The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement leader Michael Pintard yesterday said “we need to repudiate any form of death threats” after threats were made to the Prime Minister on Friday.

The party leader spoke yesterday on the Guardian Radio show Morning Blend when asked about his view on death threats, after two anonymous calls making threats against Prime Minister Philip Davis on Friday. death threa anonymous anonymous calls making death threats against Prime Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis on Friday.

Mr Pintard said: “We are living at a time in The Bahamas where there’s a tremendous amount of anger in homes, in our schools, on our streets. As a result, we’ve had an explosion of violence. so I do not find it uncommon. Listen, when Bahamians hear death threats they don’t react the same way politicians do you know because Bahamians are hearing that on a regular basis for very little reason people are threatening family members, their neighbours. and strangers on the road.”

“We have a national problem and every Bahamian life, inclusive of the chief executive of the country, is important. So all right-thinking Bahamians repudiate the death threats whether it is in Englerston where I grew up, Yellow Elder where I grew up, on a Family Island, or a gatekeeper who is a policymaker. So we should, we should repudiate it.

“What we should also be careful of is, is not to be untruthful in so many things that we say that a cynicism emerges in the public where they begin to wonder if you’re telling a truth, an untruth about any threats that may have been leveled against you, particularly since most of us who have led political organisations have received death threats. I mean, certainly all of the leaders that I have spoken to or aware of secondhand have received death threats. So persons are cynical, they are saying, you know, sometimes people raise issues, even if it occurred at a level in order to switch the conversation that’s a part of what is being discussed by a public.”

This is a slightly different tone from former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis who said the Prime Minister’s reaction to recent death threats was “overkill” but also highlighting it is not uncommon for a Prime Minister to receive such threats.

When the radio host asked a question of Mr Pintard, the FNM leader clarified: “I’m making a point about where our people are at. That there is a cynicism in the public that people believe the critical issues that affect us that when a government is being called into account, it finds creative ways to switch the conversation and the reason that has currency in the minds of some Bahamians, because it’s done quite often using other mechanisms.”

He repeated the point of repudiating death threats but pointed the finger at behaviour of some public figures who he felt had used some inciting language.

Mr Pintard stated: “We need to repudiate any form of death threats. Even when people report that they have been threatened, we have to do the investigation. One can always ask whether it is prudent if you are following some significant leads to then talk a great deal about it in the public domain as opposed to making progress on the investigation but that’s a separate issue. Let’s repudiate it but let’s create an environment where all Bahamians appreciate the value of life, that they communicate with each other with civility.”

Seemingly referring to PLP chairman Fred Mitchell, he said: “The chairman talks about the manner in which people are behaving and speaking violently, which he rightly should talk about, but I on my feet in the House of Assembly chastised him and a member on our side when they when they use figurative, I gave them the benefit of the doubt to say they must have meant figurative, terms that were quite angry and violent.

“You cannot give advice about civility in speech and the enforcement of the law around incitement when you yourself in voice notes have talked about taking physical action, which some people say may or may not have been figurative and so we have to we have to be very, very careful in this regard.”