Senior pastor of Grace Community Church Lyall Bethel yesterday said he was extremely disappointed that Prime Minister Perry Christie now appears to be taking all of his speaking points from the 'Vote Yes' campaign."The prime minister has said constantly that he has no horse in the race, but I think it has been obvious to everyone who is watching that he doesn't have a horse in the race, he owns the entire derby," said Bethel, who is also a spokesperson for the "Save Our Bahamas" campaign. "He has got every horse in the race. Every pronouncement he has made, it has been very clear."Bethel's comments came a day after Christie accused the Free National Movement (FNM) of politicizing the gambling referendum.
Christie said this week that the country would have a dilemma if the electorate votes against regulating web shops.In response, FNM Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis accused the Christie administration of having an "incestuous relationship" with web shop owners. The party held a press conference on Wednesday urging Bahamians to vote 'no' on both referendum questions that will be on the ballot on January 28. That night, Christie told The Nassau Guardian his administration is trying to remove the irregular conduct that is taking place in the country.Christie said if former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham was the prime minister today, "He would be doing exactly what I am doing because that is what he forecast in all the documentation I met in the Ministry of Finance".
"The FNM, by making it very political, and making this political intervention has now put us in a position where we have to explain to the Bahamian people and take the time to do so, what in fact, I thought was obvious to all," he said. "...We beat them effectively by landsliding them in the [general] election. We went into Cooper's Town to North Abaco and we beat them there by a landslide. "I took the position that I did not want my party influencing the vote either way. We wanted people to exercise an unfettered decision on their part. "They (the FNM) have made it political now and clearly by making it political they are now drawing this political stripe across this campaign."
Christie said he is prepared to visit "every island in the Commonwealth" to make his adminstration's position of neutrality clear.Bethel said after the council informed Christie in a meeting that his comments were partial, he promised to present a case to the Bahamian public on the benefits and negatives of gambling. He encouraged the Bahamian public to vote with their Christian conscience over the party they align themselves with."It is said that 49 percent of the population is FNM, and another 49 percent is [Progressive Liberal Party] PLP and the swing votes decide which way or other it is going to go, but 90 percent of the population considers itself Christian," Bethel said.
"We are encouraging persons not to fall prey to the political posturing and pandering, and remember that this is about the soul of our nation, and they should not [allow] their faith to be marginalized by their particular political preference. "We would want to encourage them to recognize that this is another Mount Carmel moment where God is saying choose who you will serve; whether you will serve the number men or whether you are going to serve the God who has been there to provide for you all this time. "Don't allow this to be turned into a FNM, PLP thing because it is bigger than politics." Bethel said the church's campaign was never intended to be associated with anti-PLP and pro-FNM or vice versa, but it's only aim is "to save the soul of our nation". He said a 'no' vote is the only choice that will achieve that.
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