ridicule a man during a campaign for being bad for the country and then turn around and ask him to fill in for you?”

Mr Roker said this “gentleman’s agreement” between the two major parties has allowed corruption to fester.

Change needed

Mr Roker went on to criticise the current crop of “new age politicians” suggesting that they would rather sit back and witness “foolishness” instead of speaking out against it.

“They are afraid that if they speak up and speak out, they would be blacklisted by the political institutions. Most of them are trying to protect themselves, they are afraid to ruin their chances of a long political career.

“They need to understand that when people lose confidence in the system, then there is a serious problem. That is when things gets serious because there is no hope for development or change.”

Mr Roker said calls for new leadership can no longer be done so in a passive way, as he called on citizens to get fed up and “force a changing of the guards.”

He added: “You aren’t going to get it by asking Mr Christie to give it to you. I take the view that when people want a change, they will make it.”

Asked if that could be viewed as an endorsement of PLP leadership candidate Alfred Sears, Mr Roker said no, insisting that Mr Sears himself still has much to answer for.

“All I would say is I know him well, really well,” he stated. “The Bahamas needs someone to bring sweeping changes the way that early PLP did in ’67. They had a cause and a reason. That is why I am so critical of the young politicians. This is their time and they are sitting down and allowing the old-ways to run rampant.”

Asked to clarify what he was referring to, Mr Roker offered up a matter that he was involved with in late 1970’s.

“By 1977, when I was minister of health and works, corruption could be seen as clear as day. At that point, politicians saw the post for what it could offer them financially – the ability to use public accounts as though it was their personal accounts. In ’77 I stood up in the House and reported that the chairman of BEC was corrupt.”

“I told the House that this man was using the company’s resources as if it was his personal resources. Free gas, free repairs for his personal vehicle - the House appointed a committee to look into my claims. That committee never spoke with me, they never asked for my supporting documents, none of that. That committee later reported to the House that they found nothing - that is where the political culture started to take precedence over national betterment.”

Mr Roker added that this is the culture being passed down to and accepted by young politicians.

Mr Christie, now 73, is seeking his third, non-consecutive term as prime minister.