PLP Chairman Fred Mitchell. (File photo)
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
PLP CHAIRMAN Fred Mitchell said party officials have not decided when they will end their boycott of parliament and the senate.
The politicians are protesting, saying they believe the Minnis administration pressured authorities to launch criminal investigations and prosecutions against well known PLPs from the Christie government.
They have also called for the resignation of National Security Minister Marvin Dames and Health Minister Dr Duane Sands for the role they played in the Frank Smith bribery case. Mr Smith was acquitted last month.
Works Minister Desmond Bannister called their boycott a “dereliction of duty” on Wednesday while Tall Pines MP Don Saunders said it is a “disgrace” and “a crying shame.”
On Thursday, the party chairman said they will end their boycott when they believe their point has been adequately made.
“It’s a lot of rubbish the FNM is running on with," Mr Mitchell said. "We were really shocked yesterday by the stuff that the deputy speaker (Mr Saunders) is running on with. Tell these people, you can’t clap with one hand. If they want to run a one-party state, a one-party government, go right ahead. The point is we’re working on the grounds to defeat them in the next election. The Minister of Works really has the nerve to get up to talk about boycott and dereliction of duty. What a joke. If you go back to your newspaper in 2013, you’d see he led the same thing, saying because the then leader of the opposition was being excluded from the House, senators were going to boycott the senate until that issue was resolved.”
Mr Mitchell was referring to the FNM’s boycott of parliament and the senate in 2013 after Dr Hubert Minnis was suspended for comments he made about then Prime Minister Perry Christie and his relationship to Peter Nygard.
In a show of solidarity, other FNM officials boycotted the two sessions during which Dr Minnis was suspended. The exception was then Central and South Abaco MP Edison Key, who believed the Speaker was justified in suspending Dr Minnis.
Mr Mitchell said: “What does (Dr Minnis) have in principle against a boycott? What we want to tell the Bahamian public is this, let’s study Dr Martin Luther King and what he did; the whole point is civil disobedience, that’s what you do in a civilised country. You don’t go out in the streets with guns and blast things up but there are several ways that opposition organisations can bring to the public the fact that something is wrong. We say the administration of justice has gone wonky in this country when two ministers sit in the government after being judicially condemned. They ought to go. The attorney general ought to go, they all ought to go.
"Now, what are we supposed to do in answer to that? You can protest in the streets, you could do all those things, but we’ve chosen to withdraw from the parliament to make the point that these people should not be sitting in the parliament. It’s a civil politic, we don’t take guns and shoot people.
"We are making the point on behalf of our followers and when we judge it appropriately to go back, that the point has been sufficiently made, we will do so, but we will never stop calling for them to leave. This is not about the PLP and what the PLP did and didn’t do. The FNM won the election, 35 to 4. Remember that made them geniuses so they know everything and so they ought to know the rules of the convention of the constitution, resign, go now.”
Earlier the Attorney General confirmed that government intends to appeal the judge’s decision in the Smith case.
Comments
BMW 5 years, 1 month ago
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
JackArawak 5 years, 1 month ago
so what if they boycott - the FNM can continue to be corrupt and inefficient just fine without them. Pettiest politics I have ever seen. Amateurs. All of them.
DDK 5 years, 1 month ago
Not so amateur when it comes to corruption!
Gotoutintime 5 years, 1 month ago
Who the heck cares if they "boycott"--None of them are worth a dam anyway!
sheeprunner12 5 years, 1 month ago
They have until May 14 ........... right in time for Budget debate. Smh
TigerB 5 years, 1 month ago
They should cut all of their pay... that is stupid. They already in the minority,so them not showing up wouldn't' change a thing. Its is obvious they support Frank and Michelle, but these people are accused of corruption, so I guess they support corruption. I care less of Frank won his case It was a technicality, not that he didn't do it. And Michelle and her husband I know personally, I know what she had then and what she has now...
sheeprunner12 5 years, 1 month ago
sheeprunner12 5 years, 1 month ago
And Michelle and her husband I know personally, I know what she had then and what she has now...
Well do an audit of their financial accounts for the 2012-2017 period ......... SMH
Apostle 5 years, 1 month ago
The PLP is a bunch of cry babies looking for the bottle. They are trying to insight public disunity in order to gain political mileage.
This us a sad ste of affairs in this country. Persons were charged for defrauding the government of over a million. Isn't the court the place to hear criminal matters? The comments I saw recently attributed to the Chairman leave much to be desired, but then really who expect more?
Short man Brave let's get the hell back in parliament please and oh by the way, who us driving this PLP train anyway? That's another thing.
SP 5 years, 1 month ago
This is good news. Nobody with an ounce of sense cares what the PLP does! Now we need to work on getting rid the "all for me" thieving pirates once and for all!!
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 1 month ago
The main thieving pirates are all too easy to identify.....they are for the most part our parliamentarians and it really doesn't matter whether they brand themselves FNM or PLP. For decades now we have had parliamentary dictatorships because our country is simply unable to maintain an effective Westminster parliamentary system of government. Our old two party system collapsed years ago under the weight of culturally ingrained corruption throughout our D- educated civil work force which, as the largest single block of voters in our country, now shifts its party loyalty on a dime every five years because of their lack of education and declining standard of living. This plays into the hands of corrupt greedy politicians who find it all too easy to get elected by commandeering the party du jour in the eyes of both the fickle civil work force and the corrupt wealthy financial backers in the run up to the next general election. The result is wild swings from one party to the other every five years, with little or no effective opposition in parliament for the party du jour which finds it is therefore able to run the country as a de facto corrupt dictatorship. The dictatorship is of course only beholden to its corrupt financial backers like King Sebas of Lucky Charms, the Red Chinese government, and corrupt foreign investors, who all too wiling to grease and bribe to get whatever they want with no regard whatsoever for the interests of the Bahamian people at large. LMAO
Tarzan 5 years, 1 month ago
Please make it NEVER.
truetruebahamian 5 years, 1 month ago
Paid vacation?
TheMadHatter 5 years, 1 month ago
Neither Party will ammend the Rules of the House to allow the Opposition to speak. When the PLP came back in power in 2002 they did not change them. Then when Ingraham won in 2007 and they had problems speaking again, Ingraham reminded them that the Rules of the House were the same as they were prior to election. All the cut hip they took from 1992 to 2002 as Opposition did not inspire them to change the rules. He invited them to offer up ammendments; they declined. Then they won again in 2012 and all those 5 years they did not change the rules to allow MPs to speak in the House. So now again with FNM in power all they can do is suck teet. Their LUST for power is so high that they dont really care about MPs speaking. They just waiting to win in 2022 so they can stop FNM MPs from speaking. Well then the bi****s can wait. Otherwise, offer up an ammendment on Wednesday.
Naughtydread 5 years, 1 month ago
**YAWN ........ People actually still listen to anything the PLP says these days!?
licks2 5 years, 1 month ago
We actually need the break from their antics anyway. . .I hope they stay off the press too. . .then when they get their acts together come back!! Otherwise. . .WHO CARES WHAT THEY DO. . .SUPPORTING CORRUPTION IS NOT WHAT WE PAY THEM FOR. . .GO AND STAY GONE!!
This calls for the DNA to step up too the plate with some common sense this time. . .not that dumb crap Mr. Moss and the DL come out with all the times. . .they have some more sober and balanced minds in there. . .the time is now!!
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 1 month ago
The DNA! Really? You got to be joking! LMAO
bogart 5 years, 1 month ago
DUKE....the four time elected dog Mayor retired and recently passed away in Minnesota. Lots of citizens are very sad.
DWW 5 years, 1 month ago
Irrelevant. Next.
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