By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

POLITICAL hopeful and Tribune president Robert Dupuch-Carron said he wants to keep his integrity intact and would prefer to serve as a backbencher if elected to Parliament.

He made the comments yesterday on ZNS’s Immediate Response with Spence Finlayson, outlining his vision for the MICAL constituency, where he is seeking a Progressive Liberal Party nomination.

When asked which Cabinet post he was eyeing, Mr Dupuch-Carron said his focus was on service rather than position, following in the footsteps of relatives who had entered public life before him.

“I want to represent the people like my grandfather and others. I think that just being an MP is a full-time job, and I leave it to others who are far more qualified and capable of that, because what I don’t make up in experience, I make up in integrity.”

Mr Dupuch-Carron spoke about the lack of basic services in the southern islands, pointing to his work with the Bahamas Aviation, Climate and Severe Weather Network (BACSWN). He said areas such as Inagua and Mayaguana continue to suffer from the absence of critical services like ambulances and banks.

Previous administrations, he said, had neglected Family Island communities for too long.

He described the situation as a form of “legalised apartheid,” saying people born in the Family Islands are treated as second-class citizens because they must pay about $15,000 to bring their loved ones to New Providence for medical care. He said Nassau residents don’t face such costs since treatment at the Princess Margaret Hospital is free, even though all Bahamians share the same passport. He added that if he could change that one inequality, he would feel he had made a real impact.

He said efforts are underway to establish a helicopter emergency medical service base in Inagua to serve the southern islands. 

BACSWN has partnered with Response Plus Medical (RPM), a global aviation emergency-services provider based in Abu Dhabi. Mr Dupuch-Carron described them as the “biggest crash search and rescue EMS in the whole Middle East.”

“The ambulance are on the way,” he said. “The paramedics are on their way. We need to get the Ministry of Health to do some things before, but the airports and stuff and the helicopter will be here next year. We will be able to provide a level of health that is important to the Family Island.”