The Free National Movement (FNM) should be the last party to speak of internal division within a political organization, Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Bradley Roberts said yesterday.
Roberts was responding to FNM Chairman Darron Cash, who said the government appeared to be divided after Minister of State for Legal Affairs Damian Gomez said July 1 is not a realistic date for the regulation of the web shop industry.
But Roberts noted that the FNM's chairman, leader and deputy leader have recently been at odds on several issues.
"The FNM in opposition suffers from a credibility problem on three levels," he said in a statement.
"Firstly, every single policy position they endorsed as the government, they managed to flip-flop on and oppose as the opposition.
"Secondly, the leadership has too many disagreements on policy issues, and thirdly, the FNM has failed to offer one single solitary policy alternative to the ones advanced by the PLP government.
"They do not understand that credibility is built by crafting, then defending the alternatives to the policies they oppose. This organization has failed miserably on all three counts."
In the House of Assembly on March 5, Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe announced that he intended to soon present a proposal for the regularization of web shops to Cabinet and was pushing for this to be official by July 1.
But Gomez said in an interview with The Guardian on Friday that, due to the complexities of establishing a regulated sector, July 1 is an unrealistic date.
In his statement, Cash said the government appears to be adrift with no clear focus or agenda.
But Roberts said the opposition was given "every opportunity to legislate and implement every single piece of legislation and public policy that they find so politically convenient to criticize".
Roberts said the opposition has flip-flopped on value-added tax (VAT), regularizing the web shop industry and the stem cell issue.
Former State Minister for Finance Zhivargo Laing has said that if reelected the Ingraham administration would have given VAT early consideration. However, FNM Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis has blasted the government over its plans to implement the new tax.
In an internal party memo, Cash recently urged the party to move away from "castigating" the government over VAT and provide specific policy suggestions.
Minnis and Cash were also at odds on the web shop matter.
The FNM chairman thinks the party should support the regulation and taxation of web shops, but Minnis has called on the government to abide by the results of last year's failed gambling referendum.
Minnis and FNM Deputy Leader Loretta Butler-Turner also had a public disagreement after she called on homeowners whose mortgages are in trouble to demonstrate against Prime Minister Perry Christie.

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