The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

Everyone is getting their knickers in a twist about a conversation between the Prime Minister and St Anne’s MP Brent Symonette, who with his elder brother, is part owner of the property to which the current post office has been transferred.

Contrary to everyone else who has made their opinions public, I find nothing sinister or wrong with that conversation, especially when the timing and the pertinent information needed about the property is considered .

Government wanted a property to relocate the old post office. A property owned by the Symonettes was one of the properties selected as a possible location. This particular location was first chosen by the Christie government before it lost the election to the Minnis government. Whether the Christie government had changed its mind about the post office’s proposed new location before the FNM government came in, I am not certain. As I recall there was a delay, and a bit of confusion before the election which ushered in the FNM government. Whether the PLP government had decided against it or whether the final decision was inherited by the new government, I do not recall.

However, it was a matter of some urgency that the Prime Minister get the matter before his Cabinet for consideration so that a post office could be opened and Bahamians returned to work. And so with Mr Symonette, his Cabinet colleague, as part owner of the proposed property out of the country, he called him in Mexico to get the information that he needed.

The Prime Minister then took this information to Cabinet and later to the House of Assembly where the post office relocation was approved. Mr Symonette, as parliamentary rules required, was present for neither, and, therefore, did not participate in any of the decision making.

In a statement the Prime Minister said that the decision to relocate the Post Office to the Town Centre Mall was the best deal for the Bahamian people and that the “proposal was 50 percent cheaper than the plan approved by the PLP for the same capability and at the same location.”

“Brave” Davis, a lawyer, knows the rules and customs of parliament. He knows that Mr Symonette, as parliamentary custom requires, was neither present for the Cabinet discussion about the property, nor did he participate in any decision making about government’s lease of the property.

As usual, the PLP is exploiting the public’s ignorance. Mr Davis knows that under parliamentary customs and rules, Mr Symonette has done no wrong. But the public doesn’t know this — so as usual the PLP is playing them for fools.

In my opinion, this is a tempest in a political teacup, and much ado about nothing! There is too much to be done to continue this foolish time wasting.

TIRED OF FOOLISHNESS

Nassau,

December 14, 2019