Dear Editor,

I'm sick of these excuses from Prime Minister Perry Christie and the PLP whenever they are caught doing the wrong thing. They always say that the FNM did it too. Well, even if that were true, it is no excuse for them. But it is not true.

Christie said recently that the FNM empowered FNM contractors by giving them contracts. Well, why shouldn't FNM contractors get contractors under an FNM government if they are qualified and competitive? Should they be excluded under the FNM as well as the PLP?

Now, I'm not saying that there may have been a few borderline cases of favoritism under the FNM, but the truth is that the FNM government under the leadership of Hubert Ingraham was different, very different. The FNM government in all its three terms in office put projects out to bid as required by law and awarded the contracts to the best bids regardless of political affiliation. I can name some of the PLPs who benefitted.

The FNM never assumed the PLP attitude of entitlement and did not believe that people who had different political views should be punished and ostracized in their own country. In fact, Hubert Ingraham was in some cases very compassionate, despite the false image the PLP tries to paint of him. I'll give you a case in point.

Everybody should remember how before one election Steve McKinney, who was a deputy director of Bahamas Information Services, went on the radio and lambasted Ingraham mercilessly on ZNS, the people's radio station, not the PLP's. Ingraham and the FNM won that election and very justifiably took McKinney off the air.

People would have understood if he had also got rid of McKinney from BIS because how could he serve the new prime minister in that sensitive position after saying what he did about him? In fact, one might have expected McKinney to resign of his own volition. He must have been very uncomfortable working with Ingraham whom he had to record on numerous occasions.

But Ingraham did no such thing. In fact, when McKinney's contract expired, Ingraham renewed it! I think it was for another two or three years! By contrast, just recently the BIS contract of Earl Thompson expired.

Thompson is a qualified Bahamian who is known to be an FNM supporter. Did Christie renew his contract? No, he is now out of a job while some PLPs have been hired at BIS. Big difference, don't you think?

- For Justice

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