Remarks Constituency Headquarters Opening Carmichael Rt. Hon. Hubert A. Ingraham Party Leader 20 March 2012

Carmichael FNMs:

Colour Red is surging across the country! On Saturday FNMs came by the thousands to support Pakesia Parker-Edgecombe and the other members of our Dynamic Five in Grand Bahama. We are going to sweep all five Grand Bahama and Bimini seats. On Thursday night Colour Red will be in Yamacraw with Dion Foulkes. The little crowd Melanie Griffin had at her headquarters opening will look like a drop in the ocean compared to the sea of red that’s coming to Yamacraw this Thursday. And on Saturday night we will be in Central and South Eleuthera where Howard Johnson will send Damian Gomez packing back to Nassau where he lives. The lesson of history is clear. The difference between success and failure is -- leadership.

The reason that the Christie-PLP was such an abysmal failure is that there was no leadership. That is why The Bahamas witnessed the greatest failure of leadership in an independent Bahamas.

For five years the country’s progress stalled. For five years, the Christie cabinet ran amuck as they lied to and bamboozled their leader. For five years there was a vacuum of leadership at the heart of Government. Today, the PLP are running away from their record of failed leadership. Now, they say they are running as a team. The FNM is also running as a team. We are running as a delivery team with a record of success. The difference is that this team has a leader; a leader who is prepared to lead and prepared to act. When American President John F. Kennedy set the great national goal of the U.S. landing a man on the moon, he didn’t just give a speech. He provided the leadership and the resources that began a new age of space exploration for America. Unfortunately Perry Christie confuses leadership with just giving speeches. In office he failed to provide leadership. Five years later will not make a difference – he will still fail again.

Christie failed to introduce National Health Insurance because he failed to lead. He failed to build the new National Stadium because he failed to lead. He failed to get Baha Mar off the ground because he failed to lead. He failed to finish the New Providence road, water works and infrastructure upgrade because he failed to lead. He failed to house our straw vendors in a new Market because he failed to lead.

He failed to build a single school in five years because he failed to lead. Christie likes to give speeches. But he will not lead. In the forthcoming Elections the choice couldn’t be clearer. To address the major issues of jobs and economic recovery, and crime and national security requires a leader who does less talking and more delivering. The country needs a deliverer not a talker!

I advise you tonight that as of today, some 5,499 dwellings which had their electricity service disconnected have had that service restored under the third such programme put in place at the request of my Government in response to the greatest economic recession in 60 years. We commit to serving you and we DELIVER! Carmichael, FNMs:

In our prior terms we sought to build town centres making various public services more accessible to those who live south, southwest and east. Now we are improving your roads. Today Saunders Beach is no longer a long trek from Carmichael. You can now take the Milo Butler Highway straight to Saunders Beach. And soon you’ll be able to take Gladstone Road straight out to the new West Bay Street. And, in our next term, God willing, you’ll be able to drive from Cow Pen Road and connect to the Milo Butler Highway and take Cowpen Road down to Coral Harbour Road. I know that some of the road works have proven an inconvenience to many and created problems for a number of businesses. Small businesses have been especially impacted in some areas.

I wish to advise that beginning tomorrow, teams of persons at the direction of the Ministry of Finance will begin conducting surveys of businesses along road corridors and side streets affected by the New Providence Road and Infrastructure Improvement Project to determine the degree of impact. Businesses that are in operation as well as any that may have closed temporarily as a result of the roadwork will be included in the survey. The results of the survey will help us determine how best we might lend economic or financial assistance to those business establishments adversely impacted by the works.

We expect that the survey portion of this exercise will last for two weeks. Thereafter, the information gathered will be analyzed and a determination made on the assistance to be offered by the Government to affected businesses. I ask all businesses to cooperate and tell us the truth.

Carmichael: In our next term we will create, in conjunction with civic groups, a major Youth Development Centre here in southern New Providence. The Centre will have various indoor and outdoor facilities for young people. It will be a safe drug-free zone where young people can come together for wholesome activities. It will also serve as a community centre and a place for students to do their homework.

This Youth Development Centre may be used for programmes providing healthy and productive avenues for the development of young people.

Carmichael: You’ve been with us a long time. I’ve come to ask for your support again. I’ve come to ask you to vote for Darron Cash, and to vote for me.

I know you loved Desmond. I had to send him on a special mission in North Andros because I want Andros in the FNM fold. Because Desmond accepted this mission we will win in North Andros and in Carmichael. So we can win two. But I need your help. Darron is a serious young professional who will deliver for you. He will be a valuable member of our team. He’s a businessman who is also interested in the business of good governance.

FNMs: While we are dealing with the serious issues of criminal violence and anti-social behaviour, the PLP are acting more and more unruly as they get more and more desperate. Don’t forget that during the BTC debate senior PLPs demonstrated alongside known criminal elements. If it wasn’t for the police the House of Assembly could have been overrun.

The police are now investigating in Grand Bahama an alleged incident on Saturday past concerning individuals in a vehicle in our FNM mass motorcade being sprayed with a fire extinguisher from another vehicle not a part of our motorcade. As many as six people were affected in ways requiring medical attention. One such person was the young daughter of our candidate for East Grand Bahama, Peter Turnquest, and another was a lady whose asthma was badly affected and who continues to experience respiratory problems. Several others also are experiencing headaches, fatigue and eye and throat discomfort requiring them to take antibiotics and in some instances to remain away from their jobs.

Let me say a couple of things. First of all there ain’t no fire extinguisher big enough to put out this FNM torch. Keep the fire burning. Crab season or not, if any crabs were involved in that incident, we hope the police catch them. Listen to me carefully FNMs. Do not be provoked by them. Furthermore, unlike that half-hearted statement by Christie, I want to be clear. We will tolerate absolutely no violence of any sort by our people. We will conduct ourselves in a nonviolent and peaceful manner. Just remember, there’s more than one way to catch a crab. In the House recently, Kwasi Thompson was assaulted by the other side. Just like when he was in office, Christie said never a word about such terrible conduct by one of his MPs.

In North Andros, we’re cleaning up the register and making sure some of them crabs don’t do the wrong thing. You know when you searching for crabs you need a good torch to find them. Well Desmond Bannister ‘gat a bright torch and Desmond ‘gonna win North Andros.

Even at the Straw Market they couldn’t and wouldn’t build, the PLP led by Lil Brave Davis went down there and caused a major disruption in the middle of the work day. They caused some vendors to lose sales that day. They could have caused a fight to break out. But they don’t care because it’s all about their selfish interests.

Carmichael; FNMs: The PLP cannot lead the fight against crime because they are too scandal-ridden and compromised. They cannot lead this fight because when they had a chance to act on the crime front they did next to nothing.

Let me talk to you heart-to-heart on crime. A 30-second Ad can never tell the full story on crime no more than a 30-second Ad can tell your full life story. Every society has crime. Crime is as old as humankind. But, the kind of gang war that plagues us now first came to the Bahamas in the 1980s when we were overrun with drugs and drug money.

It was at that time that the brutal Colombian drug barons and others set up their businesses in the Bahamas almost unchecked and tolerated by the government of the day. They recruited Bahamians to help them push their dangerous trade across our islands and push their dangerous drugs into our neighbourhoods. That was the worst period in our history since Woodes Rogers expelled the pirates. In the 80s we saw for the first time gangland execution-style killings in the Bahamas. That was when some young people, when asked what they wanted to be, answered that they wanted to be drug lords.

That was when many lost the capacity to feel shame as they went after drug money and were content to keep company with notorious drug dealers. That was when some of our brightest and our best were lured into drug abuse and ruined forever by the drug peddlers.

That was when the drug dealers were so bold that they dropped money from an airplane at an independence celebration on Clifford Park. That was when irreparable damage was done to traditional Bahamian values and respect for law and order.

That was when some business people were content to accept briefcases full of money they knew was the result of this nasty business. That was when some of our leaders could not account for money in their bank accounts. That was when the Bahamas was labelled internationally as a “Nation for Sale”. That was when corruption was rampant at nearly every level in our society. Some of us listened and were shocked at what we heard. Some demanded accountability and removed themselves from the rot. Two of them were Hubert Ingraham and Perry Christie. We denounced the leadership that had allowed this state of affairs to develop in our country.

I did not go back to a hopelessly corrupt, unrepentant and unreformed PLP. But Perry Christie did. When Perry Christie was given a chance to do something about it, he did nothing. The world watched in amazement again as we were treated to scandal after scandal. It is utterly ludicrous now for him to tell Bahamians that he is the one who will deliver the country from the scourge of crime. The truth is not in him.

In office he played politics with the Police instead of enabling them to fight crime. He failed to deal with the bail issue. We have now done so. He failed to introduce the CCTV needed to help in the crime fight. We have done so. We have introduced CCTV and will expand it in our next term. And he left us with fewer police officers to walk the beat than we left in place in 2002.

Carmichael; FNMs:

As I’ve always told you, we in the FNM are different; distinctly different. In 2007 the PLP were so late-again in getting ready for the election that they caused all kinds of confusion. We don’t go like that. We are cleaning up the process, including passing updated election laws.

I want to make it clear to all and sundry but firstly to FNMs, if you are registered in a constituency in which you do not live and you have been living outside of that constituency for more than one year, you must transfer your vote to the constituency in which you live or your vote will be challenged.

Secondly, if you have registered in a constituency in which you do not live for whatever reason – because you have ties to the area, because you were persuaded to do so, or because you were planted there- please go and have your registration transferred so that you are able to vote legitimately and have your vote counted where you live.

I make these statements to all eligible voters. I do this to distinguish myself from Perry Christie who claims that my call for people to act lawfully, to not corrupt our political process, is intimidation! It is not intimidation to say “obey the law.”

And, he claims that Desmond Bannister’s claim that some people have registered illegally in North Andros is not true.

Let me give you some facts.

So far thirty registered voters have had their registrations challenged.

Since that day, four of those persons have already stepped forward and requested that their registration be transferred to the constituency where they live. They have been transferred.

Five other persons, not included on the list of 30 challenged registrations, have also come forward to request a transfer of their registration from North Andros and the Berries to the constituency in which they actually live.

And, still another 4 persons have come forward and requested to have their registrations transferred.

You know, people like Vanlock Fowler of All Purpose Steel Company, situated on East Street South next to the Teacher’s Salaried Workers Building in Ridgeland Park, should never have been allowed to register to vote in North Andros and the Berries. He does not live there. He lives right here in Nassau as I do.

Just because you own a house in a constituency, does not give you a right to vote in that constituency. You must reside there.

You know the days of the property vote ended in The Bahamas a long time ago. We have a one man, one vote democracy in this country and we have a law which requires that we vote where we live. People like Mr. Fowler are going to come to know that because they are not going to vote in North Andros.

I also want to remind you that if you have moved out of one constituency for 3 months or more but less than 12 months, you may choose whether you vote in your old or in your new constituency.

However, if you have been living outside of the constituency in which you registered to vote for 12 months or more you must change your registration to your new address.

We want a clean election. We are inviting the world to come and observe our elections. We want the world to see that we run free, clean, fair elections.

FNMs:

Don’t forget Easter Monday is Red Splash Day. Come to the Montagu Beach Park for a time of family fun. Come to Montagu Beach Park and see what the FNM did and caused to be done at Montagu Beach for Bahamian families. See what we have done for Bahamian fishermen. And see what we are doing for the motoring public who for too long have been inconvenienced by congestion created by the Montagu Fishing Boat Ramp with no organized off-street parking.

Come see how much parking has been created by your FNM Government. Soon, two roundabouts will be created in the area further easing traffic flow at both the Village Road and East Bay Street intersection and at the East Bay Street, Montagu Fish Ramp and Shirley Street intersection.

When that bell ring you ‘gonna know what to do. Do not be provoked by those “provokeful” people. The things they do are often “very grievous” indeed. But we shall, we shall not be moved Carmichael: When Election Day come vote for me; vote for Darron Cash; vote FNM.

We have the better record on health care and education! We have the better team to deliver clean and transparent government! We have the better vision for jobs and economic recovery! We have the better programmes and policies for youth development! We most definitely have the better leadership to fight crime and renew our national spirit!

If you are not registered to vote, please do so, time is very very short. Vote F-N-M for a better Bahamas!