AT the dawn of 2014 and with more than a year and a half of governance under their belt, the government has failed to live up to several election promises, FNM leader Dr Hubert Minnis said.
Delivering his New Years address to the nation, Dr Minnis said as Bahamians look towards 2014 with hope, they cannot avoid casting their minds back to the “serious and debilitating slew of problems, errors, missteps and failings” made by those charged with leading the nation.
“Unfortunately, for every Bahamian 2013 has been a year marked by far too many failures on the part of the nation’s leadership,” he said.
“There was the total failure within the first year to deliver on the promise to create 10,000 new jobs; and worse the unemployment rate has increased and now exceeds 16.2 per cent nationally.
“There was an abysmal failure within the first year to deliver on the promise to craft an effective Mortgage Relief Plan; helping exactly nobody, and leaving thousands of Bahamians facing foreclosure and expulsion from their homes.”
Dr Minnis said the government also failed to invigorate and revive the sluggish domestic economy within the first year, and inward foreign investment has suffered, leaving the United States Dollar Reserves in the Central Bank at an unacceptably low level.
“The Gambling Referendum was an expensive and resounding failure for which no true or full accounting of its costs has yet been given to Bahamian taxpayers,” he said.
“Despite publicly committing to honour the results of that referendum, there has been a paralysed failure on the part of the Government and law enforcement agencies to enforce the law.
“There has been a signal and abject failure to deliver on the promise to ‘double the investment in education’ and much needed educational reform initiatives appear to have been placed on the proverbial back-burner.
“Most distressing among the significant failures in this remembrance of the past year, has been the now certain failure of the government’s highly touted Urban Renewal 2.0 programme in bringing any reduction in the high rates of violent criminal activity and the record setting numbers of murders and other unexplained or as yet unclassified homicides, which now exceed the grievous total of the previous year 2012.”
Comments
The_Oracle 10 years, 3 months ago
Both political parties fail to live up to their promises, each being largely incompetent and too busy maneuvering things for their own personal benefit. Get real man, neither has any answers, nor any plan beyond the 5 year cycle. That Bahamians still bother to vote or get excited around election time is beyond comprehension! Both bear responsibility for all the waste of treasury funds, sweetheart deals resulting in no project getting finished or being completed within budget. This back and forth criticism is expected from two thugs in the dock arraigned for a crime but pointing fingers at each other before the Judge!
Bahamianpride 10 years, 3 months ago
It is intellectually insulting to listen to this guy, he assumes we are all idiots so caught up in the plp, fnm foolishness that we cannot see both parties for what they are, cancers. Him & the large one are constantly politicizing these matters just like the plp did with no solution in sight. Decades of the same people, who only care for their personal ambitions has cause serious damage to society. Sucking the life out the country for 5 year periods has made solving serious issues like crime almost impossible.
Cobalt 10 years, 3 months ago
@The_Oracle. You're so right. The truth is, we the Bahamian people are responsible for the state of our nation. If I remember correctly... the majority of Bahamian people voted for these clowns.
sotiredoftal 10 years, 3 months ago
Does he ever stop airbagging? Id rather listen to rhetoric from the other members of the FNM than endure Minnis' opinion and statements. I know hes the 'lone ranger' of the FNM but there are other members that can spew the blaming garbage he does - lets hear from them. The party should be renamed MNM for Minnis n' Minnis... smt... ill certainly be scrolling past any articles that hes mentioned in. And this is coming from an FNM.
Cobalt 10 years, 3 months ago
Does Dr. Hubert Minnis realize that these very same problems existed while his FNM party was in power? Does he realize that the FNM also proved incapable of dealing with much of the critical issues that plague our country? Either he doesn't realize this, or he really thinks we are fools.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 3 months ago
Yep, the FNM better be doing some serious consulting on how to combat the crime problem. If they find any nuggets hand them over and let the process start now. 2nd, start vetting of all potential candidates...the time us past for scandal ridden persons to, first be nominated, have a chance at being elected and then given posts that they can use to continue their thievery like NIB And Ministry of Housing.
spoitier 10 years, 3 months ago
It finally looks like the Bahamian people are starting to see clearly if these post is any indication of it. For a long time it seems like Bahamians only believe in fip-flopping between these two looser parties and thinking things going to get better, then again you can't use seven people for a survey to represent 300,000
sheeprunner12 10 years, 3 months ago
Fellow Critics
At the end of the day............... someone gatta govern this paradise
The citizens must determine the type of politician they want.
At this momemt, the majority of the people prefer the corrupt politician
Go figger..............................
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