One just has to examine his recent bout of “verbal diarrhea” with respect to FNM Leader Honorable Tommy Turnquest. The Honorable Senator Turnquest is demanding the resignation of at least two Cabinet Ministers due to their incompetency or lack of accountability. Chairman Rigby’s futile efforts to defend the Honorable Leslie Miller and the Honorable Neville Wisdom shows that he clearly does not understand conceptually how the Cabinet works either by convention or by the constitution. Cabinet Ministers are vicariously responsible for whatever happens in their ministry. In fact Ministers in other jurisdictions have resigned over what appears to be a far less infraction than what Tommy Turnquest has accused those two ministers of.
Chairman Rigby in a most cowardly manner attacked the messenger and then proceeded to take extreme measures to avoid the issues presented by Senator Turnquest. Rather than face the music, Chairman Rigby attempted to make Senator Turnquest the issue. His reference to the manner in which Senator Turnquest was elected leader of the FNM should be a point that Chairman Rigby would want to avoid discussing. You see Chairman Rigby failed to acknowledge that his own election as Chairman of the PLP was riddled with controversy. From the convention floor on election night, Chairman Rigby’s opponent described the election process that elected Chairman Rigby as “undemocratic.”
Someone should remind Chairman Rigby that he is the Chairman of the governing party. Consequently, the public expect him to set some kind of decent and dignified example when it comes to his public behavior. The fact that he has and often resorts to gutter politics is most disgraceful. Clearly, he has no respect for the leader of the FNM Honorable Tommy Turnquest either as an individual or a political opponent. Chairman Rigby’s only mission in life appears to be an acute obsession with assassinating the character of Senator Turnquest. His reference to Senator Turnquest’s statements demanding resignations of Cabinet Ministers made in December were described as “laughable, asinine, utterly” is an indecent outrage, and if he is any kind of man, he should apologise. Time will tell or confirm that Senator Turnquest was on to something as Prime Minister Perry Christie is now under tremendous public pressure to either reshuffle or fire members of his Cabinet.
Chairman Rigby doesn’t appear to understand that the Bahamian public is now demanding at least a minimal standard of accountability and transparency by those holding public office. Should the ruling party fail to meet those standards, the public will tolerate nothing less than Prime Minister Christie’s implementing his “Code of Ethics” as he promised to do so in so many occasions. As a voter and the Leader of the Opposition, it is the role and constitutional responsibility of Honorable Turnquest to point out to the general public what the PLP is doing wrong. It is, therefore, shear nonsense for Chairman Rigby to suggest that Senator Turnquest does not have the “moral authority to demand the resignation of anyone.” After attempting to distract the Bahamian public from the real issue by attacking the messenger, Senator Turnquest, Chairman Rigby continued to do what he is becoming very good at – completely misrepresenting the facts with outright distortions and ambiguities. He is trying to credit the PLP with the current state of development, even though virtually every project ongoing on in the Bahamas today was a product of the previous FNM administration. His reference to places such as West End, Grand Bahama as being turned into an “economic desert” under the FNM shows either Chairman Rigby is ignorant of the true facts or he is deliberately misleading the public. It was under the PLP in 1990 when the Jack Tar Hotel closed sending hundreds of Bahamians to the unemployment line. The PLP Member of Parliament, the Honorable Moses Hall applauded the closure as “the best thing that happened to West End,” even though the Jack Tar was the only major source of unemployment in that entire constituency.
Even worse, Chairman Rigby, it was your PLP government who stood by months later when stranded former Jack Tar workers were chased out of the staff workers by the police with their water, power, etc were turned off hours earlier. It was indeed the FNM that facilitated the opening of the Jack Tar under the Old Bahama Bay Project. Chairman Rigby, how many times has your PLP government promised to reopen the West End Airport? The abandonment and neglect of East End, Grand Bahama, is legendary as it was the FNM that provided roads, electricity, etc to this forgotten area. As for the gigantic, $ 2.5 billion project for West End, this is nothing short of a pipe dream or a pie in the sky. Until the PLP Convention most people in West End were not aware of it including members of Local Government. With the $300 m Emerald Bay project in Exuma, concerns are being voiced about the impact of overtaxing the infrastructure and government facilities. Any development including the one in Wesr End proposed can only come about after careful planning.
Furthermore, when one looks at another comparable project such as Atlantis on Paradise Island, over the past 10 years, Sol Kerzner has invested $ 1.1 billion with about six thousand employees. With Phase III, another $ 600 million dollars will be spent, bringing the number the number of employees to about 8,000. Is the PLP saying that the project in West End will be grander than Paradise Island? How will this affect Freeport where things are so slow in the tourism industry? What about the imminent reopening of Cuba? It is wrong for the PLP to mislead the public.
Finally, Chairman Rigby claims that the FNM “allowed many Bahamians to live in abject poverty.” This reckless statement shows that he has no appreciation for the fact that when the FNM came to office, unemployment was at its highest in Bahamian history. However, the FNM were able to reduce the unemployment rate from 15 % to less than 8 %. Also, Chairman Rigby must be familiar with the minimum wage and shorter work week -something that the PLP wanted to eliminate – has assisted many Bahamians whose labour or lack there off was exploited.
Yes, Chairman Rigby should listen to the Reverend Neil Ellis who recently indicated that he too was sick and tired of the PLP just talking and demanded that after almost two years in office, they should now start to do something. Hopefully, talking fool is never criminalized in the Bahamas, otherwise Chairman Rigby is at risk of being put away for a long, long time.
Dr. Leatendore D. Percentie
Freeport, Bahamas
January 10th, 2004
