Thursday, December 12, 2019
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
GOLDEN Isles MP Vaughn Miller resigned from the Free National Movement in the House of Assembly yesterday, joining Centreville MP Reece Chipman as the second parliamentarian to leave the party this year after being elected on an FNM wave in 2017.
Mr Miller has repeatedly assailed the Minnis administration’s legislative agenda and he announced his departure before a confidence motion in Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis passed yesterday.
“Two cannot walk together except they be agreed,” he said. “Our differences are irreconcilable. The FNM will not repent, and I shall not recant. Therefore, I am requesting as of the next sitting of the House of Assembly, I am seated among the independents.”
In resigning, Mr Miller backed opposition leader Philip “Brave” Davis’ view of the circumstances surrounding the lease of the Town Centre Mall to house the General Post Office, saying the Minnis administration misled Parliament when it tabled and passed a resolution last year that said St Anne’s MP Brent Symonette was not involved in discussions and negotiations over renting the mall when he was minister of immigration and financial services.
Mr Miller voted against that resolution last year, drawing the ire of FNMs everywhere, he said.
“Many of my FNM colleagues reviled me,” Mr Miller said. “Many FNMs, near and far, persecuted me and spoke and plotted all manner of evil against me. It was said that I was finished politically; that I would not win the party’s nomination in 2022. But the party itself, losing support at an alarming rate, and on this current trajectory, is headed for a crushing defeat in 2022. It was said that I would be destroyed by the party, but the party itself, if it continues on its present path, is on the path of self-destruction.”
After resigning from Cabinet in July, Mr Symonette, who is part owner of the Town Centre Mall, revealed Dr Minnis called him to discuss the government’s plans to rent the mall before that resolution was brought to Parliament.
Mr Miller said: “I did not need the member for St Anne’s to disclose months later that he was indeed involved in intimate discussions with the prime minister regarding the lease. All he did was to confirm that it was indeed a corrupt deal, from the moment of its conception. And he knew it instinctively, for one moment, and then he was internally overpowered.
“Guided by the Holy Spirit, I struck out at the lease agreement, totally unaware at the time, like many others, that there were misleading assertions in the resolution; and I dealt a mortal blow. When it dawned on me what was happening, naturally, I mutinied, I rebelled!
“Why would a prime minister conspire with a Cabinet minister to mislead the House? In the Westminster system, which was involved against me, what is the custom regarding misleading the House? Why should a prime minister not be smartly punished for misleading the House? The bad example set for the younger generations is that nothing is wrong with misleading people, so long as it achieves the desired results and so long as one is not caught.”
Signs of Mr Miller’s discontent with his party first appeared in March, 2018 during the mid-year budget debate. He said at the time that there appeared to be a disconnect between the Minnis administration and Bahamians.
“They are not feeling us,” he said.
Later that year he voted against the increase in value added tax to 12 percent and was subsequently fired as parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Social Services. His criticisms of the administration since then have only grown harsher.
Yesterday he said being a political martyr––“one who suffers political death for standing up for righteousness”––is the greatest honour he could receive.
“If I am to be forcibly removed from the political stage, the record shows that I took my stand, instinctively, for righteous governance,” he said. “Based on the rhetoric of my colleagues before and during the election campaign of 2017, rhetoric that spoke to integrity, honesty and transparency and other lofty and noble ideals, I was convinced that we were on a glorious road to a golden age: no more corruption, no more untendered contracts, no more victimisation and persecution, no more favouritism, no more neglecting the poor. I recognised that integrity was being desecrated, but I will forever praise integrity and despise corruption.”
Comments
Porcupine says...
Perhaps I do not know Miller well enough, however,
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
Posted 12 December 2019, 7:24 a.m. Suggest removal
Observer says...
Mr. Miller knew from jump street, that the campaign of the FNM leading up to the May 2017 general elections, and thereafter, was rigged on LIES. "Where the VAT money gone?"
Posted 12 December 2019, 10:13 a.m. Suggest removal
sheeprunner12 says...
There is NO place in contemporary Bahamian politics for "goody two shoes" fellas like Vaughn Miller ....... Church and State should remain cooperating but not colluding entities ......... They answer to different authorities (Caesar & God) .......... Political realities do not always mesh with the fundamentalist religious principles that many Bahamians espouse.
We as Bahamian citizens are so infamously hypocritical when it comes to our Bay Street politicians ........ We want them to be "squeaky clean" while we live and operate like unlawful devils in our local communities.
Posted 12 December 2019, 10:57 a.m. Suggest removal
banker says...
LOL - guided by the Holy Spirit! I think that a chickcharney would make a better spiritual guide.
Posted 12 December 2019, 11:08 a.m. Suggest removal
sealice says...
Just like the PLP once these fools get themselves elected they drink the kool aid and whether you are PLP or FNM everything you said that got you elected gets forgotten.... just like WTF are we voting for all these lying thieves? They are con men but they aren't that good??
Posted 12 December 2019, 11:44 a.m. Suggest removal
BahamaPundit says...
Time to switch our leader's race and culture. Time to ellect a Swiss man, Asian or Jew. I'm done with white and black Bahamians. As soon as they're in, loot and plunter becomes their only thought.
Posted 12 December 2019, 3:01 p.m. Suggest removal
BahamaPundit says...
Doc Minnis pretended to be something new but turned out to be same old career politician. Should have checked his record in Parliament first. Probably would have seen evidence that he's been a "do nothing" kind of guy for years.
Posted 12 December 2019, 2:58 p.m. Suggest removal
TalRussell says...
The Tribune's headline: Minnis Secures Confidence Vote As ‘Martyr’ - **could've easily have had important, truthful footnote added** to read:
Still before, and after House's Wednesday confidence vote, the colony's Matyr prime minister, has repeatedly refused to publicly stand up to address the public claim uttered by his resigned from Minnis's Cabinet in July, 2019, Comrade Brent, who as part owner of the Town Centre Mall, had revealed that **Minnis did in fact personally call him on the telephone to discuss the government’s plans to lease good chunk long left empty of a paying tenant's space at the mall to relocate the government's post office, and that the call took place before that other House vote to go ahead with the multi-million dollar lease deal with Brent had made itself to the same floor of the House?** You can't make the arrogant actions this Imperialist government up, you just, cant.
Posted 12 December 2019, 2:59 p.m. Suggest removal
John says...
Well one more left to cross the floor ( the other has resorted to some serious boot licking and arse licking. (He is young and apparently has been threatened to be thrown to the wolves if he doesn’t straighten up and tow the party line). Bye, yes, Vaughn Miller stepping out the FNM fold Just weeks after Reece Chipman did, shows democracy is still alive. And so now the scale is now tipped 6 to 32. Seven to 31 will be an even greater experience as government will now at least feel some stronger opposition in debates. And it is also a warning light to the FNM government that voters are also crossing party lines for various reasons and they may need to get use to working with smaller numbers of MP’s after 2022. Doubtful that the scales have tipped so much that the FNM will be kicked out of office in 2022, but there is a lot of house cleaning and brass to be polished before Elections. And that goes to the PLP as well. The wounds from their last five years have not yet healed with the Bahamian people. And remember those who slipped through the FNM’s dragnet only got away because of a loose net and not because they were even slightly innocent. Even the regular Bahamian on the street understands the consequences of voting the PLP back in office in the upcoming elections.
Posted 12 December 2019, 5:41 p.m. Suggest removal
SP says...
GOLDEN Isles MP Vaughn Miller needs to do more than disagree that Town Center Mall isn't the best location for relocating the post office. He needs to either offer comparable alternatives or shut up.
Most people find Mr. Symonette anti-Black Bahamian, reprehensible and self-serving at best, however, due to its logistics, Town Center Mall is by far the best logical location for the main post office.
Very interesting happenings in the House. One cannot help wondering how many more FNM MP's are on the verge of crossing the floor for one reason or the other!
Where there is smoke there is fire!
Posted 12 December 2019, 7:22 p.m. Suggest removal
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