By SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement Deputy Leader Peter Turnquest said Prime Minister Perry Christie, who he called “Gold Finger,” did not stick up his middle finger at a public event last week because his family was attacked, but claimed Mr Christie made the obscene gesture because he was questioned about value added tax and government spending.

While addressing a crowd of FNM supporters in Eleuthera recently, Mr Turnquest also said the prime minister needs to spend less time talking about the controversy in the FNM and worry about his own Cabinet ministers who “have been trying to get rid of him for the past five years”.

Mr Christie was subject of much ridicule and criticism last week after he “flipped the bird” during a PLP event.

After nearly two days of intense backlash, Mr Christie expressed “regret” for his behaviour in the House of Assembly, saying it is “not what I’m like.”

He insisted that in hindsight he would not have made the obscene gesture, as he suggested that it might have caused embarrassment not only to the nation, but also to his family. Mr Christie questioned how those in public life ought to react in the face of “egregious assaults of untruths and distortions.” He said such instances become “exceedingly difficult” when his wife and children are attacked in a manner that goes to the root of their existence.

However, Mr Turnquest said he is not buying that excuse.

“Our prime minister, I call him ‘Gold Finger,’ has always shown you what he thinks of you, the disrespect he showed the entire country because someone dared to ask a question, that’s all they did,” Mr Turnquest said.

“Don’t mind him talking about someone was talking about his family, they were not talking about his family at all. They asked a question, just like the Bahamian people have asked. ‘Where the VAT money gone?’ That’s it. They thought it was a joke, it’s no joke. They wanted to know, just like you want to know, where is the money from VAT and all the other taxes? Where are they spending our money?”

Last Thursday, Prime Minister Christie highlighted on the opposition’s internal fights and divisions and said a party that is so divided and so weak as the FNM “would wreck this country while they continue their fighting.”

“If the FNM were the government of the Bahamas today, who would be running the country?” Mr Christie asked. “Who could say today that they know who would be running the country? I’ve lost track of how many senators, how many leaders and wannabe leaders they’ve been through. You vote for one today and the next day you got somebody else.”

However Mr Turnquest said the PLP has its own share of controversy just like the FNM.

“The prime minister said his party is unified, he said ‘we can’t trust them other fellas because we don’t know who will be leader.’ Well I have news for him, if he don’t know himself, his members have been trying to get rid of him for the last five years. Ask Alfred Sears, ask Obie Wilchcombe, ask Fred Mitchell, ask ‘Brave’ Davis, who isn’t so brave because he wouldn’t take the shot, at least Alfred Sears took the shot,” Mr Turnquest said.

“They all tried to get rid of him and Mr Christie had the nerve to say well ‘I staying because my people tell me they want me to stay.’ So the news ask the members of the governing party and one by one they say ‘not me I didn’t ask him to stay.’ But because of the way they operated their party they couldn’t get rid of him, but since they failed, your FNM with the help of God we will do the job for them. We will fire Mr Christie and this worthless PLP as soon as they are bold enough to call the next election.”