By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
AFTER Prime Minister Perry Christie insisted people will “cheer with him when” Baha Mar opens, Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner said he has “let down employees” and the businesses involved with the resort.
“The PLP’s actions at Baha Mar have done irreparable damage to the country’s potential for foreign direct investment,” she said in a statement.
“Investors have taken notice of how the PLP has treated the resort’s developer.”
Despite his optimism about the stalled resort, Mr Christie has been unable to give a date when construction might restart or when the property will open.
In the House of Assembly on Wednesday, Mr Christie said those who scoff at him will join him in celebrating the success of the resort’s opening.
In her statement, Mrs Butler-Turner suggested Mr Christie hasn’t fully grasped the significance of the problem the Baha Mar debacle poses for the country, saying it transcends his party’s political needs and could plunge The Bahamas into a “serious recession” and credit downgrade.
“What is preposterous is that the prime minister actually believes he should be applauded for his efforts, while he makes no reference to his direct actions and responsibility in bringing the resort to its knees in the first place,” she said.
Mrs Butler-Turner placed fault for the impasse on the government’s failure to seek to resolve the matter with the aid of Baha Mar developer Sarkis Izmirlian, saying government ministers “repeatedly threatened” him.
Members of the Christie administration engaged in a war of words with Mr Izmirlian for much of last year over their competing views about what was best for the resort.
“The prime minister has injected his ego, self-interest and his delusional thinking into the resolution of the Baha Mar matter,” Mrs Butler-Turner said. “He would do the country a tremendous favour by talking less and by making predictions which rarely come to pass. I urge the government to do all in its power to get the resort open as quickly as possible in the interest of the many thousands of Bahamians seeking employment amidst growing unemployment.”
Comments
TruePeople 8 years, 3 months ago
At what point would LGBT say is the point at which we are 'in recession'???? how bad does it have to get?
as or Perry.... the only ones dem he ein letting down is the Chinese, but let's leave how he and the chinaman dem is get down for now
Economist 8 years, 3 months ago
Good statement Mrs. Butler-Turner.
happyfly 8 years, 3 months ago
The sad thing is that there are now less hotel rooms and less jobs on the Cable Beach Strip than ever before. Less tourists, less straw market customers, less taxi fares, less people able to pay off their mortgages. The Bahamar project has been nothing but a massive loss for the Bahamian people. Anybody that had their hand in creating the bloody mess should be resigning right about now
Emac 8 years, 3 months ago
Thank you Ms. should be opposition leader. When Butler speaks out against something, she always has her facts together and she delivers sharply yet eloquently- This is what makes a good leader. On the other hand, Minnis reminds me of one of those wind up toys that only responds when someone turns the key. Whenever the key is turned he wiggles about the place while spurting out garbage, then stops and waits for someone to turn the key again.
BaronInvest 8 years, 3 months ago
This is what you get without Chapter 11...
MonkeeDoo 8 years, 3 months ago
*oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive.* Sir Walter Scott. If the Government ( PLP leeches ) did not have so much corruption and compromise to be discovered by a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, in a Country with transparency laws, none of this would have happened and Izmirlian would have had to paddle his own canoe and get the hotel finished and running. And you can bet your last dollar that he would have done it and Baha Mar would now, in all likelihood be running, with tourists abounding. Our good friend Tal would be walking that damned dock every single day and loving it.
by MonkeeDoo
Bahamaland 8 years, 3 months ago
Still waiting on my severance pay totalling almost $10K...can I as a young Bahamian ask Resolve Bahamas to forgive my student loans I owe tof BOB or is that reserved for the elite Bahamians only (PLP's)?
BMW 8 years, 3 months ago
Bahamaland dont pay your student loan! Tell them send the bills to Leslie!
GrassRoot 8 years, 3 months ago
PGC is in constant champagne mood. He so cheerful all the time.
birdiestrachan 8 years, 3 months ago
The fault lies with Izmirlian, some where along the way he messed up big time and Butler Turner knows this. She wants to lead the FNM Party. so she is always in the press with one story after the other.. If the place had been completed and people were working it would have made the PLP look very good. What about this she misses.
Reality_Check 8 years, 3 months ago
To Grassroot: You would be as happy as Christie too if your doctor significantly upped the dosage of your "happy" pills! Christie is so drugged up these days that it's small wonder he can't think straight!!
Cas0072 8 years, 3 months ago
Sure, ignore the whole Lanisha Rolle comments thing and "confront" the PLP with the exact same concerns that many Bahamians have been expressing since day 1. What's done is done, but what would LBT's FNM do to change the course of Bahamar and to avoid or rebound from a recession? I doubt that she has the answer or that she is even seeking answers, but seeking instead to capitalize on the almost unanimous outrage and despair of working class Bahamians. We have seen her kind of politician, which is why I am not swayed by the fact that she is a woman, and more open to Minnis' more quiet nature which is new to Bahamian politics. But, by appearing to address issues of national import, she is having a much better week than Minnis who is being continuously and publicly defied by subordinates.
Cas0072 8 years, 3 months ago
Meanwhile, they say Branville McCartney is off on a month long mission to Singapore to learn best practices. This on his own dime or that of the DNA. While I was put off by his recent and poorly made statements to the media, I respect his effort and I am more willing to trust the trial and errors approach of a novice who tried, than the wrangling of consummate manipulators within the sister FNM and PLP organizations.
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