By DANA SMITH
Tribune Staff Reporter
dsmith@tribunemedia.net
DENOUNCING the FNM’s stance on last week’s Mayaguana plane crash, PLP chairman Bradley Roberts said “hell will freeze over” before anyone stops his party from holding the former government accountable for their “failed” policies.
Mr Roberts was responding to FNM chairman Darron Cash’s accusations that the current PLP administration decided to “duck and cover and blame someone else” in the aftermath of the crash which claimed three lives.
The aircraft was forced to make a midnight landing on an unlit, damaged runway to pick up Rev Robert Black who was in need of emergency medical care last Tuesday. Upon landing, it clipped one car before colliding with another.
That second car, in which the mother, sister and brother-in-law of former MP Sidney Collie sat, burst into flames, killing all three.
The vehicles had come out to help with the emergency airlift – using their headlights to illuminate the runway, which is not equipped with lights.
Mr Cash criticised Prime Minister Perry Christie, Transport and Aviation Minister Glenys Hanna-Martin and Mayaguana MP V Alfred Gray for their statements in the wake of the crash, accusing the government of “running for cover.”
Mr Roberts said in response: “From his bluster and political posturing in the media today, it is patently clear that Darron Cash and the FNM have learned nothing from the Mayaguana aviation tragedy.
“He and the FNM fail to recognise that their destructive policy of stopping and cancelling projects and programmes that were clearly in the public and national interests was a causal factor in the Mayaguana tragedy.
“He now wants Bahamians to forget that it was his FNM governing party that stopped and cancelled the Family Island Airport Emergency Runway Lighting Programme – a project that was almost 90 per cent complete.”
Mr Cash “seeks to deflect from the fact that governance is continuous,” Mr Roberts said, and the record “clearly shows” that during the FNM’s last term in office, “delaying, stopping and cancelling legally binding agreements and projects for purely political reasons was the order of the day.”
The party chairman said: “The PLP government, who facilitated the installation of emergency lights on some 17 Family Island airports, must now finish the project they started during its last term in office by effecting the immediate installation of emergency lights in Mayaguana, Fresh Creek, Andros and Stella Maris, Long Island. “This is redundant – this project should have continued to its conclusion after May 2 2007 because that was in the public and national interests.”
The FNM has a right to disagree with the Heads of Agreement with the I-Group for the development of Mayaguana, Mr Roberts said, but it did not have the right to cancel the Family Island Emergency Runway Lighting programme.
“This policy was clearly in both the public and national interests and to date the FNM has failed to offer an intelligent explanation for their destructive and failed policy to cancel this programme – a decision that turned out to be a causal factor in that tragic Aviation accident in Mayaguana,” he said.
“Hell will freeze over before Darron Cash or anybody else for that matter silences the PLP from holding the FNM accountable for their failed policies.”
The Ingraham administration signed a revised Heads of Agreement for the $1.8 billion Mayaguana-based I-Group project last February. The I–Group was responsible for the Mayaguana airport’s upgrade.
The original deal signed under the former Christie administration in 2006 was a 50/50 joint venture between the government, by way of the Hotel Corporation, and the I-Group, with both parties owning the development project under the umbrella of the Mayaguana Development Company.
Comments
proudloudandfnm 11 years ago
It was the PLP’s 2006 joint venture deal with Boston-based developers the I-Group to sell off nearly 10,000 acres – 9,999 to be exact – including prime beachfront and waterfront Crown land in Mayaguana for the fire sale price of about $650 an acre.
The deal in its original form would have boxed in the 350 natives of Mayaguana to the interior of the island, much like Native Americans relegated to a reservation, Hotel Corporation Chairman Michael Scott told The Guardian.
I want my FNM to stop cancel and review every contract this corrupt and lazy PLP party signs when the FNM wins the election in 017...
concernedcitizen 11 years ago
I GROUP was another speclative venture like the Ginn development ,,donate to a political party ,get a bunch of our land on spec and put up a clubhoouse and sell lots ,,I group was never going to do anymore than a cheap airport ,clubhouse ,and brochures ,,so far they have done 1/8 of an butler metal building ,,,has the hotel corporation ever ran a successful hotel ,,the hotel corporations main purpose was for people like Baltron ,the funnel ,Bethel to scim off our money before it got to the treasury..
proudloudandfnm 11 years ago
Scott was an instrumental part of the team that reworked the Heads of Agreement with the I-Group, over more than two years. It involved determining how much the investors had already “put into the ground”, through a survey conducted by Baker Tilly Gomez. During a recent sit-down with The Guardian, he charted the genesis and later revamping of the controversial deal, a deal he described as an “insult” to the Bahamian people.
“First of all, $600 an acre is a disgrace. Secondly, you’d have essentially prevented the natural population expansion of Mayaguana because you would have had people herding together in the less desirable interiors of the island. Mayaguanans would have become the minority in their own island,” he said.
Under a clause in the original Heads of Agreement, the developers were also going to get the exclusive right to grant licenses to any licensees brought into the development – a situation similar to the operating conditions of the now troubled Grand Bahama Port Authority.
“This is not hyperbole, but with the amount of land originally conceived to the project, with the concessions given, with the licensing authority afforded, you were essentially creating another Freeport. You’ve seen the enormous problems over the last couple of years with the (Grand Bahama) Port Authority. That’s been a disaster. We were in the process of creating another one,” Scott said.
shortpants 11 years ago
That's only Job you'll lousy PLP, ever do is play the blame game.When government changes nothing is suppose to unless like you'll misfits will try and sell you'll ma for cheap regardless of what Bahamians have to say .PLP is the worst governing party this Bahama land as ever seen from you'll dead demi -god Pindling .All you'll come to do is seek and destory us poor Bahamians . Never in the history of the form party PLP have you'll ever been truthful about any dealing concerning this Bahamas.Horse mouth Roberts go sit you half dead ass down and stop talking hog wash..
TalRussell 11 years ago
Chairman "Big Bad" Brad you're not alone. Since word on the street has it that even Chairman Darron's priest has to tell him to shut the hell up during confession, reminding him that even when talk-show host Darrell comes into the confessional booth, he don't be running his mouth on and on like that, and the good Lord knows how that man can run that mouth of his on non-stop, for hours?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EheLN-...">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EheLN-...
foxnews 11 years ago
After 40 years of successive failure by PLP & FNM governance our country is in a shameful position. Both parties are blatantly corrupt, sharing spoils of aragonite and salt mining, and development deals, nothing works properly and now both party leaders are found with their hands quietly deep in the OIL cookie jar.
Perry Christie cannot order a commission of inquiry on Hubert Ingraham because Ingraham has dirt on Christie and vice versa. The Corruption is so deep, so entrenched neither party can begin to function as a responsible government due to decades of cronyism on both sides of the nonexistent political divide.
As a nationalist, the only possible hope I fathom we remotely have of saving our country for future generations is to do what Bermudian's did last December. They voted in a third party called "One Bermuda Alliance" and immediately passed legislation for transparency and local inclusion in government.
Bahamians would do well to review "One Bermuda Alliance" platform, and begin making plans now to do away with the PLP/FNM old boys club that only favors friends, family and lovers.
The DNA was close to what we need, but needs to be totally revamped with the ideals of Bahamians at large. It would be asinine to replace two democratic dictatorships with a third democratic dictatorship.
See One Bermuda Alliance charter for governance websites:
http://www.oba.bm/moreobasolutions.pdf">http://www.oba.bm/moreobasolutions.pdf http://www.onebermudaalliance.bm/">http://www.onebermudaalliance.bm/
SP 11 years ago
Peter is no better than Paul.
I wouldn't trust either party with two pinch’s of puppy poop. Their record of doing more for foreign investors than Bahamian investors and failure to listen to Bahamian entrepreneurs with hands on experience concerning what is needed to fix our country (i.e. entertainment, tourism) when they have proven beyond all doubt that they have absolutely no clue is enough for me.
Illegal immigrants’ and rich foreigners do what they want with impunity, while the average law abiding Bahamian is marginalized, whipped to pay taxs’ and abused by the authorities at every turn.
We need to address this “Pirates they were and pirates they will remain” syndrome before they run off with all the countries wealth and destroy the rest of us.
proudloudandfnm 11 years ago
I just want to stop seeing this criminal in our papers commenting on everything. Someone please tell Brad he is the bottom of the pile, pond scum that should never be heard.
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