Remarks Free National Movement Rally Grand Bahama Sunrise Shopping Centre Rt. Hon. Hubert A. Ingraham Party Leader 14 April 2012
Grand Bahama; Young People; F-N-Ms:
Before I say anything else, I have a special report for you. I just flew in from Cat Island. Cat Island is RED!
Michael Pintard will be the next MP for Cat Island, Rum Cay & San Salvador.
Grand Bahama:
Thank you for Red Splash. Red Splash has turned into a gigantic Wave of Colour Red. On Thursday night a Sea of Red covered R.M. Bailey Park in Nassau. What you saw on your television was only part of the story.
As I’ve said before, we are ahead in the polls. We are ahead in energy and enthusiasm. And we are light years ahead in proven leadership and boldness of vision.
But, we cannot take anything for granted. Victory is on the horizon. But we must work hard every day to secure that victory, voter by voter, house by house and constituency by constituency. Leave none behind. Go find any prodigal sons or daughters and tell them come back home.
The PLP is behind us. And, they are late-again as usual. We released our 2012 Manifesto online during the first event of the campaign. The word for this is leadership. I guess the PLP wanted us to go first so they could have something to copy.
Nothing has changed with them. Just like they’re late-again with their manifesto, they will be late-again and behind in office. While they plan to keep talking and plan to keep talking about plans, they don’t plan to act.
Perry says they’ll be ready on day one. They even ain’t ready with their manifesto on day one, two, three or four of the campaign. Let’s see how many days it’ll take them before they can organize themselves to put out a manifesto.
Last time they were late in appointing an Attorney General – 7 days. Now they say they are serious about crime. No AG for a week – unbelievable, unthinkable!
To make it easy on themselves they should just put out the same manifesto they did in 2002. After all, they delivered precious little of what they promised you back then.
Let them talk all they want. What I need is for you to deliver five members to the Delivery Team that will form the next Government.
Grand Bahama; Young People; FNMs:
It is most appropriate that we meet here at Sunrise. You have been through tough times for a long time. But, there is a new day on the horizon for Grand Bahama. I told you at the Grand Bahama Candidate’s launch that you always have a friend in the FNM and Hubert Ingraham. “For good times and bad times I'll be on your side forever more That's what friends are for.” You were going through economic storms even before the Great Global Recession hit. You went through three hurricanes which further damaged the economy of Grand Bahama.
You also went through the storms of neglect and abandonment by the Christie Government. They PLP failed you miserably in the aftermath of Hurricane Jean and Francis. Christie came here after the hurricane and promised you a Marshall Plan for Grand Bahama. He’s very good at promising. As usual he failed to deliver.
Don’t believe a word of the new promises he’ll make to you this time around. Just like he failed you then, he’ll fail you again.
Christie is a sweet talker. But things turn sour when it comes to delivering on all his sweet talk. I lead the Delivery Team. Christie presides over the Talking Team.
Christie talks so much that the things he says never add up. First of all don’t forget Christie’s Law: The more he talks the less he’ll deliver.
In one breathe Christie says he’s concerned about the national debt. Then in the next breathe he promises to double the size of the national education budget. Well let’s add up his voodoo math.
If he doubled the national education budget for the next five years, that would amount to nearly three billion dollars. This is more than the size of the entire national debt. Now, you know this man ain’t serious, no how, no way.
If the PLP ever get round to putting up posters of Perry, the title on the poster should read: Unproven Leadership!
I’ve said before, some people have gall and other people have no shame. But for Perry Christie to come to Grand Bahama, of all places, and speak about stopover arrivals to The Bahamas proves that he has a lot of gall and absolutely no shame.
Perry Christie, in five years, presided over and precipitated the biggest loss of hotel rooms in Bahamian history. Does he believe that we forgot that while all of the destinations he named were increasing hotel rooms, he was busy watching them close and watching people get thrown out of work when there was no recession?! It was Perry Gladstone Christie who spoke in 2002 about how the Royal Oasis would be the beginning of Grand Bahama becoming another Las Vegas. By 2004 the 845 room Royal Oasis, representing nearly 40 per cent of the total hotel rooms in Grand Bahama was closed and 1500 Grand Bahamians were thrown out of work.
And that's not all, those unemployed Grand Bahamians had to await the return of the FNM administration to get the severance payments that were due to them. And that is still not all. He agreed to the sale of the property to a company that has done nothing with it since that closure eight years ago.
In 2002, Grand Bahama Island had 301,830 air arrivals. By the end of 2007, air arrivals had plummeted to 188,579, a loss of 113, 251 air arrivals as a direct consequence of the closure of the Royal Oasis.
This is the Christie record, which, as usual he likes to pretend never happened. This is why he just keeps talking. He thinks that if he keeps talking nobody will notice his record of failure and incompetence.
But I am not here tonight to talk mostly about the PLP’s failures. After all, it would take forever to list their wasteland of broken promises and sheer indifference to your needs.
Grand Bahama; Young People:
Just as it was the FNM that boosted the industrial sector in Grand Bahama, it is the FNM that will help Grand Bahamas to move towards the path of recovery and growth.
Grand Bahama is featured prominently Manifesto 2012. Our plans include introducing new opportunities for commercial expansion and improving infrastructure.
In terms of upgrading your infrastructure, Neko Grant, your candidate for Central Grand Bahama has had responsibility over the last two plus years for executing our comprehensive infrastructural investment programme throughout The Bahamas.
He has done a good job in advancing this billion dollar-plus programme. Just like what he has done for the country he will continue to do for you. Send Neko back to the House.
Next term we will construct a new fire station in Freeport. We will also build a new community health clinic for Freeport and its environs. On the way are a replacement Sunset Village Fish Fry and a Cultural Centre at Eight Mile Rock. Through the Heritage Tourism Initiative we will upgrade the facilities necessary for Grand Bahama to enhance the cultural and heritage aspects of your tourism product. We are also transforming your health care infrastructure with new first class health facilities at the Rand Memorial. To further improve the quality of health care we introduced the prescription drug benefit. Next term we will introduce National Catastrophic Health Insurance.
The PLP promised you National Health Insurance. You never got it. And, you will never get it under the PLP. But it will be delivered by my next Government. You know you can trust our promises because we have proven leadership. We deliver for you.
I heard the most shocking thing from the former PLP Minister of Health Dr. Marcus Bethel. He admitted that the infant mortality rate, which went down significantly under a previous FNM Government, shot back up under the PLP.
He couldn’t argue with the facts. But then he tried to escape responsibility. He said that even though the infant mortality numbers went up, that the PLP was following our plans. First of all, that’s nonsense. But, even if that was true, then change the plans. There’s a simple word for this. It’s called leadership.
So the PLP’s sorry and lame excuse for the infant mortality rate shooting up is to blame us. They have no shame. They accept responsibility for nothing. You hear how McAlpine said the PLP would even blame us for earthquakes in far off places. They might even soon start blaming us for global warming.
Grand Bahama:
Good health also requires healthy lifestyles. To promote general health and youth development we will continue the development of the Grand Bahama Sports Centre. This will include upgrades to the training and competition tracks facilities to accommodate American football, soccer and baseball. There will also be a gymnasium and an additional softball field.
Such modern athletic facilities will also help you to attract regional and international sporting and entertainment events, all of which will help the economy of Grand Bahama.
Our recent success at the track and field competition at Carifta in Bermuda and in swimming here in The Bahamas was the result of a number of things. We need to make sure our young people and athletes have good facilities. We also need to have quality coaches and mentors.
Grand Bahama already knows this in the person of Coach Norris Bain. The entire Bahamas knows this from the success of Grand Bahama at the Hugh Campbell Basketball Classic.
What Norris Bain has done for Grand Bahama, we need him to do nationally. We need him to help us implement our comprehensive youth development programme.
He is uniquely qualified as a veteran educator, principal and basketball coach. Marco City: Send Norris Bain to the House. I need him on my Delivery Team. He’s not a talker. He’s a doer.
In this spirit, tomorrow, my Government will announce $1 million dollars in grants for urban outreach and youth development programmes in the fight against crime. A number of groups from Grand Bahama will receive funds.
Grand Bahama; FNMs:
We are expanding the scope of the public sector here. This includes the new Government Administrative Complex. In our next term we will relocate two Government Departments to Grand Bahama. This will help to stimulate your economy in significant and far reaching ways.
By boosting Grand Bahama’s critical infrastructure and the capacity of the public sector here we are improving the conditions for growth.
To boost economic development on this island requires teamwork. We have had fruitful meetings with the Grand Bahama Port Authority. They have ambitious plans, a number of which we will collaborate on in our next term.
The Port Authority is moving in a new direction. It is a direction we find quite promising and encouraging. It is time, also, to move Grand Bahama, Steady, Sunward. Lift up your heads, Grand Bahama. A new day, as Priscilla Rollins might say, is ‘bornin.
Let me say how pleased we are to have Peter Turnquest as our candidate for East Grand Bahama. As you know, Peter is a former President of the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce.
He enjoys a good relationship with the business community in Grand Bahama. Peter is well placed to help advance our comprehensive economic and business agenda for Grand Bahama.
Our Recovery & Growth Agenda for Grand Bahama includes establishing the Grand Bahama Business Development Board. This Board will promote the further development of business in Grand Bahama.
We intend to utilize Grand Bahama as a major hub for promoting and incentivizing the establishment of both an aircraft registry and a yacht registry. We have even bigger plans. We will utilize your unique location and the Grand Bahama Transhipment Centre and adjacent land to facilitate the development of a “Logistic Distribution Hub” for international cargo in an effective “Free Trade Zone”. This will be a significant boost to your economy in many, many areas.
Grand Bahama: It is the FNM that means business. It is the FNM that is best for business. After having come through the Great Recession it is now time for an aggressive Recovery & Growth Agenda with innovative thinking and bold ideas. We will target increased domestic investment including through our Back to the Island Initiative. We must harness our Bahamian talent to grow this economy. Some of that Bahamian talent lives overseas. So, in addition to incentivizing domestic growth from within The Bahamas, we will pursue potential Bahamian investors living overseas.
Through the Bahamas Investment Authority we will create the Economic & Development Council of Bahamians Overseas. This Council will advise the Government in locating and promoting investing in The Bahamas by the Bahamian Diaspora throughout the world. Just like we want Bahamians to go back to the islands, we want people of Bahamian birth or ancestry overseas to invest in The Bahamas. We hope that such a Council may also encourage Bahamians overseas to give back in terms of scholarships and other assistance to help develop the talent of young Bahamians. Other countries have often done this in a more systematic and organized manner than The Bahamas. We intend to step up our game in this area.
Let me say more about our Recovery & Growth Agenda. In Manifesto 2012 we committed ourselves to conduct strategic overseas investment promotions in for our traditional markets in North America and Western Europe. But we have to think even broader.
So next term we will boost our investment initiatives particularly in Latin America and Asia. We will target environmentally sustainable investments in sectors of the economy targeted for foreign direct investment.
Latin America has over half a billion people. Brazil is now one of the largest economies in the world. It continues to grow by leaps and bound. This term, we were successful in getting COPA Airlines to fly nonstop to Nassau from Panama. This has been a great success. We must coniine to boost airlift from Latin America.
We also need to be bolder in going after markets in Brazil and Latin America in terms of foreign direct investment, tourism, financial services, maritime services, general trade and cultural exchanges.
So I announce tonight that in the first year of our next term I intend to lead an economic and trade mission to Latin America, including Brazil. I will invite key players from Grand Bahama go on this mission.
The Latin American markets hold significant promise for The Bahamas in general and Grand Bahama in particular. Just as I have led other such missions before, including previously to Latin America, I will do so again next term. When travelling abroad, I will advise potential investors of the new Brand Bahamas we are creating, building on what we have already accomplished. The new Brand Bahamas, similar to the Incredible India campaign will feature the Islands of The Bahamas, as a stunningly beautiful, opportunity rich environment that is stable and strategically located.
In particular we will promote the things we are continuing to do to develop our human and entrepreneurial potential including in the areas of national training, health care and education. We will promote greater partnerships and collaboration with Bahamian investors and professionals.
We intend for The Bahamas to bounce back, so much so that our goal should be for others to look at us and say that The Bahamas keeps on getting better. Of course, in doing this we must and we will reduce serious crime. But in addition to aggressively fighting crime we have a number of other critical elements in National Security Agenda. Fellow Bahamians Grand Bahama:
The grave threats of gun-, drug- and human trafficking affect us all They help to fuel violent crime. We must also confront the threats of mass illegal migration and poaching.
To help combat these threats to national security, we are boosting our arsenal of prevention and quicker response to such threats. To strengthen our southern defence we are completing a new Royal Bahamas Defence Force base in Ragged Island. It will serve as “a constant presence in the Great Bahama Bank area, one of the country’s ‘richest fishing grounds’”.
We will dredge the harbour at the Inagua Defence Force base to allow for larger vessels. We also plan to develop a base here in Grand Bahama, and sub-bases in Abaco and Exuma. Grand Bahama will also get a remand centre to help in the fight of illegal migration.
We are doing all of this in order to maintain a continuous presence at strategic choke-points throughout the length and breadth of our island-chain. These bases are intended to act as “deterrent and enhance our capacity to apprehend those who seek to violate our laws and diminish our prospects for peace and prosperity.”
To create an effective dragnet and defence posture we will acquire 11 vessels for RBDF over the next 6 years. We will also create a new Customs & Border Control Agency to better coordinate our national security efforts in the areas of immigration and customs.
Young People: I want to say a few things to you about the Opportunity Society we need and want you to help us build. Let me repeat what I said in Nassau this past Thursday. I was born in Pine Ridge, Grand Bahama to a single mother. I grew up in Cooper’s Town, Abaco with my grandmother. I wasn’t born with a silver-spoon in my mouth. In fact there were no silvers in my house.
No matter, I had something more precious than silver, gold or precious jewels. I had a grandmother who believed in me and I was fortunate to be born in one of the most blessed countries on Earth – The Bahamas.
When I talk about the Opportunity Society, I speak from experience. That a young boy like me, who grew up materially poor, no electricity, no running water, hence no indoor plumbing, and who went to school barefoot, could have the privilege of serving my country as I have, is the very essence of the Bahamian story. And, it is not my story alone. It is the Story of thousands of Bahamians who have worked hard and used their God-given talent to pursue their dreams and build this country.
I say to young Bahamians in every neighbourhood, settlement and cay in The Bahamas: This land is your land. And you too can write your own story. You too can add new chapters to our shared Bahamian story for this land belongs to all of us no matter what your last name might be, who your parents are, or the circumstance of your birth. I have had one single guiding principle during my public career which spans more than one half of my life, and it is this: To make this Bahamas a land of opportunity for all Bahamians.
We want to build a country that is safer, prosperous, beautiful, creative, and well-run.
When I think of an Opportunity Society I think of young talented Bahamians like Kwasi Thompson your candidate for Pineridge, the very place I was born. Kwasi has served well. He has a good spirit and a great love of Grand Bahama. I ask you to send him back to the House so he can serve every house and home in Pineridge. I need Kwasi on my theme.
The FNM is the party for young people and for women. Which is why I’m pleased that Pakeisha Parker Edgecombe is carrying our banner in West Grand Bahama and Bimini. Make some good news by sending her to the House. Obie is bad news for you. Make him yesterday’s news come May 7th. Grand Bahama; Young People; F-N-Ms:
In transforming our country we cannot go with the smallness of vision and the weakness of leadership of the PLP. Not only will they take the country backwards; they lack the vision and the quality of leadership needed to move The Bahamas forward. The FNM is the Party of Opportunity. You can believe what I pledge to do on your behalf. You can believe the FNM. We are the Party that delivers. We are the Party of Proven Leadership.
But, this is not a fight any of us can go alone, we must band together. So tonight, sign up to be a volunteer, take a poster, tell your friends to go FNM and when you go to our website tonight, we’d be grateful if you would click the donate button and help us keep printing posters and making t-shirts and holding rallies. I ask all voters to pick up their cards as soon as possible and have information corrected on it if this is necessary.
As we depart tonight FNMs, I ask you, come go with me and the FNM. Let as together, build a better Bahamas. Thank you, God bless The Bahamas, and good night.
