By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement leader Michael Pintard has apologised to Bahamians who were hurt by decisions of the Minnis administration, saying: “We did not get everything right.”

His comment came as the FNM wrapped up its three-day convention at Atlantis on Friday night after Shanendon Cartwright and Dr Duane Sands were elected deputy leader and chairman of the party respectively and dozens of others were elected to various posts.

Mr Pintard struck notes of unity in his speech and criticised the Progressive Liberal Party for hypocrisy, failing to follow financial laws and victimisation.

“Some folks,” he said, “are feeling some type of way about us so as we celebrate all that we accomplished, and it has been much, under Prime Minister Ingraham it has been much, under Prime Minister Minnis it has been much, but let’s also acknowledge that we made some decisions that resonate in entirely the wrong way with many, many Bahamians.

“Some of you sitting in here were left vulnerable in the public service, had no idea that the PLP would behave in the manner they said they had abandoned. I want to say I regret that we made some of those decisions and you were hurt and we apologise to every Bahamian who has been hurt by any decision that we had made. I believe that the decisions came out of a place in our heart where often we thought the right decision was being made. But nevertheless the consequences are real for you.

“And so we don’t hold you responsible for us being in opposition. No, you made a decision that you felt was in your interest, whether it was to vote against us or to stay home from voting. Our job is to hear and feel the response of the Bahamian people and make a determination that we will make adjustments where adjustments are required. We did not get everything right and we should be honest and say it.”

 Mr Pintard has been particularly focused on the firings and terminations of contracts under the PLP administration.

“Here is a government that has the notion that anyone who was hired in the last four and a half years must be FNM so it’s perfectly okay to fire them,” he said.

 “We have some ministers (who) will come on television, they sound exceptionally smooth and eloquent, but at the end of the day the story they tell does not resemble the truth. In Urban Renewal it is a naked attempt to replace one group of Bahamians with another group of Bahamians.”

 Mr Pintard also contrasted the FNM’s culture with the PLP’s culture.

 “We are distinctly different from them. There is a culture that’s different and so it’s important for us not to demonise our brothers and sisters from the Progressive Liberal Party. They are good people just like us. But there is a culture of entitlement, there’s a culture where some of you have told us heart wrenching stories of sitting at your desk and a minister of state can attack you while you at your desk with a verbal barrage that I cannot repeat here or in private. We are different because I can’t think of an administration, past or the most recent one, that would tolerate a Member of the Parliament behaving in that way.”

 As for his own future, Mr Pintard said he will serve the party only for as long as members want him to do so.

“I will serve at your pleasure for as long as you would have me and rest assured, the day you make the determination you don’t want me I wouldn’t be fighting tooth and nail, left right and centre, east, west, north and south to hold on,” he said.