Remarks Constituency Headquarters Opening Central & South Abaco Rt. Hon. Hubert A. Ingraham Party Leader 15 March 2012

Central and South Abaco; FNMs:

You know, sometimes your own supporters get too enthusiastic and say things or play songs at rallies that are really ‘over the top’. They got really enthusiastic in St. Anne’s the other night and the music man started playing the strains of a hymn “Nobody Greater”.

He meant well I am sure but that was not right. I have told all those responsible for organizing the music at our Constituency Office Openings and Rally’s that we cannot have that happen again. There is only one God and we certainly do not want anyone to suspect even for a millisecond that we don’t understand that. So they are clear on that point. I apologize. I’ll tell you a story.

When I first joined the FNM, Kendal Isaacs introduced me to the thousands of FNM supporters gathered at the R.M. Bailey Park. That was FNM Ground Zero in Nassau in those days. As the crowd roared, Kendal leaned over and whispered into my ears “Remember, Thou art only a man”. Of course I knew that before that moment, I knew that in the moment and I certainly have known it ever since…only a man, and your servant.

Abaco We are, I believe, the better political party for The Bahamas. I believe that our record shows that. But we must remember, all of us who are in political life, what Abraham Lincoln once said. He said, “My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.” FNMs:

Colour Red didn’t just come to Abaco; Abaco and its cays are Colour Red from Sandy Point and Cherokee Sound to Crown Haven and Hope Town. It is always a joy for me to be home in Abaco among so many family members, friends and supporters.

On Easter Monday, we are having a series of family fun days across the country. We’re calling it Red Splash. I want to give you early notice that we are ‘gonna have two Red Splash gatherings here in Abaco on Easter Monday, so I hope you are all ready to come out and show your Colour Red.

We will be gathering in the North at the new seaside Park in treasure Cay that was partially constructed using my Constituency Allowances. That’s the money the FNM made available to each MP to develop small projects in their constituency.

Last report, Perry Christie hadn’t found anything worth doing in his constituency. Shameful. Most MP’s used the funds allocated to them to do improvements in their constituencies. The same Perry Christie who likes to talk about people didn’t care enough about the people in Farm Road and Centreville to spend most of the money. He didn’t have to raise the money. He only had to identify the project and get it done. And, he couldn’t even do that.

The second gathering of Red Splash will be here in Marsh Harbour at the Crossing or wherever else you choose.

It isn’t exactly the case that they are usually late-again. The truth is that most of the time they just do-nothing except complain ‘bout what we do.

You see yesterday they went to the new Straw Market in Nassau as a publicity stunt. And right here in Marsh harbour, Edison Key and BAIC are building a craft market for your Abaco-made shell, straw and other souvenirs.

Well the visit backfired on them. First, they caused a major disruption in the Market. Then they get stoke because plenty of the vendors, including some PLP vendors, were singing the praises of your FNM Government and Papa. Oh what a day glorious day in the Straw Market. They even get cuss out by PLPs for abandoning their own people. Where were they when those vendors were under the tent? They were in office then. They are out - stay out!!

The same PLP who didn’t and couldn’t build a Straw Market in 5 years and left a hole in the ground at the Market site - went there to take advantage of the vendors and stir up problems. Some of the vendors patch hell on them including Lil Brave Davis and Fred Mitchell. Rather than trying to stir up problems they better run back to their constituencies which are fast turning Colour Red.

Anyway, they who have no shame, get shame at the Straw Market. They get shame because not only did we build the Market. We also have Hubert Chipman there to fix any problems and to get the Market running nice and smooth.

They are experts at exploiting the needs of people. But they are an abysmal failure in addressing the needs of people like straw vendors, wood carvers and hair braiders. The only people they put first is their greedy selves.

In our next term we are going to build a new craft market downtown Nassau for Bahamian-made goods like the shell craft and other goods and souvenirs being made throughout the Family Islands.

Abaco: FNMs:

When I hear them get up and talk about all the plans they ‘gat, I always have to laugh. They have many plans and many plans to plan. What they don’t plan to do is -- act. In fact most of their so-called plans are simply brochures with words. They don’t actually have plans.

Your FNM has vision. Your FNM has real plans. Your FNM delivers on its vision and plans.

Abaco is today a model of small-island sustainable development. It has been a work in progress for many years. It is now reaching critical mass. What your FNM is doing in Abaco, the third largest island in The Bahamas, is a part of our long-term strategic plan for developing all of the major islands in our chain.

We are ensuring that every major island group, including the various cays, has the critical infrastructure to become platforms for sustained development. To help implement this vision we introduced local government. We wanted to make sure that you had more say in running your own affairs and increasing your participation in decision-making on various matters here in Abaco. And in our next term we will further empower Local Government

Our vision and model for sustainable communities includes public investment in power generation, water, roads, docks, ports, hospitals and clinics, schools and other investments. All of these are necessary to sustain population growth and attract new residents including Bahamian and non-Bahamian second home owners.

Abaco is already home to impressive developments. But the best is yet to come. Abaco is going to take off even more.

We are getting ready to open your new Administrative Building in Central Abaco. Finally, Abaco will be able to access ALL GOVERNMENT SERVICES AT ONE CENTRALIZED LOCATION, including Treasury, Registrar General’s Office (birth certificates, marriage certificates, registration of deeds), Auditor General, Ministry of Education, Labour Department, Social Services, passport office, business licence and our court services.

This new Administrative Building will become the heart of the new Central Abaco Township which includes the Central Pines housing subdivision, a new library and of course the new community hospital and health centre.

We expect to sign the contract for the new hospital for Abaco by the end of the month. We will sign the contract for a similar hospital for Exuma at the same time. Exuma is another important employment centre developed in our Family Islands largely as a result of FNM policies. The idea is to invest in critical infrastructure that will facilitate increased investment both domestic and international in our Family Islands.

The new terminal at Leonard Thompson International Airport is progressing well. It is on budget and on time. It is critical to Abaco’s future. This airport is the second busiest airport in our country after LPIA! Airside improvements are already completed and some landscaping needs to be done. When visitors come back to Abaco after being away, they’re going to say, “It keeps getting better and better in Abaco.” Under the FNM, what is true of Abaco will become true of every island of The Bahamas.

The Terminal is being constructed by Fletcher McIntosh and James Edgecombe; Cooper’s Town men who have been very successful in the construction business in Grand Bahama.

We will be continuing sidewalk installation along Forest Drive and then along the Airport Road. We will soon begin black-topping the roads in Marsh Harbour, Dundas and Murphy Towns – as we did the roads in Cooper’s Town and Fire Road. I want to assure you that Sweeting’s Track will be getting improved water service in short order

We are working for you; and you know we deliver.

We do the heavy lifting that makes Abaco more attractive to investment and makes getting investments into our country easier. They do the loud talking. We do the heavy lifting.

We appointed the first resident magistrate in a Family Island here in Abaco in the 1990s because we understand the critical role of this island to our national development.

Abaco:

If you want this island to keep moving forward you have to vote FNM. All them other people interested in is to do that gold rush to raid everything in that cookie jar.

I keep telling people, if you put them in charge of the chicken coop, you ‘aint ‘gatta worry about whether the chicken or the egg come first, because with them the chicken, the eggs, the wire ‘round the coop and the coop itself ‘gonna all be gone. And some of them waiting and longing to get back in to take what belongs to you.

Let me tell you how bad they are. Let me tell you what they did in their last disastrous term. They put Bahamians last by selling-off almost 10,000 acres of land in Mayaguana.

Most of y’all been to Nassau. Listen to this carefully now.

The amount of prime, beach-front Bahamian-owned land in Mayaguana that Perry Christie agreed to sell-off forever and ever to foreigners -- stretched from the easternmost end of New Providence all the way to Lyford Cay.

And Perry Christie agreed to sell that beach front land for about $600 dollars an acre! That’s right, about $600 an acre.

If New Providence was Mayaguana:

All of Montagu Foreshore and Montagu Beach would be gone; The beach at the Hilton downtown would be gone; Western Esplanade would be gone; Arawak Cay beach would be gone; Saunders Beach would be gone; Goodman’s Bay Beach would be gone; All the beaches at Cable Beach would be gone; Every beach from Cable Beach to Love Beach would be gone; Love Beach and every beach to Old Fort Beach to Lyford Cay would be gone.

Papa and Delivery Team got back almost 6,000 acres of that land that the PLP was selling-off to foreigners. Abaco:

Papa needs a good team to deliver for you. We have a good man in Edison Key. Send him back to the House of Assembly. He is a product of Abaco; a self-made man, an excellent role model of what someone can make of their life doing what they love best. Edison loves the earth and farming. It made him a successful farmer. Today he is a prosperous man. He has many lessons to teach us and he has been doing just that during the past 5 years at the national level. I understand some here in Abaco are concerned that his work at the national level has kept him out of his constituency more than you desire. I want you to know that Edison is pursuing your interest and your needs everyday regardless to where he may be on any given day – in Andros, Exuma or Long Island. It is Abaco that shaped him and that shapes his actions daily.

He has been the best Chairman of the Bahamas Agricultural and Corporation since BAIC was set up. He and Larry Cartwright have launched a revolution in agricultural production and the production and marketing of Bahamian crafts. I need him and the FNM needs him as your MP. And I need him on the national level. South and Central Abaco:

I want to speak to you clearly. This is important. Abaco is the third largest economy in The Bahamas after New Providence and Grand Bahama. It is important that you are represented by competent and effective MPs and it is even more important that your MPs have influence in Government where it counts, where national policies are developed and formalised and implemented.

You have that in Edison. As I just said, much of the considerable progress we are making today in agriculture and in craft development are directly benefitting from the influence and direction and experience of your MP; Edison Key. He is our man. He is my man; he is the FNM man and I ask that you return him as your MP. I think Abaco wants to have an FNM Government in charge – certainly you do not want those others in charge. They mean you no good. I call upon you to support the FNM; support me Vote for the Torch, vote for me, vote for Edison, vote FNM! If anyone still wondering who to vote for or which party puts Bahamian first in truth, rather than fiction – go talk to the people who live in Pirate’s Well, Mayaguana. The PLP sold all of the land right up to Pirates Well. Them good people had no room to expand their settlement. If they sell them people out in Mayaguana, they’ll sell you out too.

Abaco: You know where Edison heart is. You know my heart - its right here in Abaco. Me and Edison also share a love for our country. So even when our duties take us across this land, home is where the heart is. At independence both Edison and myself belonged to that other party. They did some good things in their initial years in government such as putting in place various important national institutions.

Yet, at some point they lost their way. They went off course. They put the promise of our country at risk. The PLP that fought to empower and enfranchise and to address the entitlement of only a few became the party of entitlement and victimization. Prior to 1992 The Bahamas became “A nation for sale”, with the promise of our Bahamas squandered by the neglect and abuse of our democracy. The encouragement of lawlessness and the toleration of a drug culture laid the basis for the violent crime which even today haunts our country.

In 1992, the Free National Movement fundamentally changed the direction of The Bahamas. We ushered in a new day of clean, accountable and transparent government. Our Government in the sunshine was productive, forward-looking and progressive. We revived a faltering economy and gave the nation renewed hope. Progress was stalled from 2002 to 2007 by the weakest, most unproductive and incompetent government in an independent Bahamas. After a single disastrous term you rejected them and their scandal-ridden administration. We have been working nonstop to restore your trust. We are fighting on two fronts. We had to confront the Great Recession, the worst global economic crisis since independence. And we are relentless in aggressively combating the long simmering problems of crime and violence.

We are making progress in terms of terms of economic recovery and national security. Yet, there is much work to be done. Just as we delivered the greatest overhaul of our criminal justice system and our national infrastructure and social security systems in decades, we will deliver more during our next term.

FNMs Abaco: Despite the challenges of today, the country is headed in the right direction. But we must continue to move, in the words of the National Anthem, Steady Sunward. In our next term we will build on what we have already achieved through our earlier plans and programmes. We will create Jubilee Bahamas, a 10-year national plan leading to our 50th anniversary of independence. We will continue to build an Opportunity and Shareholding Society. This will include the Back to the Island campaign, the largest migration of Bahamians back to the Family Islands in our history. Abaco, Exuma and San Salvador are already experiencing this migration.

A key part of Jubilee Bahamas will be the enhancement of Bahamian ownership of the economy through a Recovery and Growth Agenda focusing on job and wealth creation, small business, and encouraging entrepreneurs through innovative grants and incentives. Our National Security Strategic Plan will guide our fight against crime, drug and gun trafficking, illegal migration and poaching. We will introduce the most comprehensive social intervention initiatives ever in the modern Bahamas.

We will build on our Social Development Agenda in the fields of health care, education, housing and social security. We will introduce National Catastrophic Health Insurance and continue to build the best health care facilities in this region. We will expand home ownership by making service lots and government initiated housing available to even more people. We will improve the quality of public education including student achievement. Believe you me; we will deliver these and other pledges! And we will do so in a manner that is prudent with the nation’s finances and through clean, honest and accountable government.

Abaco: Last week Perry Christie was talking out of both sides of his mouth again. After we announced our intention to consult widely with the Bahamian people on our upcoming long-range national plan, Perry said that this was somehow disrespectful of the Bahamian people. How is talking with you about your needs and your future a sign of disrespect. I would say that what we’re doing is an example of the utmost respect. Remember when Perry used to say that we didn’t consult you --- which of course was never true. But when we do consulting with you, he still criticize us. If I told y’all that Colour Red is red, Perry will tell y’all that can’t be true; he’ll say it’s blue, maybe yellow mellow. Abaco:

In the end, every plan requires leadership. When it comes to Papa and Perry, you know who’s going to deliver for you. Dreams don’t come true by wishing on a star. They come through when you have a fixed star, real vision and when you work hard. Dreams are not to be left somewhere over that PLP rainbow. Similar to that saying, dreams are one per cent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. You have to work for things in life. Only in PLP fantasyland do things magically appear. To all of them PLPs who tired of Perry and his big talk and no action, come go with me this time. You know that we’re better for the country. You’ve seen what we’ve done. You know what we’re doing. Give us a chance. We deliver for every Bahamian no matter who they vote for. We are simply better for The Bahamas. In your heart of hearts, you know that Hubert Ingraham will always deliver more than Perry Christie.

And so here in Central and South Abaco I ask you to vote for Edison Key. Young Roscoe Thompson, come back home where your heart is! Stop fooling yourself. You are FNM! And I want FNM supporters in Central and South Abaco to understand that. A vote for Roscoe Thompson is a vote for the PLP, because they cannot win. If you are FNM, you vote for Edison Key. That’s my man! Abaco; FNMs:

The bell soon ‘gonna ring-a-ling-a-ling. When Election Day come vote for me; vote for Edison Key; vote FNM. We have the better record! We have the better team! We have the better vision! We have the better programme! We have the better Policies! And, we have the better Leadership! Vote F-N-M