Opposition Free National Movement leader Hubert Ingraham on Monday defended himself against the sharp criticisms about his political record and integrity leveled by Works and Utilities Minister Bradley Roberts recently.
Mr. Ingraham said he felt it a public duty to respond to Mr. Robertsﾒ assertion that his return as prime minister would be “earth shattering and destructive.”
The two have traded barbed retorts over the last few months, especially since Mr. Ingraham, the Member of Parliament for North Abaco, changed his mind and decided to run for the leadership of the FNM once again, which he ultimately won last year.
In a statement he released, the former prime minister declared that he was privileged to preside over the public affairs of the nation during the most prosperous and progressive period in the modern history of The Bahamas.
He said it was a period during which Mr. Roberts stood on the Opposition sidelines and attempted at every step to criticize and discredit the good that the government was accomplishing.
“We made immense progress in areas in which the present PLP Government has failed miserably and where especially the Ministry of Works has been ineffective. Now Mr. Roberts seeks to rewrite history and take credit for the hard work and initiative of those who preceded him,” Mr. Ingraham said.
He also sought to criticize Mr. Robertsﾒ record referring to what he called the irresponsibly delayed New Providence road works, the delay in the installation of the reverse osmosis plants in the Family Islands, administrative difficulties at the Water and Sewerage Corporation and the poor management of the privatization of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company.
“All that has been on the watch of this arrogant and pompous Minister of Works Bradley Roberts who now has the gall to criticize the leadership choice of the political organization which rescued this country from the degradation and destruction and corruption of the political entity of which he is now a prominent fixture,” Mr. Ingraham said.
Mr. Roberts has continually referred to what he terms Mr. Ingrahamﾒs broken promise to retire as prime minister after serving two terms.
He also released a statement of his own last week in which he sought to respond to an editorial in one of the local dailies which commented on Mr. Robertsﾒ declaration that he would retire after two and a half years into the current five year term.
He stated: “If I were never an MP or Cabinet Minister again, it wouldnﾒt be earth shattering and destructive; however it would be earth shattering and destructive if Hubert Ingraham were to ever again hold the reigns of power in The Bahamas.”
While addressing a PLP branch meeting in the North Abaco constituency over the July 10 Independence holiday weekend, Mr. Roberts charged that Mr. Ingraham is “a manipulator, a master distorter and, in my opinion, the truth is no longer reposed in him.”
“He is a man who cannot be trusted, ask Tommy Turnquest, ask Algernon Allen, ask Tennyson Wells, ask Pierre Dupuch. Hubert stabbed them all with the largest political knife available,” he said at the time.
On that occasion he urged the residents not to re-elect Mr. Ingraham. The PLP, he said, intends to ratify its candidate for the North Abaco constituency before the end of the month.
But the apparent political acrimony between the two politicians spilled over into this week.
“There must have been very good reasons why the late Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling never invited this same Bradley Roberts to be a member of his Cabinet,” Mr. Ingraham said.
“It was a great pity that the present prime minister did not follow an equally wise course, but that is not the affair of the Free National Movement as we stride boldly and confidently once more to become a government of relief and reconstruction in The Bahamas.”
He also sought to give an assurance that crime will be among the first matters to receive focused attention under a re-elected Free National Movement government, declaring that the Royal Bahamas Police Force will be free from political interference.
The Bahama Journal
