Remarks Free National Movement Rally Clifford Park Rt. Hon. Hubert A. Ingraham Party Leader 26 April 2012

Fellow Bahamians; Women of The Bahamas; Young People; F-N-Ms:

I will speak briefly to you tonight. As you can hear, I have a sore throat and they tell me that speaking at length will only aggravate it. Still I have a number of things to share with you and so I will soldier on.

The waves and splashes of red have joined force here at Clifford Park to form the Red Sea. They’ve been warming this space. Only the Torch can truly ignite Clifford Park!

FNMs: it’s time to show your COLOUR. Wear a little something red every day until Election Day. If you have a flag, put it on your car. You can take it down when you get to work or when you get home at night but fly your flags on the road. Let them know that you are FNM and you are not scared.

Clearly it is they who are scared, they scared, they scared they scared, ‘cause the FNM coming again!

So tonight, Clifford Park is on fire. On May 7th, those fake Gold Rush chariots shall feel the power of the Red Sea. When you look in every direction from Clifford Park you see the difference between the FNM and our opponents.

It is the FNM that created the Fish Fry. It is the FNM that moved the Port to Arawak Cay. It is the FNM that removed the crumbling Customs building and created something new and good for the Bahamian people on Arawak Cay.

Whenever you think of the PLP think of that old broken down Customs building because that’s exactly how they left this country. They neglected the Family Islands, they neglected Over-the-Hill, they neglected Grand Bahama and they neglected Bahamians everywhere.

They are the party of neglect! We are the Party of Deliverance! Just look out from this Park to see what we’ve delivered for you.

They neglected Western Esplanade. We caused it to be transformed into another beauty spot. They neglected Saunders Beach. We delivered a brand new Beach Park. They neglected our straw vendors. We delivered a new first-class Straw Market. They neglected Downtown Nassau; come October there will be a new open green space called Pompey Square in the space where they left our vendors under a tent.

We are delivering a revitalized City of Nassau.

They neglect. We Deliver.

Bahamians Everywhere:

You remember when we first created the “Windows to The Sea” programme? That resulted in the creation of the Goodman’s Bay Park, the upgrade of the Western Esplanade and the green open space at West Bay St and Perpall Track. Since 2007 we’ve posted beach access and view points signs all along West Bay St and Eastern Road. And we further enhanced the Western Esplanade and the Fish Fry at Arawak Cay. Now, having restored and upgraded Montagu Beach Park and created Saunders Beach Park, both becoming amongst the most popular recreational places for Bahamians, others vandalize them with offensive posters and trivialize the importance of safe public recreational spaces.

They criticize what we have done and continue to do for the Bahamian people. They don’t believe that you deserve first class restroom facilities at our public parks; indeed, they don’t think you deserve beach parks and complain that we are wasting your money when we create first class recreational spaces for your children to enjoy.

Clearly they also object to us spending your money to build new hospital facilities and improve the infrastructure of our country to make life better for all residents and to support the principal industries that feed all of us – tourism and financial services. In their view a deepened Nassau Harbour able to welcome the largest cruise ships in the world today, a spectacular new LPIA which easily accommodates the increase in airlift being attracted to our country today, the first world standard roads- properly lit, with adequate drainage and pedestrian sidewalks, and the improved water supply for residents of New Providence who have been forced to tolerate salty, orange coloured, smelly, low pressure water for more than 40 are all waste of the public money.

I suppose spending $25 million to send Bahamian young people to College is also wasteful in their book. We know that they disapproved of our education loan programme introduced during our second term in office. That programme provided for the Government to pay one half the interest payable on sums borrowed. During their single term in office they reneged on that agreement made between the Government and over 2,000 Bahamian students pursuing tertiary education. Their decision caused many to default on their loan interest payments.

For example, a student who got a government guaranteed education loan of $50,000 expected that the Government would pay $162, one half of the $333 monthly interest payment.

When the PLP came to office this arrangement was suddenly cancelled and the student and parents became responsible for the payment of not just $162 monthly but instead the entire $333. Families which had planned their children’s’ education and made arrangements to ensure timely payment of what they were responsible to pay suddenly found themselves unable to pay.

We promised that if returned to office in 2007 we would restore the programme and resume payment of one half of the interest on those student loans. We are doing so for some 2,471 students. And we are refunding sums to the 305 students who have now paid their loans off in full. Refunds for this group of students total some $292,165.00. In all, we are paying some $2.3 million.

Regrettably this will only cover interest payments due since 2007; we are unable to restore those sums which were denied by the PLP government between 2002 and 2007 by the very people who now say they believe in Bahamians; that they seek to invest in Bahamians!

Those who oppose us did not agree that we should spend public money to invest in Bahamian students and in improving infrastructure to improve the quality of life of Bahamians.

We know what they would prefer to do with the public money – give it to their cronies who produce nothing for the Bahamian people. That’s what they did with the $800 million they borrowed in their one term in office. Let’s list some of the things they attempted to do with some of that money:

• Build a block of classrooms at CH Reeves and made such a mess of it that it was abandoned and left incomplete

• Progress the construction of the Magistrate’s Courts on Nassau Street for which plans had been left behind by us – but they messed that up to and abandoned the site

• Build another facility conceived by us for the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre – made of mess of that too.

• Make headway with building the Anatol Rodgers High school; land acquisitions was underway in 2002. They couldn’t, over a period of 5 year, finish the land acquisitions or clear the dump site nearby. And so, that construction also stalled.

• Convert the old City Market store on Market St. into accommodation for the Registrar General’s Office and the Department of Lands and Surveys; they gutted the building, spent the budgeted money on only they know what, and then abandoned the site.

There isn’t enough time to list how they wasted your money. And now they have the nerve to criticize when we spend your money on you and your children.

Well, I am no Perry Christie. And I need not say as he told his Convention two years ago with great passion:

“Let me be the first to admit that in many instances you have every right to feel as you do. I’m sorry if I let you down. I pledge to make it up to you. Next time around, you will be at the head of the line. I have learned my lesson. I will not make the same mistakes again.”

If you believe that, you need to have your head examined! Clearly, the Bahamas cannot entrust its future to such a man. Once bitten; twice shy.

FNMs Bahamians everywhere:

Now, they who couldn’t achieve even a few small things are trying to bamboozle you into believing that they can do many big things in 100 days.

Watch them carefully. That 100 Days is one of the biggest flams in Bahamian history. They don’t plan to do anything. They only plan to talk about doing something. So in those 100 Days, their Dream Book says that they will: ‘Initiate a plan,’ ‘Set in motion a plan,’ and ‘Renew the commitment.’ What they don’t intend to do is to act.

What they will do from Day One and every single day after, is raid your cookie jar.

Perry Christie had 100 Days before. In fact he had almost twenty times that amount. He had 1,825 days...and did little with all those days. Centreville gave him 30 years, and look what he didn’t do for his own people.

You can give Christie 100 years. It will make no difference.

Fellow Bahamians; FNM’s:

We were recently given a Report Card on one Perry Gladstone Christie. We have his grades. They are not very good...plenty Fs.

English – F. He wrote an essay on what he did in office from 2002 to 2007. The grammar was good and he used plenty of big words. But he got F because they found out that his essay was a copy. He cheated by listing everything we did over the past five years and claimed that he did them.

Geography grade - F there too. He thought that The Bahamas had 699 islands; which might be the reason he was trying to sell-off Mayaguana.

F for History. For the past five years he has been trying to rewrite history to try and make you forget that he ran the weakest and most incompetent and scandal-ridden government since independence. He might forget...but I know you remember.

F for Health because he failed to deliver his promised National Health Insurance; F in Sports because he couldn’t build a new National Sports Stadium; F in Tourism Studies because he presided over the biggest single loss of hotel rooms ever in an independent Bahamas.

F for Math and Accounts because things don’t add up and he can’t fully account for where the $800 million he borrowed went; F for Economics because he still thinks that The Bahamas is the only country in the world that didn’t go through the Great Recession; He even got an F in Speech. The Report Card says he got an F in Speech, because even though he talks plenty, he says very little.

Perry did get an A. He got an A for Drama.

There’s a long list of Fs in other subjects...too many to go into. But there are also some other comments on the Report Card. On leadership the Report says “after careful observation we believe that he likes to follow and keep plenty bad company.”

The note goes on to say, “We wish he would have followed the better example of Hubert Ingraham.” Of course next to Punctuality – He was late again and again. In the space for Days Absent it says – “We stopped counting”.

Fellow Bahamians:

Our opponents seek to build an opportunity club for themselves and their families. We seek to build a greater Opportunity Society for every Bahamian child regardless of the circumstance of his or her birth.

The Leader of the Opposition says that we finished the major New Providence water and road works and utility upgrades too quickly. He says we should have stretched it over 10 years. That was the original plan. We started these works in our prior term in office. If Christie had finished the work, they would have been completed by now.

I want to say a special word to the Police and Defence Force. Going forward we will require more from you and so we will also do more for you.

You know that when we can, we increase your pay and improve your terms and conditions of employment.

Beginning in 2010 we increased uniform allowances for some 2,741 police officers whose allowances at a cost of some $2,477 million.

Clothing allowances for some 417 police detectives were increased over the same period at a cost of some $615,120.

At the same time uniform allowances for 1,063 Defence Force Officers and 497 Prison Officers were increased at a cost of $804,842 and 358,400 respectively.

And, some 469 police officers and 183 defence force officers and 110 prison officers, who had been at the maximum of their salary scales for 2 or more years, became eligible for 2 increments as police and defence force officer salary scales were expanded by 2 increments when salary scales for all public officers were extended in the last Budget. One increment was paid as a lump sum in either December, 2011 or March, 2012. The second increment will be paid in the usual manner on an individual officer’s anniversary date.

In July, these police officers, together with nurses, teachers and all public servants, will also benefit from the agreed cash lump sum payment of one increment in accordance with the terms of Agreements between the Government and the various public sector unions. All public officers will receive their usual increments payable in the usual way.

I note also that the Public Service Commission is presently completing the resumed service-wide promotion exercise which were suspended

FNMs Fellow Bahamians;

On Tuesday 1st May, 2012 nearly 4,000 Bahamians registered voters – some 4% of all registered voters - will vote in the Early Poll. This would not be possible were it not for the FNM. We amended the Parliamentary Elections Act to permit Bahamian students and others temporarily overseas on work assignments to register and vote at Bahamas Consulate Officers overseas in Miami, Florida, New York City, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Georgia, Ottawa Canada, London, England, Bridgetown, Barbados, Kingston Jamaica and Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

The amendment to the Act also provided for persons unable to vote on Election Day - due to illness, hospitalization or previously scheduled travel - to vote on the Early Poll.

The Early Poll in New Providence will take place at the COB campus on Tucker Road and at the Kendal Isaacs Gym. Around the country, Early Polls will also be held in a number of Family Islands.

In all some 7,865 persons will vote in the Early Poll including election workers, agents of political parties, Parliamentary Commission staff, Defence Force and Police Force officers.

This is clear evidence of your FNM Government’s commitment to advance our democracy.

I am advised that the US Observer team to our election comprises 36 individuals. The OAS Observer Mission comprises 16 representatives from a number of member states including Guatemala, Colombia, Antigua and Barbuda, the USA, Canada, Argentina, Grenada, St. Lucia, Jamaica, Switzerland, Peru, and Barbados.

FNMs Bahamians Everywhere:

Colour Red has toured all of our Family Islands. I am pleased to report tonight that the Family Islands are voting FNM!

I am very happy to announce that we will be releasing hard print copies of Manifesto 2012 tonight. They will be available at five different distribution locations around the park which will be communicated to you in short order. I ask that you obtain your copy in an orderly fashion and that in the interest of them being distributed to as many households as possible that each household take only one copy.

PLPs:

I want to say a special few words to PLPs, some of whom have joined us here this evening or who are following us on television; and I speak to those who may have supported the PLP in the past but are not certain of where to place their support this time.

Out of the belly of the PLP I have come; we are not strangers. Your real leader is not with us anymore. Those who oppose me and my party have tried to use him to buttress their claim to the continuation of his work. Do not be deceived.

I told South Andros yesterday, the Leader you are left with now is not worthwhile. He has ignored, neglected and embarrassed you. He is not upholding the standard you expect from your Leader. I told those who oppose me and my party when they sought to raise Sir Lynden from his eternal rest that they ought not raise the dead unless they knew how to put them back to rest! Clearly they don’t; so I will! PLPs,

Come with me. I have your interest at heart. I will deliver for you what Perry Christie failed to do.

Come with me Exuma.

Come with me Andros.

Come with me Over-the-Hill. Come with me Grand Bahama, Come with me Moores Island, Come with me Harbour Island, Green Castle and Kennedy here in New Providence. Come with me this time PLPs.

This will not make you an FNM. This will make you a supporter of what and who is good and better able to govern The Bahamas.

Come with me PLPs everywhere. I and my party will provide you with a Government you can be proud of. And we will deliver on our promises. On his final day in Parliament, Sir Lynden Pindling had some things to say. I want you to watch and listen carefully as he speaks now.

Play the Recording from the House of Assembly Now, let us all put the father of our nation back to his rest. May he now rest in peace for ever and ever and ever.

FNMs Bahamians Everywhere:

The PLP floated on the Bahamas High Tide created by the FNM prior to 2002. They want to do so again.

They claim that they presided over the most successful economic period in the history of the Bahamas.

We are island people, all of us know how the tide flows. When the tide is rising, it floats all boats. The current continues to run long after the tide starts to fall. The reverse current happens long after the rocks and banks start to appear. The PLP governed and prospered on the full tide of the FNM. They want to do the same thing again. They are reapers not sowers.

In responding to the need for jobs; the need to provide ongoing response to an uncertain and deteriorating global economy, we launched the most significant overhaul of our country’s infrastructure. It was a tough decision to make. We made it. It has placed the Bahamas in a position to prosper. They want to catch the rising tide again; having mismanaged the first falling tide in their historic one term mismanaged, scandal ridden term. Do not let them float on your high tide! Vote FNM!

FNMs:

On Saturday we will be in Bimini and North Abaco. 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.

On behalf of the Free National Movement, I ask you for five more years to finish the work we have begun. As we depart tonight FNMs, I ask you, come go with me and the FNM. Let us together, build a better Bahamas. Thank you, God bless The Bahamas, and good night.