Deputy Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis said yesterday that no one should disrespect the Office of the Prime Minister. Davis was asked if he agreed with Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell’s position that if Baha Mar CEO Sarkis Izmirlian doesn’t conform with the values of The Bahamas, he should take the necessary steps to find some other country to live in. Mitchell warned Izmirlian after he said the developer criticized Prime Minister Perry Christie.
“Well what do you think?” asked Davis after a church service at St. Mark’s Native Baptist Church in honor of Fox Hill Day.
“Do you think anyone ought to be able to just disrespect the Office of the Prime Minister? Is that your view?
“Once we start from that premise that you agree that the Office of the Prime Minister ought not to be disrespected, it ought not to be broadside in a way that would bring the office into disrepute, once you start from that premise then the only question is, how do you address that?
“We all have our different ways of doing things.”
When asked how he would deal with such disrespect, Davis said, “I provoke no fight but I fear none.”
Izmirlian has said he doesn’t believe that Christie is doing what is best for the Bahamian people.
Izmirlian added that he believes the “voters of The Bahamas will decide how they feel about the actions of the government” regarding the entire ordeal.
Labour Minister Shane Gibson has also blasted the developer, stating that “because he has a couple dollars, believes he could come into The Bahamas and talk to us and the prime minister any way he feels like”.
Mitchell yesterday reiterated that the Office of the Prime Minister deserves respect and “no one should disrespect him”.
“You will notice that when the prime minister enters the room, we all stand,” he said during a service at St. Paul’s Baptist Church.
“All the little boys in girls in the country one day want to aspire to that office.
“So we can’t allow anyone to denigrate it. And any who does should be called out.
“That’s just the way it is.”
Christie agreed with Mitchell.
“When he (Mitchell) speaks about the respect for the Office of the Prime Minister sometimes we forget that it is not the individual we are talking about,” he said to the audience.
“We are talking about the Office of the Prime Minister that person holds.
“If we are going to pass anything on to these young people, it is how we grew up – do unto others as you have them do unto you.”
Mitchell, Christie, Davis and several other Cabinet ministers toured four churches in the Fox Hill community.
Christie declined to speak to The Guardian following the event.
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