Opposition leader Hubert Ingraham accused government of transforming yesterday’s renaming ceremony of Nassau International Airport into a partisan event, instead of a national one.
The ceremony was held Thursday morning to rename Nassau International Airport the Lynden Pindling International Airport in honour of the first Bahamian prime minister. However, Mr Ingraham sees the ceremony as a PLP affair.
“They had a PLP function today (Thursday) at the expense of the Bahamian public,” he said. “A national event put on by the governrnent of the Bahamas is a national event for all the people of the Bahamas, it is not a PLP event and it should be dealt with as a national event.”
Mr Ingraham did not attend yesterday’s renaming ceremony as he only received an invitation to the event on Wednesday afternoon. He pointed out that he thinks the lateness of the invitation was partly the result of incompetence on the part of government. However, he added, he does not know the extent to which it was deliberate.
This is not the first time, Mr Ingraham said, that he was informed about an event at such a late date. In February, said Mr Ingraham, Prime Minister Perry Christie called him only a day before the swearing in ceremonies for Mr Arthur Hanna as the new governor general to invite him to attend.
“Similar treatment was afforded to me and my colleagues when Dame Ivy Dumont demitted office and the ceremony they had for her. It was also the case with George Mackey’s funeral arrangements,” he said.
He added that these incidents are not an exhaustive list, but just examples of what happens.
With this most recent delayed invitation, Mr Ingraham said: “It is a curious reality that none of the other FNM members of parliament, nor Mr Whitney Bastian (an Independent) had received their (invitations) either. I confirmed with Brent Symonette this morning (Thursday) that be still had not received his own.
“I have no reason to believe that my MP’s in Abaco, Long Island and Grand Bahama and North Eleuthera received any since yesterday (Wednesday) morning.”
Yesterday The Tribune contacted Mr Symonette, the FNM’s deputy leader, who said that up until the House of Assembly Wednesday he had not received his invitation. However, Mr Symonette said that in the House of Assembly he was delivered a handwritten envelope which had his name on it and five ļ¾ invitations which the aviation minister advised were for FNM constituents. At that time they were also given invitations for independence based celebrations.
Mr Symonette said that an employee of his received a personally addressed envelope with an invitation to attend the ceremony in her capacity as director of the Bahamas Real Estate Association. The invitation was received several days before the ceremony.
Mr Ingraham said persons should be invited without regard to their political affiliition in the community.
He said invitations to all national events should go especially to persons who hold certain offices, such as MPs and the leader of the opposition And they should be invited in a timely manner, not the day before the event and not after they would have complained about not, being invited. A complaint was made in the House of Assembly on Wednesday morning that no member of the Opposition had received an invitation to the ceremony. Mr Whitney Bastian, Independent member for South Andros, also complained that he had not received an invitation although members of his constituency had.
Mr Ingraham also touched on the issue of consultation with the renaming of the airport He said he was not aware of any consultation that had taken place in the Bahamas about changing the name of Nassau International Airport.
Mr Ingraham said it was announced by Mr Christie at the PLP’s convention, however, they did not choose to have a debate in parliament for a resolution.
At the same time, Mr Ingraham said that as the ruling party, the government does have the right to name public facilities.
He stressed: “It is important when you are doing these major changes to develop a broad consensus in the society about it and to get general agreements on it. It is always better to have consensus over these things between the major political entities before you do it, so you take the politics out of it. The reality is the PLP’s election campaign is in full swing and the airport naming is a part of their election campaign.”
The Tribune
