DNA leader Branville McCartney.
By SANCHESKA BROWN
Tribune Staff Reporter
sbrown@tribunemedia.net
DEMOCRATIC National Alliance Leader Branville McCartney says he is "disgusted and appalled" that National Security Minister Dr Bernard Nottage blamed the judiciary for the crime problem and has called for his immediate resignation.
In a statement on Friday, Mr McCartney said after failing on all fronts for the past three years, Dr Nottage's comments were "a disappointing slap in the face for all Bahamians" who supported and believed that this government had the answers to stemming the rising tide of crime.
On Wednesday, Dr Nottage shifted blame to the judiciary for the country’s crime problem as he blasted judges for failing to impose stiffer penalties and not properly enforcing laws that are on the books.
In the House of Assembly, Dr Nottage said that some magistrates give lighter sentences to criminals because the accused is someone in society’s “good son”. He said it is hard to believe that some judges live in the same country and still only give criminals “a slap on the wrist” when they appear before them.
"For eight months this National Security Minister sat in silence and watched as our streets became a conflict zone," Mr McCartney said. "The Minister watched in silence as scores of young men and women lost their lives to gun violence, while countless other Bahamians fell victim to crimes such as armed robberies, rapes and assault. Only recently did the Minister bother to address the situation; but instead of articulating a concrete and concise plan of action, he said nothing of value.
"Now, with just over three months left in this year, the country is already on track to outpace the number of murders committed last year. In recent months the government’s lack of vision in addressing the crime problem has led to a decrease in public confidence in both the Royal Bahamas Police Force - which continues to do a yeoman’s job in managing the criminal element despite widespread political interference - as well as the judiciary, which continues to be plagued with a lack of resources.
"In the wake of his distasteful remarks, the DNA calls for Dr Nottage to issue a public apology to the people of this country and tender - with immediate effect - his resignation as the Minister responsible for National Security."
Mr McCartney said the first responsibility of the government is the safety and security of its citizens and should not "carry out their duties in anticipation of recognition or a pat on the back".
He said if the DNA is elected their first job would be to bring back capital punishment.
"Addressing other key issues such as substandard education, youth unemployment, and a lack of sustained youth intervention programs are all part of the DNA’s commitment to addressing crime and criminality across our archipelago. The future of our Bahamas depends on it," the statement said.
Comments
MonkeeDoo 8 years, 7 months ago
Bran, there is no way in hell that the DNA will be elected to govern even with the promise of bringing back hanging. You are truly a jackass that prefers to whistle out of your arse than your lips. Get real and join the PLP and carry your dead ass party with you. You could run against Christie in November and quite possibly win. Wayne could actually nominate you.
MonkeeDoo 8 years, 7 months ago
Actually Bran, you seem to be just as delusional as Perry so it could be a good fit. The PLP faithful love delusion and hate illusion.
TalRussell 8 years, 7 months ago
by TalRussell
Cobalt 8 years, 7 months ago
Why is everybody so quick to discredit Bran and his party??? Given the current status of our country and the fact that the Bahamas continues to regress, it's obvious that the Bahamas needs a new government. Don't forget that Branville McCartney and the DNA had a great influence on the last general elections! The DNA has and continues to reinforce the consensus that many Bahamians are completely fed up with the PLP and the FNM!
The current state of the Bahamas and the manner in which our country continues to spiral out of control is proof that both governments have failed. In my opinion, the only component that the DNA seems to be missing is more influential Bahamians, competent and knowledgable enough, with the guts and honesty to govern. If Branville had forty more men or women like him, I would definitely vote DNA. Think about it....... can Bran really be any worse that Perry or Hubert??? It bothers me that the Bahamas has yet to see a leader who's not a PLP! Pindling, Perry Christie, and Hubert Ingraham ALL served as PLPs!! After falling out with Pindling, both of them left the PLP. But Perry returned some years later, while Hubert ran to the FNM! In doing so, Ingraham brought the same bull-headed, dogmatic tactics he learned under the Pindling regime, to the FNM!
Bahamians need to get serious and send a clear message to both the FNM and PLP that we are unsatisfied and DONT have to put up with either of them any longer! We should at least consider giving the DNA at least five years to govern and implement their ideas. In the meantime this will send a clear and blatant message to the PLP and the FNM while simultaneously allowing the old guards of both parties to fade into obscurity. And hopefully by the end of the DNA's time in office both PLP and FNM would have initiated new blood into each their parties. Bahamians need to smarten up and use the democratic process to take our country back from these clowns.
Emac 8 years, 7 months ago
Totally agree!!!
realfreethinker 8 years, 7 months ago
Your post does not make sense. You are pushing the DNA agenda,but in the same breath dismissing them by saying they don't have competent people. The best the DNA can do is guarantee another PLP victory.
Cobalt 8 years, 7 months ago
Oh geez.
I can truly see why the national GPA is an F. People like you have a mental block when it comes to comprehension. My above mentioned post simply suggests that the DNA does not have ENOUGH competent people at this time to contend for the government. But that can all change if Branville solicited the assistance of the right people. I wasn't saying that their current members are not competent. I was saying that their issues are more quantitative than qualitative. My comments weren't meant as an indictment against the DNA nor am I pushing their agenda. My focus is more concentrated on sending a direct message to the FNM and PLP.
Some of y'all Bahamians so dumb man. Pick up a few history books and read sometimes. Maybe that'll improve your intellect and understanding.
Wideawake 8 years, 7 months ago
First of all the DNA has always been much more of a Personality Cult centred around Branville Mc Cartney than a viable Political Party.
Why would the "forty or more men and women" he needs to make his party viable, consider joining the DNA, where they would be subjected to control, by an unelected seatless leader, leading a seatless party, comprised of individuals who we do not know, and from whom we never hear?
McCartney once had a vote in the HOA and therefore a voice, but instead of working within the FNM to make the party better, he chose to "flounce off" to form his own party, like a spoiled brat, when he realised he could not get his own way! That caused the FNM to lose the last election, and he bears a large part of the responsibility for the mess the country is currently in!!!! Many voters, will NEVER forgive him for this!!
His actions in forming the DNA showed poor judgement!!....he was dead wrong in thinking he could become a political force to be reckoned with!! and the last election left him with no voice in the HOA, and left him in charge of a party that has had to stand on the sidelines of the political process for the past 3.5 years!! What a colossal, abject failure he has proved to be!!
Unless in his egotistical mind he thinks, that him causing HAI and the FNM to lose, represents in some way a victory for himself!!! ...and too bad for our country that has been saddled with the Corrupt and incompetent PLP government for the past 3.5 years.!
Why would the forty able souls he needs to be relevant, possibly jump on his DNA band wagon, when he has so obviously shown himself to be immature, lacking in good political judgement and obviously lacking in self discipline, and when he so obviously is unable to be an honorable team member! We cannot tolerate any more "it's all about me", egotistic and selfish leaders!!!
The only reason we still see his face in the papers is that voters are grasping at straws, as you seem to be doing!
Voters in this country must face reality! ...only the FNM has the experience, organization, boots on the ground, financially capability and the track record that makes it a viable replacement to the dreadful PLP government!
The FNM is the only viable alternate to the PLP; everyone who opposes the PLP government must swallow their pride, bottle up their ego and re-join team FNM and then, whether or not they have brilliant leader, whether or not they have perfected their message, whether or not they are exciting, visionary, transformative, all embracing, or not, they must commit to them and work as hard as they are able to get them elected, because like it or not,
the FNM ARE THE ONLY VIABLE ALTERNATIVE TO OUR PRESENT GOVERNMENT!!
Cobalt 8 years, 7 months ago
Spoken like a true FNM! A mindless drone, with a horses bridle in its mouth, unable to summon unconventional methods to improve his current situation.
First of all.... the only voice that existed under the FNM was HAI. The rest of its members were just sycophants. McCartney made the mistake of assuming that he had a voice too..... and that's when HAI abruptly and embarrassingly dispelled him of that notion.
Second of all, your suggestion is actually the main cause of much of the political fiasco going on in government today! The entire reason that neither the FNM or PLP have worked is because they've realized that they don't have to! They relish in the fact that no matter how disappointed Bahamians become with their lackluster, bungling, trifling, incompetent, practices of governing, we actually still have to surrender our votes to one of them! To this I say "NO MORE!"
How would you feel if you were forced to choose between an abusive spouse or an unfaithful spouse..... and that's all you had to choose from??? None of them would feel compelled to change knowing that once you tire of the other, you'll be back. And while you're bouncing back and forth between the two, they're busy laughing at you and exploiting you!! This illustration draws an exact parallel of what's going on in the Bahamas!! It's time to put an end to it!!
Voting for the DNA has more to do with ousting the lunacy of both the FNM and PLP, than it has to do with the DNA itself. This would send a transperant message to both parties to shape up or ship out!! History books are filled with men and women who's initial reaction and rebellion to a failed political system seemed reckless and unbecoming at the time!! How many civic and political movements and causes were propelled into existence by just one man or one woman who at the time seemed rouge and irresponsible??? The answer is, MANY!!
If history maintained your ideals and your one tracked mode of thinking, none of the great things that great men have accomplished throughout history would have ever come to existence!! You and many other Bahamians are victims of mental slavery!! Free your mind and think unconventionally at times!! Think outside the box!! Nothing is impossible! And if ever the Bahamas needed to send a clear message to both the FNM and PLP that we are not drones.... it's now!
You attempt to portray Branville as being toothless, but yet you admit that he caused your FNM the last general election. If you were in the habit of reading history books the way that I am, you would not be so quick to dismiss Bran. Nelson Mandela started out as a poor, lone voice, with only two or three supporters as well. But look at what happened! He ended up liberating an entire race of people!! For Gods sake..... take the shackles off your ankles!!
Wideawake 8 years, 7 months ago
Not "a true FNM", most certainly not "a mindless drone", not even a member of the FNM! , but rather a patriotic Bahamian and a pragmatist!
I would like nothing better than to see a new Bahamian political party with new and finer principles be formed in time to win the upcoming General Election, but know that there is insufficient time for that to happen. The election must be held by May 2917, but may well be called before this.
Undoubtedly politics in The Bahamas needs to be replaced with something altogether better and more effective. I wish we had an already formed political party with a truly inspiring leader, a brilliant slate of forward thinking young candidates and a new and exciting agenda, but realise that time is now so short that any new party formed between now and the election would split the opposition vote and enable the worse possible scenario..another win by the PLP.
I agree that HAI was an autocrat and that his style of leadership is out of date and might have cost him the last election. But I also know that, in the past, a strong handed, if somewhat dictatorial leader was probably a necessity in order to keep control and move our nation forward. McCartney's mistake was his lack of patience and his unwillingness to " influence from within"; had he done that, the FNM, with his assistance, would probably have won the last election and Mc Cartney might now be the Leader of the FNM, and Prime Minister!
If I had to choose between a unfaithful spouse and an abusive spouse I would actually choose NEITHER and would live alone!! But here is where your analogy falls down; in the run-up to the next election we MUST choose the best of two, which I agree, are flawed parties, but one is so obviously worse than the other that FNM must be our choice. We do not have the luxury of choosing to live alone, i.e. without a political party, and we have insufficient time to fall into the arms of a new inexperienced "sweetheart", however good that sweetheart's intentions might be!
If I was young enough and interested enough, to consider a career in Bahamian politics, which on both points I am not, I would focus all my energy and resources in getting elected in a constituency in which I was well known and well respected and I would grow my new party from WITHIN the HOA. If I could find others who were like minded, I would encourage them to do the same. I would plan to establish my political party over a ten year period by which time there might be a chance of becoming the government. How could this be achieved by May 2017???
I assure you I am quite capable of "thinking outside of the box", but I also believe great progress can be made by working within the existing system and effecting change from within.
If all the opposition forces were to join the FNM, unseating the PLP would be possible, perhaps even likely. That is Job 1, and that is the most important political task that faces us!!
Cobalt 8 years, 7 months ago
Ok. I can accept that. Thanks for the insight.
MonkeeDoo 8 years, 7 months ago
Maybe a United Bahamian Party would be good.
TalRussell 8 years, 7 months ago
Comrades I have ran the number of votes while being as creative with the math tilted towards the DNA. Still it is clear that the votes garnered by the DNA during the 2012 General, even after taking into account how they came about, it remains but a myth for anyone to conclude that Bran's fringe party was and remains anything but a pimple on the political scene.
Fact is the Bahamaland's Human Society could be said to have made as much headway at reorganizing the Tourists Horses and Buggies Industry since 2012, as Bran and his "baby" red party.
Go take a carriage ride behind one them old and worn out horses, and it would be like riding any one of the DNA's 2017 General candidates buggies across the finish line.
sheeprunner12 8 years, 7 months ago
SOOOOOOOOO, WHAT WOULD BRAN DO????????????
Emac 8 years, 7 months ago
Hang em high!
AwayInSchool 8 years, 7 months ago
If you looking for the media to report that you might be waiting a long time... I checked out the DNA's crime platform on their site a few years ago. It was a good start. Very fond of the 'sweat the small' stuff approach and start enforcing the law at the top first. Someone needs to make an example of these law-breaking politicians.
sheeprunner12 8 years, 7 months ago
That's why you are away in school ............ and probably will not come back either ........... but anyway I agree with the small stuff idea
BMW 8 years, 7 months ago
Cobalt, I have to agree with you!!!! Why cant Bahamians think outside of the box, we have been taken for fools for far to long. Why don't we raise ourselves above this political tribalism of fnm or plp and change the course of history in our country. I have been around for 9 elections and watched as both parties have abused the office they were elected to, they have dumbed down our people in order to achieve power and money. Lets send a clear message to these crooks that say they are for the Bahamas, vote for the dna and if they cant get it done vote them out.
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