San Salvador Rally Speech - FNM Leader Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham

Fri, Feb 3rd 2012, 01:14 PM

Remarks by Rt. Hon. Hubert A. Ingraham Prime Minister San Salvador, Thursday 2 February, 20011

Good Evening San Salvador, I am very pleased to be in San Salvador, one of my favorite places in The Bahamas. Many of you know me and I know you. I am here to place my stamp of approval upon my Party’s candidate for your constituency in the soon-to be-General Election, Michael Pintard. Many of you have met him and all of you have heard him speak this evening. Michael was especially and carefully chosen for you. He is a focused and driven man. He will do you proud as your MP.

As you know we introduced our full slate of candidates for the 2012 General Elections on Sunday past. We have a first class slate made up of 17 first-time new candidates; nine of our candidates are female. We believe we have the right mix of tried and tested and bright, new and talented. All are energetic and anxious to continue our important work of making life better for you.

We can only do that if you return us to office and so I remind all who have not yet registered to do so now.

San Salvador, You told me you wanted Michael. You weren’t the only constituency that wanted Michael. East Grand Bahama wanted him too. He lives in Grand Bahama and it would have been more convenient and less expensive for him to run there – a seat that is FNM. I told East Grand Bahama that they couldn’t have Michael; he had been spoken for. Tonight I deliver Michael to you! He has my full confidence, and he has the full confidence of our Party. Now it is up to you to make him the next Member of Parliament from this constituency. I must admit that I was very happy when your Constituency Association’s leadership proposed Michael Pintard as the preferred candidate of the people of San Salvador. I was doubly pleased when I heard that they were calling for him in Cat Island and that Rum Cay was endorsing him for our Party’s nomination.

In Michael you have a good man; a trained agriculturalist, with experience in the financial services sector, an accomplished and acclaimed playwright and a poet. Michael Pintard is truly what we might call a Renaissance man. A small businessman himself, Michael is committed to strengthening programmes in support of small business development. His experience makes him the ideal man to help frame new and additional programmes in support of your development here in San Salvador. He will make sure that San Salvador gets its fair share of each and every Government programme – in fact, he will make the case for why you should get more than your fair share. You’ve been neglected by your incumbent MP and that rankles Michael’s sensibilities! I believe and Michael believes and the FNM believes that it’s time for you to have a representative who cares about you and about people like you. San Salvador:

Your current MP has taken you for granted for too long. He spent most of his time in the House as a back bencher with no national responsibility; he was never a Minister in the Government. So he had plenty time on his hands. Did he use his time to come to see you, to attend to your needs, to your community’s needs and to see after your development? Unfortunately, no, he did none of that. He was busy looking after his own interests. Where are his footprints in San Salvador? Before I leave tomorrow, show them to me! Yes, he spent his time looking after himself. And, he has done very well for himself. Having done well for himself, one might think that he would now, in the twilight of his career in front line politics, seek to concentrate his attention on the development needs of his constituents. Not so; now he’s seeking to lead his Party, no doubt seeing additional opportunities for himself.

You need an MP who will work for you! And Michael is that man. It’s time that you had a Member of Parliament who puts your needs and your interests, your dreams and your aspiration in the forefront of his agenda. Michael will do that for you. Michael is a product of this constituency, descendant of both San Salvador and Cat Island. He is determined to make a difference in this constituency, and to leave a footprint behind.

Michael is fired up about programmes like SelfStarter and Jump Start, put in place by the FNM Government since 2007, to provide essential seed funding to independent entrepreneurs and small business owners. Michael wants residents of San Salvador to get in on the action. Some of you will know Leonard Johnson, a 26 year old owner of a small catering and baking business. Mr. Johnson, whom I do not know and whose political affiliation I don’t know either, was one of the 600 recipients of a SelfStarter grant. He received $4,737.90 in 2009/2010 to help him with the start-up of a Catering/Baking Business. By all reports coming to the Ministry of Youth, Mr. Johnson’s new business is doing very well. He has regular catering jobs at the schools and around your community.

I applaud him; Michael is excited about him. Michael is especially excited about what Mr. Johnson’s success means for other enterprising young people in San Salvador between the ages of 18 and 29 who may have plans for small business start up but who need a little seed money to get going. I can just imagine that Michael can’t understand why only one person from San Salvador has benefitted from SelfStarter Programme – and one other from this Constituency – from Cat Island; just 2 out of 600 so far. Well I know that Michael will do something about that!

Michael is just as excited to encourage individuals over age 30 to become involved in the Jump Start programme which targets business persons over age 30 who seek seed funding to start or expand a small business; buy new equipment, or expand inventory in an existing enterprise. So far the Ministry of Finance reports that it has received only a single application from San Salvador under the Jump Start programme. I say to you, emulate Leonard Johnson, become entrepreneurs, become business-owners – reach for the sky. Michael Pintard, your FNM Party and your Government are standing at your side and behind you to help you reach your goals and to succeed in your efforts to become productive, contributing members of your community.

San Salvador, The Ministry of Education tells me that only a couple of San Salvador residents have taken advantage of the available tuition scholarships for Bahamian citizens at the College of The Bahamas. These scholarships are available to any Bahamian student completing high school with a minimum of 5 BGCSE subjects including Maths and English Language at Grade “C” or above.

Now the Ministry’s records indicate that beginning in 2007, 2 students from San Salvador achieved the required standard of 5 BGCSE passes at “C” or above; none did so in 2008 but in 2009, 2 students achieved the standard; in 2010 – 4 students qualified and last year in 2011, three more students met the standard.

What the Ministry could not tell me was why those students are not beneficiaries of the Ministry’s tuition scholarship programme. I am very interested to know why more of those students would not have pursued further studies at COB. Was it for lack of tuition funding? Housing? This is the kind of thing that will fire Michael up. I can tell you that Michael, a graduate of COB like Charlie Maynard who spoke to you earlier, Zhivargo Laing, Kwasi Thompson, Darron Cash and Karen Butler – all candidates in the upcoming General Election, is already on the job on that one.

Michael will also be looking for reasons why only 8 of the 18 students from San Salvador who enrolled at COB since 2007 are continuing their studies at COB. He will further want to know why only 2 of this group receive the tuition scholarship benefit. And he would want to know why those who are being educated to become teachers are not having their tuition paid by the government and why they are not receiving the stipend that the government pays for teacher trainees.

Someone needs to be looking after your interest; ensuring that you are aware of programmes from which you can benefit and ensuring that the appropriate applications are submitted on time and with all the necessary supporting documentation. I know who is willing and ready to do just that; Michael Pintard is biting at the bit to get to work on your behalf. San Salvador, It’s been reported to me that since the FNM Government introduced the education loan programme during our last term in office, just three students from San Salvador have participated – the last student having completed studies last year. Three other students have been recipients of National Scholarships – one in 2010 and two last year. They are studying at universities in the US and in the UK.

There is another scholarship – one offered by the Gerace Research Centre, (before 2006 known simply as the Field Station). The scholarship is tenable at one of the twenty American universities and colleges which engage in research at the Field Station. The programme provides for the college/university to pay tuition costs and the Government of the Bahamas/MOE pays for Room and Board up to $10,000 per annum. Only one student from San Salvador has taken advantage of this programme.

I want to encourage you to pursue these opportunities. Michael tells me that he will ensure that San Salvador improves on those numbers. There is no good reason why you should not be producing more of your own teachers, policemen, customs and immigration officers, nurses. With Michael, working for you, I am confident that you will become better informed and better acquainted with accessing Government programmes. Michael is going to make it his business to ensure that any qualifying students in San Salvador are fully aware of any and all Government sponsored programmes to further education, facilitate skills training and smooth the development of business. He will be working for you – 24/7 as they say.

San Salvador, I understand that we have received almost 30 applications from individuals on this island seeking to participate in the 52 week National Jobs Readiness and Skills Training Programme. The programme will be launched here in San Salvador one week from Monday. These participants will be placed at a wide cross section of private businesses and public corporations in San Salvador including Club Med (4), Safari Dive Co (2), Island Maintenance Crew - construction - 4), BTC (2), BEC (2), BahamasAir (2), and the Water & Sewerage(1) and one at Administrator’s Office. Also, a number of participants will be engaged as teacher’s aides – 2 at the high school level, and 5 at the primary level.

Already 3,000 Bahamians in Nassau, in Grand Bahama, and in Abaco, Eleuthera, Andros, Bimini, the Berries, Exuma and Long Island are participating in the programme receiving training and work experience which could land them permanent jobs and which will definitely better prepare them to find and qualify for jobs in the economy. I want to encourage young people to take advantage of all the programmes the Government has developed to give talented Bahamians a “leg up” so to speak. Make the programmes work for you.

San Salvador: Finally, Michael would be an inspiration for your young. He will challenge and support them in becoming all they can be as scholars, sportsmen, artists, artisans, business men and women, lawyers, doctors, manufacturers and all other worthwhile endeavours. In short, Michael is my man; make him your man San Salvador. It is my privilege therefore, to give to give you a man for these times. He will work for you!

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