By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie’s persuasive capabilities have ensured him a lengthy political career, but have also hindered the growth and development of the country, according to Ft Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins.

Speaking as a guest on the Ed Fields Live talk show with host Rogan Smith and guest host Tosheena Robinson-Blair, Dr Rollins criticised the Centreville MP, likening the long-time politician’s career to a bad romance for the Bahamas.

Describing his efforts while he was member of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) to push the party in line with its 2012 campaign promises, Dr Rollins said he pleaded with the senior brass of the party to take the necessary steps to rescue the country.

However, he claimed his requests fell on deaf ears, prompting him to take his fight to the public.

“I took the approach that I would handle any concern that I had about the performance of the PLP administration, that at the time I was a part of as a backbencher, that I would privately communicate with the prime minister and other leaders of the government to be someone who would offer that constructive criticism in hopes that once it was offered privately there would be evidence of them taking heed of that advice and altering their approach or performance,” Dr Rollins said.

“Particularly with respect to the prime minister, what I found was that he was very persuasive listener. He would give you the impression that not only was he hearing what you had to say, but that he would act on the recommendation or the constructive criticism that you were offering.”

He added that while he finds Prime Minister Perry Christie to be “nice and likeable as an individual” he realised that much of his utterances are “hot air.”

Dr Rollins continued: “As nice and likeable of an individual as he is, he is, in my view, the most effective political persuader - and I am choosing my words carefully - he is the most effective political persuader of any other member in Parliament. And by that I mean, he would have you believing that whatever he says, you can take that to the bank. I found however, that it was all hot air.

“He is filled with this capacity to speak eloquently and to have this romantic language that causes you to believe that he is capable of doing all that he has said he going to do and the outcome is going to be fantastic.

“The problem is that nothing that he said ever materialised and I felt that the only way that I could have taken my criticism seriously was for me to go public. I tried to covey through my contributions in the House in the debates, I tried to be as straight-forward as I could be, communicating what I was previously communicating to him privately when my advice was falling on deaf ears, I tried to then communicate that publicly. While I was speaking to the public, I was expecting that he would, as he was listening to what I was saying in the chamber, that it would force him to take it more seriously.”

Dr Rollins said Mr Christie has made a career out of “dodging” accountability to those that support him.

“Take into consideration that the PLP hasn’t had a convention since 2009,” he said. “They are about to have a convention again in November - the first in seven years. Mr Christie has been expert, not just at promising and not delivering on those promises, but he has been an expert in dodging accountability as an elected official.

“Not just as the elected leader of the government you know, but he has refused to go through the process of renominating as leader of the party. Because at convention you know, all the offices become vacant. And rather that putting himself in position to go back to the delegates of PLP convention to ask them to re-elect him, he has preferred to postpone a convention as often as he can.”

He added: “The problem is that anybody who speaks or is vocal in calling for a convention is somebody who is dubbed as... not being a team player. When you become vocal now, clearly you are not a good PLP because you are not a team player.”

Dr Rollins quit the PLP in June 2015, after months of criticising the party and Mr Christie for failed promises. He joined the Free National Movement last November.