None of them would agree to be quoted, but a few Progressive Liberal Party officials who spoke with The Bahama Journal on Monday expressed concerns that there appears to be a growing number of people who are disillusioned with the Christie Administration.
This came a day after Prime Minister Perry Christie faced more criticism, this time from former deputy prime minister, Sir Clement Maynard, who said the government does not have a clear-cut philosophy and is waffling.
Sir Clement also said that the government must be sure to keep its campaign promises and must do a better job at reporting to the Bahamian people.
Free National Movement Leader Senator Tommy Turnquest said the former deputy prime minister merely confirmed what the FNM has been saying all along.
“Sir Clement is repeating what we’ve been saying for the past three years,” said Mr. Turnquest, who was contacted by The Bahama Journal for a comment.
“Its obvious that there was no plan in place when the PLP government took over. One would have expected that they would have hurriedly tried and put together a plan. Three and a half years later, they still have not done so and now we’re in the political season where we don’t expect much to happen in the remainder of the term of this outgoing government.
“And so, the sooner we get rid of them now the better. They obviously had no legislative agenda over the last three and a half years. There’s nothing that they can point to in terms of major legislation they’ve moved forward under their own steam. We’ve just been drifting with the present government.”
Mr. Turnquest also said he believes Sir Clement was being kind in using the world “waffling”.
Progressive Liberal Party Chairman Raynard Rigby was also asked to respond to Sir Clement’s statements.
“I listened to Sir Clement Maynard on Sunday afternoon on the ‘Jones and Company’ show. I thought his comments were balanced,” Mr. Rigby said.
“As a senior statesman of the party, he’s entitled to share his views with the Bahamian people. Obviously, I think it’s an opportunity for the party to critically review his comments.
“However, I believe though that when one looks at the record of the government that the government’s agenda for the past 36 months was primarily, and in my view rightly, focused on the rebirth of the Bahamian economy and I believe that the evidence is compelling when one looks at the developments that have been brought on stream that the government’s agenda in that respect has been achieved with some degree of success.”
Asked to respond to Sir Clement’s comment that the government has been doing a bad job in its public relations, Mr. Rigby said, “I believe and I’ve said this publicly before that one of the greatest challenges for the government is to improve its public relations machinery.
“I think ministers are doing a wonderful job satisfying the promises that have been made in our plan. The difficulty though has been that on a regular basis the Bahamian people have not been brought up to date. So there has been a void of information coming into the public domain.”
He also chose to respond directly to Mr. Turnquest’s comments.
“I’ve heard the comments of Tommy Turnquest which respect to those made by Sir Clement and I find it astonishing that Mr. Turnquest, who is facing a leadership crisis in his party would utter such nonsense when the objective facts clearly indicate otherwise,” Mr. Rigby said.
“It shows again that Mr. Turnquest lacks good judgment, that he’s not suited to lead and that he is not one who has the necessary characteristics to play a role in the further political life of this country.’
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
