Response to Brave Davis

Mon, Jun 6th 2011, 11:17 AM

Dear Editor,
 
Brave Davis, the deputy leader of the PLP, is feebly trying to lift his profile. The only difficulty is he is trying to do so on issues that he and his party totally lack credibility.  In his most recent letter to the press, he makes absurd claims.
He stated that Bahamians must be "scratching their heads and wondering how is it possible that Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, in his budget presentation in the House of Assembly last week, did not think that the country's escalating crime problem was important enough to be one of his government's top priorities."  This of course is not true.
However, it does support what we in the FNM have long known -- the PLP mistakes words for action. The fact is that the crime fighting agencies of the country, that is, the Police, Defence Force and Prison have all received increases in the upcoming budget.  They are receiving collectively $201 million which is $15.6 million more than they received last year and $34 million more than they received under the PLP in its last budget.
Next to education, crime fighting agencies will receive the second largest allocation among government agencies (13%) in the 2011/2012 Budget.  This is more than the percentage allocated by the PLP in their last budget, notwithstanding that then Prime Minister Perry Christie said in his 2006/2007 Budget Communication, "We are putting in place ambitious but achievable programs and strategies to move aggressively to attack the problems of crime and illegal immigration which together constitute the greatest source of worry and anxiety for the Bahamian people."
Action, not words, is required.
The attorney general, judiciary and magistrate courts together will get $32.4 million, which is $6.7 million more than they were allocated last year and $3.3 million more than the PLP gave them in their last budget of 2006/2007 before they were kicked out of office.  Action, not words is required.
Brave Davis says it was political expediency that made the FNM make job creation and training our main focus in the upcoming budget.  He was clearly talking about the PLP under Perry Christie which had four years consecutively of double digit unemployment with as many as 19,000 Bahamians unemployed and did precious little to address the hardship over that period.  Faced with the worse global economic crisis since The Great Depression, the FNM quickly moved to put in place an Unemployment Benefit Programme that has assisted 21,249 with some $32 million in payments as of April 30th, 2011; a six-month job program that gave more than 2,500 Bahamians work; and an infrastructure programme that created thousands of construction jobs for Bahamians.  The PLP did none of this but only benefited from a more positive world economy and the third phase of Atlantis left behind by the FNM.
Brave Davis talked about using the people's money as a "campaign war chest".  Is he serious?  Just weeks before the general elections of 2007, the PLP hired many hundreds of persons in the government and signed more than $80 million worth of contracts that were not provided for in the budget.  The criterion for getting a job was that you got your application from a PLP candidate.  This is not the FNM way.  If we wanted to use public funds for campaigning, we would not have announced publicly what we are doing for the Bahamian people, nor would we have provided constituency allowances to every MP, FNM and PLP, including some $250,000 in our budgets to be directed in their constituencies.  We are not like them.
Mr. Davis says the training and hiring program should last 2 years and not 1 year.  He says this is electioneering.  Well, then why did the PLP hire the hundreds of workers as they did just before election for only six months?  Why did they give out scores of employment letters to people to show up to government ministries and agencies, including NIB, without even properly providing for their funding or accommodations?  Indeed, some such persons were still showing up to government offices days and weeks after the general elections in 2007.  Why did they promote hundreds of police officers just days before election?  Why did they promote scores of prison officers just days before elections, some of whom were not even qualified for the promotions?  Electioneering is the PLP's forte.  But we are not like them and what we do will be in keeping with our practice of transparency and accountability.
"Lil" Brave says Bahamians have short memories.  However, we say, their memories are not so short that they have forgotten the scandalous, do nothing, indecisive, $800 million in additional borrowing and cannot account for it.  This was the all-talk-no-action PLP government.  They will not go backward.  The Bahamian people will not forget those who agreed to sell BTC to a shell foreign company whose ownership remains in doubt.  They will not forget how those who say they care failed to pay completely the Royal Oasis Workers, the Sea Hauler victims.  They will not forget those who crushed Grand Bahama under the weight of their oppression, failing to provide proper relief when the hurricanes of 2004/2005 devastated the island.  They will not forget those who said they cared about Bahamians and put them first but left straw vendors under a tent for an entire five years without laying a single block to rebuild the straw market.  They will not forget those who did not build in five years a single school for our children.  They will not forget those who did not improve the nation's infrastructure, hospitals or judiciary as the FNM has.  They will not forget those who could not provide basic prescription drugs relief for our people.  And they will not forget them for increasing a Business License fee for farmers by 900%.  No, they will not forget that every man for himself government resulting in chaos and confusion.
Brave Davis' handlers told him that he needed to write more letters to up his profile. They should have told him that he should not do so by telling untruths or talking about things on which he and his party lack credibility.  Bahamians will remember a budget that delivers jobs, business help and continuing relief.  That is a fact that has the PLP and "Lil" Brave panicking.
 
Yours, etc.,
CARL BETHEL
Chairman
Free National Movement
 
 

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