By RICARDO WELLS
Tribune Staff Reporter
rwells@tribunemedia.net
A VERBAL altercation erupted on the interior stairway of the House of Assembly yesterday between National Security Minister Marvin Dames and Pineridge MP Fredrick McAlpine.
The dispute, both visible and audible to all those near the chamber when the proceedings suspended yesterday, seemed to centre around Mr McAlpine’s continued calls for Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis to address the roles Mr Dames and Health Minister Dr Duane Sands played in the Frank Smith bribery and extortion trial.
“Don’t butter me,” Mr Dames shouted at Mr McAlpine who was attempting to speak with him. “I am not with the sideshow.”
The confrontation was quickly acknowledged by several party personnel nearby, all of whom tried to diffuse the situation by moving in to separate the two men.
A visibly frustrated Mr Dames had to be ushered away, leaving Mr McAlpine with what one observer described as a “despondent” look on his face.
Moments after the incident, reporters spoke with both men separately.
Mr Dames, who addressed the matter first, called it a “sideshow”, inferring that Mr McAlpine was trying to engineer a “political charade”.
“Listen, I am here to represent the people of Mount Moriah, and as the minister of national security for the people of this country,” he told reporters. “We made a promise to the Bahamian people when we took office that we would do our endeavour best to clean up corruption within this country and bring back some level of respectability.
“I am not going to turn that into a political charade, all right!
“I don’t know what he is trying to do. I am not here to play games, all right. We are here to run a country. And things are moving in the right direction, and we will continue to do that.”
Mr Dames continued: “This is not about politics. This is about making the country a better place for all Bahamians. Not about ‘you say and I say,’ all right.”
“We have a lot of work to do in this country. We have to bring back a level of respectability. We have to change the status-quo.”
Mr Dames said all Bahamians have a vested responsibility to do the same, contending that the time was being wasted peddling “nonsense” back and forth.
“So when we chase behind (the) nonsense we see every day of this and that, we have to look at the facts.
“So I am not going to get involved in any of this sideshow. I have to save my energies to work toward making this country a better place. That was the commitment I gave before I took office and no one is going to take me or derail me from doing that. No one.”
Mr McAlpine, who spoke with reporters on the exterior steps of the House, insisted he was only attempting to “greet” Mr Dames.
He said he was trying to suggest to Mr Dames that much of his recent comments were in line with wanting the Free National Movement to uphold its anti-corruption declarations. This came days after Mr McAlpine criticised the prime minister for not addressing calls for the resignations of Mr Dames and Dr Sands.
“I wanted to greet him and say as a colleague, ‘no hard feelings, nothing personal,” Mr McAlpine told reporters.
When asked if he was able to make that point clear to Mr Dames yesterday, he said: “No”.
“I spoke with, I tried to speak with him and that was it. I guess those who were in the gallery saw it and heard for themselves what transpired.”
He added: “I am not trying to butter (Mr Dames) up or anybody else up. The reality is, he is my colleague and again, I am also a Christian so I think the proper thing to do is let anybody know if I offended you, I am not trying to offend you I am just stating the facts as they are.
“Not to make it personal.”
Mr McAlpine went on to urge the FNM to “address” its handling of him and other persons in the party calling for fair treatment and an adherence to its anti-corruption promises.
“And I still remain, and I am even more resolute to say, this isn’t nothing personal. It is just that the Prime Minister, perhaps, needed to address this issue; because now the behaviour is escalating into something else,” he said.
“Leadership needs to address it,” he added.
“…When justice has spoken, we ought to be adhering to the law. And I will say this once again, those of us who speak against anti-corruption should not have the perception of corruption. This is about perception.”
He added: “Nobody is calling any of them, my colleagues, corrupt; but we were the preachers of anti-corruption and so we need to deal with the matter at hand.”
Mr Smith was recently acquitted of bribery and extortion charges. Mr Dames and Dr Sands were criticised by Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt as she gave her reasons for acquittal. She criticised the ministers for the “egregious” way in which they interacted with complainant Barbara Hanna prior to a police investigation into her claims, charging that their conduct gave the appearance of a “political flavour to a curious bystander.”
The prime minister has yet to address the matter despite saying in Grand Bahama last week that he would do so last Friday.
Comments
birdiestrachan 5 years, 1 month ago
Dames should be quite ashamed of himself with his political charade. do you really expect Bahamians to respect you? You where there when Moultrie was wrong and deemed right. You were there at the OBAN fax signing you and your partner sitting side by side.
And now the Frank Smith case. It was good that Johnson who was critical of the spy bill then stood on the house floor and passed it. Johnson took you to the bath room perhaps all that was needed was a bowel movement.
Dames is falling apart at the seems. The devil is making him angry.
CatIslandBoy 5 years, 1 month ago
You got this one wrong, again! Mr. Dames has nothing to be ashamed of. Mr. McAlpine is nothing but a Troublemaker and needs to sit small. He will definitely not be a member of parliament after the next election.
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 1 month ago
I once reacted to someone who was doing their best to annoy me. My manager fully acknowledged what the public nuisance was doing, but you know what they said to me? "Never let your good be spoken evil of". Dames was human and he was wrong. He was also wrong in the Barbara Hanna affair. This pattern of inability to admit wrong is telling.
John 5 years, 1 month ago
At least they can sell tickets for round two.
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 1 month ago
Most of us long ago learned to be very wary of any Bahamian who is all too quick to say:
LMAO
yeahyasee 5 years, 1 month ago
LMAO
TalRussell 5 years, 1 month ago
Yes, yes and yes the reds take House fight to the toilet, when new red MP's in House pails in excitement to slapper granddaughter of the comrade beloved man's who in questioning the authority Bay Street Boys - rose to toss the Speaker’s hourglass right out through the goddamned window of the UBP's 1965 white man's control over House of Assembly as a result of the Government’s introduction of a 12-minute rule to curb lengthy speeches in debate,. Yes, no they DNA's is no passed down anything red shirt worthy from Butler clan?
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 1 month ago
Leave it to you to point out that they took the issue to the toilet..lol
TalRussell 5 years, 1 month ago
Yes, or no ma comrade ThisIsOurs, baffles minds PeoplePublic how the whole upsetness came about after rebellious comrade Pineridge MP Mc, knew called out it was indeed red MP Marvin sitting on toilet tendering he own business when Mc called out - I knows it's you (IKIY) in there Marvin by the white tips ya dance hall shoes, yes, no you just can't make this kinds "IKIY" toilet businesses up.... imagine Milo calling out Sir Stafford hurry up flush damn toilet?
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 1 month ago
Tendering he own business lol...toilet business...rotfl
John 5 years, 1 month ago
Marvin Dames has become the most embattled MP and probably the greatest embarrassment to the FNM government by his own doings (or undoing). YES the Bahamian people wanted to see an attack on and attempt to stomp out corruption but they wanted clear and natural justice. Not tampering of evidence and witnesses. YES Bahamians wanted a war on crime. But they didn’t expect to be awakened at 2-3-4 in the morning by Black hawk helicopters with officers jumping in and around their homes looking mostly for drugs while disturbing their nite rest and scaring them half to death. YES Bahamians want the war on crime to continue but they don’t want innocent young men gunned down like dogs ( sorry dogs they shot you too) in the streets and no special investigation being launched, no closure to the family and to friends and loved ones. And other persons allegedly in police custody going missing. Yes Bahamians wants criminals apprehended and brought to justice but not if it means police have to beat, torture and half kill innocent citizens to do so or have to fix and tamper with evidence. YES Bahamians want this country to move to the level of the rest of the world when it comes to its drug policy especially as it relates to marijuana. Not in the least that it should be legalized for recreational use, but to move away from the other extreme of zero tolerance. This policy is to imposing on individual rights, when individuals are intimately searched during traffic stops. Small amounts of marijuana should be confiscated and destroyed on scene and/or become a ticket offence where the violator has the option to pay a fine without getting a record. Zero tolerance is too expensive and too impossible to achieve.
BMW 5 years, 1 month ago
Zero tolerance works. If you want to decrimanalize marijuana change the law. Slackness has brought us to this point! Time to shape up or ship out. Well mudda when I hear that phrase ot raises many many red flags.
The_Oracle 5 years, 1 month ago
Worse than Children.
bogart 5 years, 1 month ago
IN ALL FAIRNESS.....MINISTER DAMES HAS STARTED MANY IMPROVMENTS... .......He been liased wid US brothers an sisters.....operations....he went to no nonsemse searched Prison officers....Poachers effectively learned message Bahamas aint jokin...Proactive on stopping illegals...PROactive on Neighbourhood watch...(witnessed) police hauling car over ...bring in body cams...electronics sound detectors...to cut no nonsense crime nonsense....Seems Dames needs more funding to bring up his visions to better...Bahamas ....and his results...show .Bahamians should know net crime has reduced and is pleasing...AND ...in whatever he was faced criminals...arrested investigated...apprehented....proactive...within duties of his scope..and has suceeded......
birdiestrachan 5 years, 1 month ago
Dames will remember well Mr: Greenslade and all of the young men who died and were referred to as causalities of war.
licks2 5 years, 1 month ago
Dribble dribble dribble goes the peanut gallery. . .yard chickens picking and scratching. . .shocking they brains with every slam of the beak on the ground. . .bam bam bam bam. . .at least chickens them have a built in natural shock absorbents to soften the blow when they pound they heads into the ground faster that a man can run!!! But these political pundits around here just simple pound their heads into the ground of reasoning at light speed. . .dizzy with their dumbness. . .the plow on into the sphere of oxymoron oblivion!! What a waste of good brains. . .politics rotting out they good sense at a mile a minute!!
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