Dionisio D’Aguilar
By NICO SCAVELLA
Tribune Staff Reporter
nscavella@tribunemedia.net
FREE National Movement (FNM) Free Town candidate Dionisio D’Aguilar yesterday called on long-serving Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) parliamentarians to quit “making a career” out of politics.
He said all of the “pomp and pageantry” associated with public office has “gone to their heads”, to the point where some do not know when to step aside.
Mr D’Aguilar, while a guest on Island Luck TV show “The Real Deal” with host Ortland Bodie Jr, called on PLP parliamentarians, especially those who have served “for three and four terms”, to stop serving and “go back to (their) real job” as he suggested that their lust for power and the grandeur associated with it is the reason many MPs do not want to retire.
The longest serving elected parliamentarian alive is Prime Minister Perry Christie, who, at 73, has invested more than 40 years of his life to public office, and has been the PLP’s leader for roughly two decades.
Other PLP parliamentarians that have had lengthy spells in public office include National Security Minister Dr Bernard Nottage, who served in the Cabinet of the late former Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling, and Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis, who has served as the member of Parliament for the Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador constituency for three non-consecutive terms.
“All of the same are the same,” Mr D’Aguilar said yesterday. “Maybe (Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald) hasn’t been in there that long, but the rest of them been there for three and four terms now. Come on now, stop making a career out of this. Go back to your real job. You’ve done your time, you’ve served your country, you’ve done well - well we hope you have, now go back.
“They have been in government too long. They have been enjoying the trappings and the pomp and pageantry and it’s gone to their head. First thing you’ve got to recognise when you go into politics everything is ‘oh yes minister’ and ‘right honourable’ this … come on man. I’m a Bahamian you’re a Bahamian.”
When presented with the suggestion that should the FNM win the next election, he too may succumb to the very same “pomp and pageantry” he claims has “possessed” long-serving PLP parliamentarians, Mr D’Aguilar said: “Call me D’Aguilar, man. ‘D’Aguilar come up here and speak.’ All this pomp and pageantry, that’s what goes to their heads and then they don’t want to go home …They love it. That’s why they always renominate, they don’t come up with a new team.”
Last year, Mr Christie stirred controversy when he announced that he will continue leading the PLP into the next general election and the foreseeable future “because young members of his government have urged him to do so”.
At the time, Mr Christie suggested that instability would arise in the party if he were no longer leader, similar to what had previously occurred in the Official Opposition.
Despite his stance, however, Mr Christie received harsh criticism for his refusal to step away from the reins of leadership, most notably from former PLP MP Philip Galanis, who said Mr Christie’s claims were at the “height of nonsense” and bordered on “delusional”.
Comments
Sickened 7 years ago
D'Aguilar is looking a little full in the face. Hope the stress isn't getting to him; the country needs him healthy. PLP almost dug a hole to China. I feel that D'Aguilar is one of only a handful that can help us fill it back in.
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years ago
Yappity yap yap yap...........
banker 7 years ago
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years ago
?
banker 7 years ago
I see that it has been removed. It was Bran's private cell phone number.
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years ago
That being the case, I suppose you've got a real problem!
banker 7 years ago
Just giving you an opportunity to phone directly to your political master. ;o)
DDK 7 years ago
I thought Mudda looked a bit green!
TalRussell 7 years ago
by TalRussell
sheeprunner12 7 years ago
Dionisio is correct ............ post-1967 Bahamian politicians were paid a salary ....... so for some, it became their job ........ But, many of them love the "trappings of influence and power" that give them social prestige AND access to lots of pork (public funds) in the form of contracts and chairmanships and long term retirement benefits ........... Our Treasury pays out at least ONE BILLION dollars a year to post-1967 retired politicians and their families in the form of these benefits .................. THIS IS WHAT IS THE PROBLEM HERE
TalRussell 7 years ago
Comrade Sheeprunner12, oh yes I remember - before we paid our MP's out public treasury - Wallace Groves paid the UBP MP's salaries - better known as under da table cash delivered in da cash fat envelops to their offices consultancy fees - to turn their heads on granting gambling licenses. Our MP's are underpaid and should be paid $81,333 yearly per MP, plus allowances of $40,333. PM should get $233,333 yearly, plus allowances and free PM's residence owned by the taxpayers.
sheeprunner12 7 years ago
Tal Russell is the perfect example of the "dumb Bahamian" ......... The Bay Street Boys had a different culture of governance than Pindling ....... but Pindling tried to "professionalize" the political class by giving them salaries ...... but the black political class took the salaries/allowances/pensions ........ and the "under-the-table" largesse ............ That makes this present group WORSE than the white boys
DDK 7 years ago
Perhaps long term retirement benefits should be re-addressed. Post-haste!
themessenger 7 years ago
Tal, you're even more delusional today than usual, you been smoking again or drinking some of Braves koolaid? I remember Brave saying not that long ago “More pay would remove the temptation for politicians to do things that are not right, because if they (MPs) are earning a living by doing this (raising their pay), then there would be no need for them to do anything else.” If that wasn't an admission of some of we MP's dem tiefin I don't know what is. Most, if not all of them, don't deserves the 28K per anum they're paid now, cause we sure as hell ain't bin gettin no value for we money.
hallmark 7 years ago
Well the pay must sure be enough, because there sure are a lot of persons clamouring to get the job, and those who are there don't want to leave.
jackbnimble 7 years ago
I agree. Outside of the pay, it's the kickbacks and under the table deals that they clamour for. Do you know what it is to have access to tax payers' funds with NO accountability? And we wonder why it's taking dynamite (a.k.a. a cutazz at the polls) to get Perry and his minions out?
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years ago
New hands in the cookie jar are not going to help us any, and may even be much worse for us ........ especially if they must fatten new hungry bellies.
John 7 years ago
It is the electorate that determines how long a person stays in politics. And if someone chooses Politics as a career, life time even, is anything wrong with that? Some people choose to be career criminals. In my college days some people took so long to graduate and some repeated classes so many times, we called them 'professional students '.
sheeprunner12 7 years ago
The average Cabinet Minister makes over $80,000 ........... the average Bahamian worker makes about $15,000 per year .......... Don't you think it is worth the effort?????
Now ........... Why would a multi-millionaire want to be a Cabinet Minister and not be able to be gainfully employed (personally) for 5 years????? ........... HOW COME many Cabinet Ministers actually get RICHER while in Office????? ............ any blind person should know what takes place there (CORRUPTION) .................... This is what is is destroying Bahamians' trust in politicians
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