The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement Chairman Michael Pintard said it is “convenient” that Attorney General Allyson Maynard Gibson would now admit that crime is not a political issue, now that the country has recorded the “highest number of murders” in history under her watch.

In a statement, Mr Pintard said the FNM has always said crime should not be made a political issue despite the Progressive Liberal Party blaming the FNM for the “deaths that occurred under our watch”.

On Tuesday, Mrs Maynard Gibson admitted that The Bahamas is facing a “crime crisis”, but said it is not a political issue.

She told The Nassau Guardian that the government and the police are “working to turn things around”.

“Now the attorney general wishes to wash her and the government’s hands of any responsibility for the upsurge in violent crimes for which they have had no credible verbal or actual plan of action. What an about face,” Mr Pintard said.

“The PLP relentlessly blamed the FNM for the high crime rate while we were in government. In the run up to the 2012 election they promised to reduce crime to its irreducible minimum through Safe Bahamas, Urban Renewal and Swift Justice. Now that we have recorded the most murders in the history of The Bahamas, the attorney general seeks to convince us not to hold politicians (code word for the PLP politicians) responsible for failing to live up to their bold promises to lower the fear and actual incidences of crime.”

Mr Pintard said the PLP has made crime so political that ministers continue to blame the FNM for the violence that exists today.

“They said it was our inability to contain the gangs years ago. However, they failed to mention the drug culture they fostered in the 1970s and early ’80s and their cozy relationship with some of the same folks they heavily criticise,” the statement said.

“Not only have they blamed the FNM they blame the judiciary, parents and the very police force they are now relying on to make important announcements about new crime–fighting strategies. Shared responsibility is foreign to the PLP.”

The FNM chairman said while his party agrees that crime is the result of many factors – social, spiritual, economic, cultural, political, etc – he added, “we do believe that leaders have an obligation to devise a plan of action that comprehensively addresses the challenges confronting their citizens.”