Saturday evening, before a cheering crowd; Mr Ingraham wasted little time in attacking the Christie administration over several scandals that has rocked the Progressive Liberal Party since it took office in 2002.
“Some of their scandals,” said Mr Ingraham, “are unmentionable in polite, decent company. They have every kind and level of scandal touching them.”
Drawing laughter from the crowd, Mr Ingraham concluded that, compared to some of today’s PLP, “Sodom” and Gomorrah is a joke.”
Having made these comments, Mr Ingraham went on to list a number of political debacles for which the responsible government officials have yet to publicly address or clarify.
“They came in, and they started political firings at BAIC. They followed up with the Korean fishing boat scandal, and the scandals keep coming,” Mr Ingraham said. “They had their Junkanoo bleachers scandal. They wasted the tax payer’s money on their foolish efforts to turn the national festival into a money-making opportunity for a few friends and associates. Their efforts didn’t make money.”
He next turned his attention to the matter of the machine readable passports saying: “Hundreds of thousands of Bahamian dollars spent, still no date for the introduction of this new passport: That project was ready to roll out when we left office in May 2002. We need to know what’s the deal on that one.”
Not stopping there, Mr Ingraham noted that, in addition to the government’s failure to deliver a finding on the breakout which occurred at Her Majesty Prison in January, they also found themselves involved in an alleged visa scandal, which, according to the opposition leader, saw Haitians and Chinese immigrants pay “lots of money to come to the Bahamas.”
As the listening crowd reacted to Mr Ingraham’s list of PLP “scandals,” he next focused his attention on the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, revealing that organization had been without a duly appointed Commodore since mid-2002.
“There was no legally appointed Commodore of the Defence Force for nearly four years on this worthless government’s watch,” said Mr Ingraham. “The Commodore of the Defence Force got his commission from the Governor General, the Honourable A D Hanna. From June 2002, until Mr Hanna became Governor General, he had no commission to be the Commodore of the Defence Force, and he got it just in time before he went on his pre-retirement leave.
“How can you maintain discipline in a discipline force if you do not have the authority to be the Commodore. Who is in charge? Somebody had to be in charge,” continued Mr Ingraham. “Don’t blame Mother Pratt. Discharge the weapon at the feet of Perry Gladstone Christie. He is Prime Minister. Mother Pratt don’t appoint no Commodore. Prime Ministers do that.”
The question of “who is in charge” of the Progressive Liberal Party appeared to be a common theme in Mr Ingraham’s address, as he earlier attacked the Prime Minister over his noticeable silence on matters of national importance.
By MARK HUMES, The Tribune
