Leader of the Free National Movement Hubert Ingraham has promised to redeposit all monies he has received for serving as an MP for North Abaco back into the Public Treasury, as soon as he is able to.
The former prime minister said that despite the Progressive Liberal Party’s “best efforts” to pay him by depositing money into his account this summer while he was on vacation, he vowed not to retain or benefit from one dollar he had received for serving as an MP.
“And as soon as they are gone and I’m able to redeposit your monies back into your account I shall do so. I don’t ‘double dip’,” he told thousands of FNM supporters who attended Tuesday’s mass rally held at R M Bailey Park.
Mr. Ingraham was responding to claims made by Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell who accused the former prime minister of double dipping and said last week that the FNM leader could make as much as $196,000 a year, if he collected his Prime Minister’s pension and his MP and official leadership of the opposition salaries, among other benefits.
Mr. Ingraham said last night that the only politicians whose salaries were increased on the FNM’s watch were parliamentary secretaries and the leader of the opposition, whose salaries were thought to be too low.
Tuesday night’s rally was the first of four planned mass rallies to be held before the end of the year. The remaining rallies are scheduled for next month in Grand Bahama, Abaco and Exuma.
In his rally speech, Mr. Ingraham outlined the FNM’s achievements while in office from 1992 to 2002, and said that much of what the PLP had achieved in three-and-a-half years had been left in place by the previous administration.
He also accused the government of keeping the public in the “dark.”
Mr. Ingraham used as one example the Izmirilian Group’s billion-dollar Baha Mar project, which he said the government brags about bringing to Cable Beach.
He said that along with not telling Bahamians how the PLP shelved the first Izmirilian applications for permanent residency, which were approved by the FNM government, “now they won’t tell you exactly what Baha Mar proposed to do in Cable Beach and just exactly what the promised development will mean for the continued free access of Bahamians to Goodman’s Bay as we know it today, nor its impact on this island’s scarce water reserves in the Cable Beach well fields.”
“And they haven’t told you what they have agreed to give Baha Mar in terms of government Crown Land, and in right-a-ways, the Cable Beach median and in financial concessions and incentives,” said Mr. Ingraham, who added that he proposed to meet with the Izmirilian Group in the very near future and report to the people.
He also accused the PLP of being two faced when it came to foreign investment.
Mr. Ingraham said there was a time when the Progressive Liberal Party opposed every major foreign investment project that came to The Bahamas on the FNM’s watch.
“Now that they are the government, all we can hear coming out of their mouth is the foreigner this and the foreigner that,” said Mr. Ingraham. “To them today, the foreigner is the best thing since sliced bread.”
Responding to the cabinet ministers who referred to the FNM’s deputy leader Brent Symonette as a “back door” route to return the country to the UBP, Mr. Ingraham said: “How do they propose to bolster investor confidence when they spit racial vitriol from the podium of their party’s convention? Their racist propaganda can do us harm, great harm. Do they think that international persons do not follow local newspapers and view local television? Think again!”
Also speaking at last night’s rally was former FNM leader Tommy Turnquest, who said that following the leadership battle, his strength had been renewed, and even though his role in the party had changed, his love and care and concern for the party had remained the same.
Former national chairman of the FNM, Carl Bethel also addressed the rally along with Dion Foulkes, who opposed Mr. Ingraham and Mr. Turnquest for the party’s leadership two weeks ago.
FNM deputy leader Brent Symonette introduced Mr. Ingraham to the podium and urged all Bahamians to register to vote.
By: Erica Wells, The Bahama Journal
