The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

IN laying out his case for re-electing the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) next week, Fred Mitchell portrayed the Free National Movement (FNM) as a heartless organisation.

Mr Mitchell was particularly critical of former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and former Deputy Prime Minister Brent Symonette, who is the FNM’s candidate for St Anne’s.

He made his statements in a series of videos uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday.

On Mr Symonette, he said: “This is a man who declared $6m in his declaration (in total income) for the general election…which he earned off securities.

“The question is, have you heard of any public good that he has invested in besides his private businesses? Scholarships for children to go to school? The institute of the College of The Bahamas perhaps in honour of his father who used to be the premier of country? You try to tie that to the message he has tried to sell to you, that the Progressive Liberal Party has ran a bad economy.

“And then you have a man named Hubert Ingraham,” he continued. “You remember him. This is a man who sold BTC at a fire-sale price and we’re still trying to recover from that debacle today. Yet he comes back on the stage having abandoned his party five years ago, saying ‘I’m gone in a huff,’ left them in a mess with a leader who is not acceptable to the country. Now he’s back on the stage with Brent Symonette who is an example of someone who in my view does not have a heart. And this is the same with Mr Ingraham who on the day he became prime minister, fired people on the night.

“We have a situation where there are 3,500 employees who are going to be put on the permanent and pensionable by order of the current Prime Minister Perry Christie. The FNM leader refuses to say if those people will have their jobs secured if he happens to take over God forbid next week on the 10th of May. He refuses to say whether those people on the empowerment programme will have their jobs protected. What we do know is that the last leader of the FNM fired people on the first day that he was elected prime minister. So I’m saying it makes sense to vote for the Progressive Liberal Party.”

During a rally Wednesday night, Mr Ingraham suggested that making the 3,500 people permanent would show that fiscal controls have got out of hand under the government.