The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunmedia.net

DEMOCRATIC National Alliance Leader Branville McCartney said Prime Minister Perry Christie’s assertion that the Progressive Liberal Party may become unstable without him is a “slap in the face to other persons” in the governing party.

“I was very surprised by what he said,” Mr McCartney told The Tribune yesterday.

“What he said is that no one in his party can lead that party and therefore what he is telling the general public is the persons he would have in their constituencies can’t be trusted because they can’t lead.

“If that’s the case, no one should bother supporting them. He said at the end of the day that he doesn’t trust them to lead the party so you shouldn’t trust them either.”

Mr McCartney made fun of Mr Christie’s past talk about building a “bridge to the future” in the party, noting how the construct has dismantled in the face of high-profile resignations of some first-time parliamentarians once associated with his party, such as Dr Andre Rollins and Greg Moss.

“What happen to the ‘bridge to the future’?” he asked. “That bridge seems to have blown up into oblivion. It’s very eerie. Before Sir Lynden Pindling got his last PLP defeat, he said some things. Hubert Ingraham said similar before the last election. He said he has the experience, the wind is behind his back and the people want him. Pindling said the same thing before his last defeat, Ingraham said it before his last defeat and Christie is almost saying the same thing before what will be his last defeat. He is going to get what Pindling got and what Ingraham got. All of them are from that political stock.”

Mr McCartney said Mr Christie struggled to give an honest answer into his rationale for remaining at the helm of the PLP.

“He’s in his mid-70s and he knows nothing else. He has to constantly look for some reason as to why he wants to stay on.”

When asked about his political future on Monday, Mr Christie said: “There are two things. One, that I have enough young people who are a part of my government who have asked me to stay on. Two, that with respect to staying on, everyday of my life I recognise that I provide stability.

“My leadership provides stability to my side. You see what instability means when you look at the opposition and I daresay that this could happen when I demit office as well.

“The country has moved to Pindling, to Ingraham, division in the FNM, to Christie, he’s holding right now, no division in the PLP.

“And so the question for us is, moving forward, one of the great advantages the PLP offers to this country is a very stable government, one with the capacity to guarantee continuity in governance and one that has been meaningfully employed in major reforms in this country, the latest one of which is the University of the Bahamas.”

Mr Christie made the comments during an appearance on the Kiss FM radio talk show, “Ed Fields Live” with host Ed Fields and co-host Rogan Smith.