As a part of a loaded contribution to the mid-year budget debate on Wednesday night, Fort Charlotte MP Dr. Andre Rollins said Canadian fashion designer Peter Nygard donated $4 million worth of "Believe in the Bahamas" T-shirts as a part of his overall $5 million donation to the Progressive Liberal Party's (PLP) 2012 campaign.

Rollins suggested the T-shirts were then stuffed with money and given out.

"One Peter Nygard pays $5 million and believes that [he has] not received the Crown land he believes he is owed [and that, that] is a justifiable reason for him to assail the integrity of the Office of the Prime Minister and by extension the people of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas," Rollins said.

But Prime Minister Perry Christie told Parliament he is not aware of anyone who has donated $5 million to the PLP.

He also noted that no decision has been made on the land issue as a result of a court injunction, and the matter remains before the court.

"I do not want to speak as if I [know] the truth of the $5 million," Christie said. "The point is, I know of no one who has paid the PLP, and I want to use the word, I know of no one, who has paid the PLP $5 million... I know of information of people saying they donated, Mr. Speaker, where in fact political donations are permissible.

"Yesterday, I put on the record many more millions than that (a reference to the Free National Movement), but I have also said that is the subject of an investigation and we don't speculate, Mr. Speaker.

"... I do not like, Mr. Speaker, any one person, Mr. Speaker, who makes it a habit of speaking politically in a demeaning fashion about anybody, whether it's the PLP, whether it's the prime minister or office of anyone. And I keep on saying my conduct speaks for itself as prime minister, Mr. Speaker, and that is something that I honor in that position.

"So, when it comes down to any kind of trifling talk, I have said again the record will reflect, and I am satisfied, Mr. Speaker, that the record will reflect some of these things that the member for Fort Charlotte is talking about. No problem about that, no emotion in it, nothing. What I am satisfied about, Mr. speaker, it is all subject to investigation."

Rollins challenged the prime to refute his statement that Nygard provided the PLP $4 million worth of T-shirts.

Christie retorted that it would be "a dangerous mistake" to allow the debate to digress to who donated what to whom.

"There comes a point when lawful activity must not be seen to be unlawful and where the imputations that arise out of these allegations, the dirtiness, the nastiness associated with it because every single person in this House has been the beneficiary of political donations made by persons, Mr. Speaker, and political organizations must do their upmost to ensure the correctness of that; people who are in charge, people who can account for it, these things happen," Christie said.

Rollins cautioned Bahamians against accepting T-shirts when the implications are unknown, especially when those "Nygard sponsored T-shirts" are "stuffed with money".

Rollins suggested that Nygard had an expectation that the PLP when elected would provide him "with favors that the ordinary Bahamian is not privileged to receive".

The former PLP MP said the government's refusal to condemn Nygard, a permanent resident in The Bahamas, suggests as much.

Wheeling and dealing
Rollins said the Bahamian people have been "betrayed by a government open to wheeling and dealing", citing court documents filed in the Supreme Court that have been tied to an alleged murder plot against certain members of the Save the Bays group.

The matter involves an ongoing feud between Nygard, who has denied any wrongdoing, and his billionaire Lyford Cay neighbor Louis Bacon, who has been repeatedly named in the mid-year budget debate as the financier of Save the Bays.

Yesterday, Marathon MP Jerome Fitzgerald told the House of Assembly that Save the Bays is a political group disguised as an environmental organization.

For his part, Rollins said the government has provided Nygard "immunity and impunity".

In a meeting that reportedly took place last December, one of the "gang members" allegedly hired by Nygard, to whom the court documents referred, purported to inform Nygard that Christie had given assurances that "the land part" was being dealt with on Nygard's behalf.

At one point, Nygard tells the men, "I'm not putting [up] with this [sh___] here now. I pissed away $5 million. Since the PM got me involved it has cost me five [f________] million dollars of [b___] [s___]."

Rollins asked whether Bahamians, who have applied for Crown land without response, are less deserving than one permanent resident.

On this point, Fitzgerald objected vehemently on several occasions, demanding that Rollins explain what benefit the government has provided Nygard. He accused the FNM of repeatedly attempting to make a case that the PLP is in Nygard's pockets. But Rollins retorted that in Nygard's words, he views The Bahamas as "nothing more than a banana republic".

"On the television show 'The Platform' with host Wendall Jones, Mr. Nygard undermined the integrity of the court by saying the following about an injunction handed down by the Supreme Court," Rollins said.

"He said and I quote, 'the PM has to immediately, within two weeks, get rid of that court injunction and then take action, as is his responsibility to do so. His responsibility is to make those decisions. That's what we hired him, the prime minister, to do'.

"You see, Mr. Speaker, what is so damning about that is that according to one Peter Nygard, it is not the court's decision to lift the injunction.

"In this banana republic that he sees this country as being, it is the prime minister's responsibility. Furthermore, Mr. Nygard says that, that is what we hired the PM to do. Last time I checked, Mr. Speaker, one Peter Nygard is a permanent resident and does not have the right to vote."

To make his point, Rollins pointed to Nygard's video "Take back The Bahamas", in which Nygard says "Yes. We got our country back," on the night the PLP won the 2012 general election.

Rollins said the country's election finance system is vulnerable to abuse.

"It is one thing for the PLP to supply its name and reputation by association with individuals who seek to corrupt their organization -- now I am not a member of the PLP, I am a Bahamian -- and it is an entirely other thing if the prime minister and deputy prime minister allow the name and reputation of The Bahamas to be sullied by individuals who seek to compromise and corrupt our government and our nation," Rollins said.

On a point of privilege, Christie said if Rollins spoke "logically, conclusively and truthfully" on the matter, he would say that both the prime minister and deputy prime minister, "to the best of my knowledge" acted properly and have done nothing to sully the nation's reputation.

Royston Jones Jr.

Guardian Staff Reporter

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