By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

AGRICULTURE Minister V Alfred Gray yesterday defended Prime Minister Perry Christie from criticism over the latter’s controversial flashing of his middle finger at a recent community meeting, charging that the obscene gesture is proof that Mr Christie has “had enough” of people launching unwarranted attacks on his wife and children.

Mr Gray, in an interview with reporters outside Cabinet, suggested that while Mr Christie’s gesture on Monday night was “strong”, it shows that Mr Christie is fed up with not just the repeated attacks on his character and performance as prime minister by various critics, but also instances where his family is targeted in the process.

Claiming that “being Prime Minister does not make him less human” and that “humans act as humans always do,” Mr Gray said Mr Christie ‘flipping the bird’ is evidence that he “has taken a lot of late from his critics,” so much so that “only Jesus could take perhaps as much as he has taken”.

Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald, also weighed in on Mr Christie’s controversial gesture, but said that the nation’s leader would “have to speak for himself” over his actions.

Mr Fitzgerald said while Mr Christie is “quite capable of defending himself” from critics, the prime minister “is a human like all of us, and at the end of the day you take exception continuously when you hear and see lies written and reported about you.”

While speaking at a community meeting in Fox Hill on Monday night, Mr Christie stuck up his middle finger as he lashed out at allegations that he owned or had interest in a condominium property obtained through political impropriety. The allegations were made in a video posted to Facebook.

Mr Christie added at the time that he would not let political lies of this sort distract him from the task of governance.

Mr Christie has been criticised for the gesture, with the Bahamas Christian Council, other prominent pastors and Official Opposition Leader Loretta Butler-Turner reprimanding him for his actions.

When asked yesterday, however, Mr Gray attributed Mr Christie’s gesture to his pent-up frustration over criticisms levied against his family, as was the case last year when a Bahamian rapper wrote an expletive-filled song about Mr Christie’s family, including his wife, Bernadette, and their son, Adam, who is autistic.

“The truth is the Prime Minister has taken a lot of late from his critics, and humans act as humans always do,” Mr Gray said. “And being Prime Minister does not make him less human. And when you attack my wife, my children and in his case his challenged son, that is enough - I think God gets angry at things like that.

“And so I think enough is enough. And I believe the prime minister’s reaction was strong, and I hope they get it. He has had enough. If you want to criticise his government, do that, if you want to criticise his method of governance, do that. But I will say to you today, when you mess with my wife and my children, that’s a different paradigm.

“And I think he has a right to defend his family, he has a right to defend himself, when you’re taking it upon yourself to attack him, his wife, his children and his sick child. Only Jesus could take perhaps as much as he has taken.”

Mr Gray added: “And so I advise those of us who are in politics and those who will follow us in terms of leadership to make sure people understand there is an election to be won, and everybody is out to win it. That’s a good thing. But we don’t need to get personal and talking and bringing people’s families into this mix, because they were not elected.

“And I’m satisfied that the Prime Minister has had enough. And I advise those critics, stay with the issues, criticise him on the issues, criticise him on his management, that’s fair game. But when you cross that line and get into my house you’re going to have a problem.”

Meanwhile, Mr Fitzgerald submitted that Mr Christie’s gesture was in response to a “broader issue” of society deteriorating “to the point where it appears as if we don’t understand and appreciate boundaries”. “All of us who are elected to public office, and I speak about this all the time in the House of Assembly, we came into public life understanding that there would be criticisms of us, constructive, and we accept that,” he said. “But we never really signed on, and I think it’s inappropriate for persons to think they can willy-nilly or have carte blanche to attack our family members really for no good reason. “And at the end of the day we have thick skins and we have broad shoulders and we have been weathering these type of comments and lies for some period of time, and we accept that as part of the job. That’s what we signed on for, but that’s not what our families signed on for. And at some point we’re going to have to really have a serious discussion in this country about how far we really go when it comes to persons who are in public life, when you start attacking and making fun, singing songs, telling lies on social media about our family members. And that’s really to me where the line should be drawn.”