Accusing the governing Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) of political victimisation, former leader of the Official Opposition Alvin Smith said he intends to use much of his energy in 2006 to combat such alleged abuses.
According to Mr. Smith, who is also the MP for North Eleuthera, victimisation of Free National Movement (FNM) supporters occurs all too often.
“There’s much evidence – a lot of allegations, but also a lot of facts – about this government just representing selected groups in this country,” Mr. Smith said.
“We in the FNM had assumed that we had done away with that, but we are seeing now where the government has brought back that type of politics that was practised pre-1992. Even when hiring people now it would seem as though they are just hand-picking persons for any kind of job.”
Mr. Smith claimed that in one case an individual who possessed six BGCSE certificates applied for a position as a security officer with a government department, but was not hired, allegedly because of his political affiliation.
In another case, he said, an applicant with an associate’s degree was denied employment at the Bahamas Telecommunications Company while another applicant who possessed only three or four BGCSE certificates was hired.
Looking to the year ahead, Mr. Smith said his party would make a more focused and sustained effort in its campaign against the Progressive Liberal Party administration.
“You can expect the FNM to intensify its efforts this year,” he said.
“We’re going to turn the heat up; we’re going to bring some matters to the fore as it relates to the government’s performance or I should say lack of performance because they really have not been performing. We are also going to be putting our plan forward so that the Bahamian people will have a clear choice and the choice will indeed be clear between the FNM and the PLP.”
Following its national convention in November, the FNM took the initial steps in that effort by embarking upon an aggressive series of rallies on New Providence, Grand Bahama and Abaco.
Party officials including former prime minister and leader Hubert Ingraham, deputy leader Brent Symonette, Mr. Smith, and senators Tommy Turnquest and Carl Bethel used those platforms to take the PLP administration to task on a number of issues including the struggling economy on Grand Bahama and the illegal immigration problem on Abaco.
Mr. Smith, meanwhile, challenged the current administration to “get off its seat and start to work.”
“I would hope that the government would attempt to govern our country with a higher level of fairness, more responsibly and with more maturity,” he said.
“I would just want them to govern in the best interest of all Bahamians, but we’re not getting that from this government.”
By: Darrin Culmer, The Bahama Journal
