The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

WEIGHING in on the current standoff in the Free National Movement, Democratic National Alliance Leader Branville McCartney called for Dr Hubert Minnis to resign and cautioned the embattled party that steps taken to expel “rebel” MPs could see a downgrade in the party’s ranking in Parliament from official Opposition to third party.

Mr McCartney said that many persons who identify as FNMs, secretly do not support Dr Minnis as party leader during his appearance on radio talk show The Revolution with host Juan McCartney.

Mr McCartney said: “Dr Minnis needs to resign, what happened on Wednesday when more than half, 75 per cent of his parliamentary team said they don’t have confidence in him, he should have resigned that same day.

“He is doing what Perry Christie did after these referendums, staying on. The proper thing to do for Dr Minnis is to resign. He has taken that party and it’s a shadow of what it was. I used to be in the FNM, I used to be there, I know what the FNM used to be.”

Mr McCartney added: “You have a government today like the PLP, this is one of the worst governments I’ve ever seen in my life. I have never seen a worse government and the opposition under the leadership of Dr Minnis couldn’t hold these people’s feet to the fire.”

Mr McCartney pointed to the FNM’s control of the Public Accounts Committee as an example of how the party wasted opportunities to demand transparency and accountability from the government. The PAC is headed by St Anne’s MP Hubert Chipman, one of the “rebel” seven FNM MPs.

“The FNM should have been in a position to tell us where the money gone, or force the government’s hand, but we have a dismal government at best and a dismal opposition.

“Perry Christie and Hubert Minnis, I don’t know who would be worse as leader of this country, and I say that and let me be quite honest with you, I know many people in the FNM who still claim to be FNMs under the Minnis situation but they don’t want Dr Minnis.”

‘Alliance’

Official Opposition Leader Loretta Butler-Turner named Mr McCartney as leader of Opposition Business in the Senate on Monday, deepening speculation over the “end goal” of the seven MPs who wrote to Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling expressing no confidence in FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis last week.

Mr McCartney praised the Long Island MP as a history maker, insisting that her achievements could not be denied regardless of whether persons accepted the politics of her actions.

While Mr McCartney stressed that the move represented an alliance with the opposition forces, and welcomed all persons seeking change to collaborate regardless of political affiliation, he maintained that he would not work with Dr Minnis or the two FNM MPs who have rallied behind him.

He underscored that past talks between himself and the FNM leader “came to naught” because the established party was insistent that the DNA be dissolved and refused to credit the organisation as a viable political force. Mr McCartney noted that the discussion was remarkably easier with Mrs Butler-Turner, who focused instead on national goals and was “very much on the same page” as he on national issues.

“Discussions (with Dr Minnis) going on from that seemed to have come to a standstill, a road block, knowing full well that we want what is good for this country but having those discussions were, seemed to have been, difficult to say the least.

“The discussions with (Mrs Butler-Turner), we are on one accord with regards to where the country ought to go. It was very easy discussion for the most part.”

Mr McCartney noted that while many Bahamians have acknowledged the need for change, that desire has not led to a serious effort to disrupt the status quo.

“If you want change,” he said, “you’ve got to really mean that you want change and vote for change. But if you really want the status quo, you want Perry Christie, you want government that is going to keep lying to you, you want Chinese to continue to come, you want Mandarin to be your first language, well, PLP.”

He added that Prime Minister Perry Christie was not trustworthy and that people could not believe what the nation’s leader says.

“I just don’t understand how we as Bahamian people just continue to accept that.”

Mr McCartney, then the Bamboo Town MP, quit the FNM in 2011. Yesterday he said that his former party had gone from “bad to worse.”

Clashes

Since his departure, Mr McCartney has had notable clashes with his former colleagues over personal and national issues.

In 2011, he called for the resignation of Central and South Abaco MP Edison Key, who had claimed in Parliament that Mr McCartney accepted money from the government for legal services but never did the work.

Mr McCartney vehemently denied the charge, and challenged Mr Key to make the statements outside the House so that legal action could be taken.

When questioned about the spat yesterday, Mr McCartney said: “The situation with Edison Key ain’t change. He was untruthful at that time, so bottom line I maintain that, and I don’t run away from that. He was very untruthful.”

For Mrs Butler-Turner, she and Mr McCartney found themselves on opposing sides during the gender equality referendum, and on legislation to outlaw marital rape. Mr McCartney initially opposed bill four of the referendum, which sought to make it unconstitutional to discriminate on the grounds of sex, but later sided with arguments laid out by former Court of Appeal President Dame Joan Sawyer, who called the referendum a “waste of time”.

On the matter of marital rape, Mr McCartney has said that while he did not personally support such legislation, if elected, he would “put it to the people”.

Yesterday, Mr McCartney noted that any differences in position on legislation debated in Parliament would have to be discussed with a view to compromise with respect.

In line with attitudes expressed by a wide-section of Bahamians following the shakeup, Mr McCartney fielded questions that focused largely on the nature of the deal struck between himself and Mrs Butler-Turner; and the prospect of a coalition, specifically his considerations on the resulting political hierarchy of such a move.

The reluctance of both sides to term the move a coalition, or reveal details concerning the same, proved frustrating for some, with one radio show caller asking whether such a merger hinged on Mrs Butler-Turner’s status within the FNM.

Noting that expulsion of the “rebel” MPs by the FNM was imminent, another caller asked Mr McCartney to disclose what position will be offered to Mrs Butler-Turner by his party once Parliament is dissolved.

“How committed would you say the DNA is to forming this coalition?” asked one caller.

“What I’ve heard you said previously on this show is that you will not speak to the three people who now represent the FNM, but now (on Monday) I heard that you said you are for a coalition.

The caller continued: “So how seriously should I take this coalition, I really like the idea of a coalition I feel like it’s a good thing to get rid of the PLP but how serious are you the DNA is this all contingent on Loretta or is it something more than that?”

Another caller questioned whether Mr McCartney asked the Opposition leader to appoint any other DNA members to the Senate.

For his part, Mr McCartney reiterated that there was no coalition and urged listeners not to speculate over the outcome of the FNM’s disciplinary proceedings. He said that in discussions with Mrs Butler-Turner, he concentrated on his own Senate appointment, but made the distinction that he “didn’t ask (Mrs Butler-Turner) for anything.”

Mr McCartney said: “There is no coalition between the DNA and the FNM, or the DNA and the seven (MPs). There is an understanding that the seven will be the opposition force in the Lower House and the DNA will be the opposition force in the Upper House, that is where we are now.”

“Let’s not speculate,” he said, “the seven are still under the FNM banner and there are really two options that can happen. They either remain with the FNM or they are removed from the FNM.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen, and no decision, no discussions, no agreements, have been made in terms of any type of them coming to the DNA, or there being any type of new party.

He added: “I can tell you one thing, that if the second option occurs where they are removed from the FNM, and FNMs you listening carefully, the FNM will become the third party in the House of Assembly