Friday, February 3, 2017
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
FREE National Movement (FNM) Leader Dr Hubert Minnis tied the recent arson attempt at the Magistrate's Court Complex on Nassau Street to the performance of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP).
Dr Minnis, who confessed to being under the weather, was speaking during the final night of the FNM Youth Torchbearers convention.
"This week's firebomb at the Magistrate's Court Complex on South Street off Nasasu Street is a sign of the troubling times under the PLP," Dr Minnis said on Friday night. "If that Court Complex had burned down, our criminal justice system would have been crippled. There would be an even greater crisis of law and order. That firebomb was an attack on the Bahamian state. It is another example of the spread of criminality on the PLP's watch."
Dr Minnis' speech, like others during the torchbearer convention, stood with the party's familiar theme of castigating the PLP, characterising the governing party's performance this term as horrible.
"If Emperor Christie and the PLP get five more years they will unleash one of the greatest periods of victimisation in the modern Bahamas," he said. "They will have no restraint. It will be payback time. And they will party big-time on the sinking ship."
Dr Minnis also discussed the decision of ZNS not to air the Torchbearers convention, despite the party's willingness to pay to have it covered.
"They brazenly denied the Torchbearers broadcast time on ZNS TV. This is just like the old days under Sir Lynden Pindling. ZNS should not call itself the people's station as they like to advertise. If it's the people's station, paid for by taxpayers, then the people should have access to ZNS.
"Under the PLP it's never the people's time at ZNS. I imagine that the order to shut down access for the FNM and the Torchbearers came from the top. This is what happens in countries run by dictators. Those who are democrats would not do such a thing."
Comments
John says...
The concern should be about Perry Christie comments that election ain't gonna be no time soon. He better know he joking!
Posted 3 February 2017, 11:21 p.m. Suggest removal
Well_mudda_take_sic says...
**MINNIS, AND MINNIS ALONE, WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PLP WINNING THE NEXT GENERAL ELECTION AGAINST IMPOSSIBLE ODDS IF HE DOESN'T TURN THE FNM OVER TO JUST ABOUT ANYONE ELSE.....BUT FIRST HE SHOULD HELP WITH THE DUMPING THE VERY GREEDY AND CORRUPT IDIOT, SIDNEY COLLIE, WHO CURRENTLY SERVES AS THE PARTY'S CHAIRMAN. NO ONE IS GOING TO VOTE FOR THE FNM IF MINNIS AND/OR COLLIE ARE STILL IN THE PICTURE COME ELECTION TIME. THAT'S THE SIMPLE REALITY OF THE SITUATION AND CROOKED CHRISTIE KNOWS IT AND MINNIS MUST NOW STRONGLY SENSE IT. THE BAHAMIAN PEOPLE WILL MAKE MINNIS THE MOST HATED BREATHING BAHAMIAN IF HE INSISTS ON SINGLE HANDEDLY BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR GIVING THE CORRUPT CROOKED CHRISTIE-LED PLP GOVERNEMNT ANOTHER FIVE YEARS DURING WHICH TIME THEY WILL COMPLETELY DESTROY THE BAHAMAS.**
Posted 4 February 2017, 10:45 a.m. Suggest removal
xtreme2x says...
You are not speaking for me, cause am voting FNM. If the man was pm already and he is screwing up, then I will say he is not doing a good job.You can not get any worse than the present pm. My oponion only.
Posted 4 February 2017, 1:07 p.m. Suggest removal
DDK says...
Unless you can do a better job, leave the man to do his, which is to lead the FNM to victory in the coming election.
Posted 4 February 2017, 1:34 p.m. Suggest removal
Greentea says...
xtreme2x and DDK - if Minnis only needed two votes- he would have it hands down, but we know he need a couple more and that is the problem. I hear there are a few people planning on spoiling their ballots in protest. I would say that many of them are "would be" FNM voters - But because they do not see him as the answer they refuse to put him in government and I agree with them. People tell you who they are long before you put them in places of authority and if Minnis cant run a 400 member party effectively, he is unfit to lead a country of 400 thousand people. The US is learning that the hard way with Trump. He told them exactly who is was before the election and they went with him anyway- they chose to burn down the house and are now realizing they were locked up in it. Both Minnis and PGC need to go and the hardheaded Minnis and his hard headed party about to give it back to PGC. Like mummy used to say, if you cyaan learn you ga feel. FNM refuse to learn and the entire country will feel the repercussions. Let us pray.
Posted 4 February 2017, 5:47 p.m. Suggest removal
TalRussell says...
Comrades! The citizens, residents and tourists concerns with crime are not being addressed
with the schoolyard finger-pointing blame game that keeps reoccurring between the political parties.
Is there any wonder why fewer citizens are bothering to exercise their right to register to vote in the around the corner 2017 General.
Some of the faces responsible for committing crimes can be better managed or placed under control - but not if this is all our political leaders are willing to bring to the solution table.
Posted 4 February 2017, 1:03 p.m. Suggest removal
John says...
Maybe it's time for corporate Bahamas to take a stance against the broadcasting corporation. Don't advertise with them for a month or two.
Posted 4 February 2017, 3:28 p.m. Suggest removal
John says...
As for voting, it is a difficult choice. First to decide to register. Everyone should do that because there is power in numbers. The more people register the more persons the politicians have to answer. Then if you can't vote along party then vote for the best candidate in your area. Hopefully it will work out in the end where you get strong dedicated and qualified people to form the next government hopefully
Posted 4 February 2017, 3:34 p.m. Suggest removal
John says...
@Mudder-take-sic : can you really say that Loretta Butler is better off politically since forcing Minnis out of power as the Leader of the Opposition? Butler-Turner was so obsessed at becoming leader and she was egged on to taunt and torture Minnis and challange his leadership by so many. Now she has hit a wall broadside with nowhere to go but down. Then look at those who followed her. They, for the most part are rebel rousers or fence jumpers or persons who have issues that extend beyond Minnis being leader. There are no less than five opposition and the FNM may be the only one that gets seats in the next election not to mention having a chance of becoming the government. And now the talks about Loretta Butler forming a new party has caused even the rest of the rebellion group to consider abandoning her. So it was not just about Minnis. It was about greedy and over ambitious Loretta not wanting to wait her turn. And those who pushed her and egged her on also had ulterior motives. Now their political future is as uncertain as a glass of ice on a summer day with rain and wind in the forecast
Posted 4 February 2017, 4:04 p.m. Suggest removal
Well_mudda_take_sic says...
You just don't get it and probably never will. The problem has always been rooted in Minnis and while he would like for all of us to think otherwise, LBT and the others like her have only been an annoying distraction.
Posted 4 February 2017, 5:01 p.m. Suggest removal
Greentea says...
I completely agree. The fact that even without her he hasn't gained any traction and the party hasn't convinced the majority of the Bahamian people of anything- speaks to HIS leadership abilities and profound lack of those abilities. No vision. No inspiration. No ability. No negotiation skills. Pure ego and ambition and hence completely corruptable. With LBT gone- ain't no one to blame. ALL the light is on him and I for one still don't see a thing.
Posted 4 February 2017, 5:53 p.m. Suggest removal
John says...
split posts split personalities
Posted 5 February 2017, 12:46 p.m. Suggest removal
sheeprunner12 says...
There is a grassroots movement among the U-30 voting bloc ........ they are sympathetic to the FNM and that will be the deciding vote in this election ....... except for serious gerrymandering or stuffing the ballot boxes, the PLP is in trouble in 2017
Posted 4 February 2017, 7:06 p.m. Suggest removal
TheMadHatter says...
Xtreme2x...IF Minnis said he would put in place term limits for both PM anf all mps and he would make foi act and recall process for mps and a few other importsnt things and said he is giving us his word as a man that these things would be done in six months or else he would either resign or else be known as not-a-man aka big sissy THEN i would vote for him. But to ASSume that we wont find ourselves in the same boat we are in now where after 4 1/2 years the Govt is only now just making plans for how to govern and askng for another five to implement those as yet incomplete plans...is just crazy.
I see no evidence that Minnis will do anything positive. He demanded no info on vat while leader of opp. He has now demanded nothing to do with mp financial disclosure...nor has he reached out to the Queen to assist us with violation of the Constitution regarding boundaries report.
**TheMadHatter**
Posted 5 February 2017, 8:29 a.m. Suggest removal
Publius says...
>IF Minnis said he would put in place term limits for both PM anf all mps and he would make foi act and recall process for mps and a few other importsnt things and said he is giving us his word as a man that these things would be done in six months or else he would either resign or else be known as not-a-man aka big sissy THEN i would vote for him.
He does not have the Constitutional authority to do these things himself. Only the people via a referendum can enable these things (minus the FOIA) to happen. But of course Minnis does not know this.
Posted 5 February 2017, 9:43 a.m. Suggest removal
John says...
OK so the prime minister has lied again about Bah Mar...he claims it was sold when it was not. How many can continue to trust this man? How much of your VAT/TAX dollars are going for the maintenance and upkeep of Bah Mar when it should be paying down the national debt? They (Christie and *Lying* Halkitis dem) duped you into paying all your tax bills and piled additional taxes on your ass, with the promise that the national debt was being paid down. But now government seems to be in more debt than ever before!. They simply rearranged it. Obviously the Chinese aint pumping no money into Bah Mar unless they see a clear sale on the table. Documents signed. So is Christie den pumping your VAT money into Bah Mar without your permission and without cabinet/parlimentary approval?
Posted 5 February 2017, 12:54 p.m. Suggest removal
John says...
They say Perry Christie is lie so much (and lying Halkitis) say when Perry give a remarks to a recent funeral the church made a disclaimer: that the contents of Christie remarks are independently produced and the church assumes no responsibility for them well muddy sick
Posted 5 February 2017, 6:38 p.m. Suggest removal
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