By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

TALL Pines MP Leslie Miller yesterday said the Progressive Liberal Party should push for the formation of a “substantive committee” in Parliament to “get to the bottom” of which persons or entity are responsible for purchasing “millions of dollars” worth of “very negative” newspaper ads about the governing party should it return to office.

Mr Miller, in an interview with The Tribune on the sidelines of the advanced poll for the general election, said the “first thing” the Christie administration should do if re-elected is petition Parliament to “find out who is spending all this money and what is the reason behind it”, as he charged that no one individual or group of persons should be able to “buy a country”.

Mr Miller said those involved in purchasing the ads in question, which he suggested are “those out Lyford Cay and maybe perhaps some on the Eastern Road,” should be brought before Parliament and made “to answer” for their actions.

Further charging that both the PLP and the Free National Movement (FNM) have to be on the same accord on the issue, Mr Miller said it is imperative to “keep those people, the money people, who think they can buy a country, out of the internal affairs of my country”.

Although he did not specify to which newspaper ads he referred, Mr Miller was likely referring some of the multiple wraparound newspaper ads published in The Tribune by “Transparency in Politics”, which typically paint the PLP in an unflattering light. Some of those ads, and in particular the one for Monday’s Tribune, typically portray an image of alleged collusion between the PLP and Lyford Cay billionaire Peter Nygard.

Other government members have questioned the motives behind the ads in question, such as Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, who last month cautioned Bahamians to “follow the money trail” in reference to opposition candidates, two of whom Mr Mitchell suggested have connections with environmental activist group Save The Bays (STB).

At the time, Mr Mitchell renewed his party’s claims against Lyford Cay resident Louis Bacon, whom he described as a disgruntled billionaire that hates the PLP and funnelled money in STB to serve that end.

When asked if he felt the PLP would emerge victorious in the upcoming general election, especially when considering the recent controversies involving key members of the party’s Cabinet, Mr Miller said: “I think at the end of the day, the first thing I would like to see happen in the new Parliament, is to have a committee, a substantive committee formed in Parliament to get down to the bottom of who’s spending these millions of dollars with these ads every day, very negative ads, that you see in the United States of America.

“Obviously most people are saying it’s being contrived and being developed by some foreigners in this country, those out Lyford Cay, and maybe perhaps some on the Eastern Road,” he continued. “We need to get to the bottom of this. You cannot interfere with the internal affairs of any country…I would like to get to the bottom of this and keep those people, the money people, who think they can buy a country, out of the internal affairs of my country.”

“The first thing we should do in Parliament is form a committee and bring those people there to answer, and follow the cheques,” Mr Miller said added. “It’s very important that we do that. I’ve never seen this before in this history of our country, where people literally can just buy a country. It is wrong. And we need to check it out. FNM and PLP got to be on one stand with that.

“And you want to find out who is spending all this money and what is the reason behind it. You cannot buy a country.”

Despite all the negativity being directed at the PLP for its performance this term, however, Mr Miller still maintained that the party would secure “21 to 23” seats in the upcoming election, and further charged that he would again secure his Tall Pines seat “by a comfortable margin, as much as a thousand votes”.

“I expect no less than a thousand votes,” he said. “We have done our job over the last five years and we continue to do our job on behalf of the good people that we have the honour of representing. They know what type representation they’re going to get out of me. I’ve been giving it to them, and they’re more than satisfied with my representation. Some are not because you know the detractors are never satisfied, but the majority of the people who has the basic sense to know that whenever they call me I’m there, we do our job, and I continue to work on their behalf, and I look forward to serving them again.

“But it’s their call, if I’m not then I’ll thank them for the time that they would have sent me there, and would have been privileged to be their MP, and I will continue to do the best I can, even if I’m not there. But I expect to be there.”