Errol Bain, a Mount Moriah constituent, told The Bahama Journal on Thursday he teaches his two young sons about how to resolve conflicts.
Itﾒs why, he said, he was particularly outraged when he heard reports that his MP, Keod Smith, was involved in a fistfight with Kennedy MP Kenyatta Gibson at the Cabinet Office Monday night.
“I think it was out of order,” Mr. Bain said of the fight.
“I have two sons and I teach them team work and I teach them to work together and play together and no matter what the differences are to work them out. Now, we have this person whoﾒs going to walk through this neighbourhood ﾖ because itﾒs political season ﾖ and heﾒs going to sit in my house, my boys are going to look at this gentleman and if I agree with what heﾒs doing, my sons are going to say itﾒs okay.”
As he worked on his vehicle in Millennium Gardens, Mr. Bain had the radio blasting Love 97ﾒs “Issues of The Day”, where the vast majority of callers continued to express outrage over the altercation that reportedly took place after a parliamentary meeting Monday night.
Some callers demanded the men resign. Mr. Gibson is chairman of the Gaming Board, and Mr. Smith is chairman of the Bahamas Environment Science and Technology Commission.
Mr. Bain suggested that young people now have an “excuse” to engage in violent behaviour because of the example set by Mr. Smith and Mr. Gibson.
“I think something needs to happen,” Mr. Bain said. “One of the things that needs to happen is that they need to be given the opportunity to resign from whatever position they hold or be terminated from their positions. If that is the issue for me to vote on come the next general election, I would not vote for Mr. Smith.”
Ricardo Neeley said he also found reports of the fight “disturbing”. He said it was unfortunate that two grown men, who happen to be MPs, resorted to violence.
“If they had any differences as two grown men, they should have gone aside and discussed it,” said Mr. Neeley as he carried grocery into his home in Millennium Gardens Thursday.
“It gives a bad example to me because young people cannot see through our politicians ﾖ those who are supposed to be setting some example ﾖ that they practice what they preach,” Mr. Neeley said.
“I think that the right thing that both of them need to do now is make a public apology so that they can get things back to the right direction.”
Other neighbours who talked to The Bahama Journal agreed, with some of them saying that the MPs or the prime minister should provide a full explanation of what transpired.
Elton Pickstock, another resident of Mount Moriah, said MPs must always behave themselves.
“Thatﾒs unbecoming (the fight) for two MPs who represented this country,” said Mr. Pickstock, as he took a moment from his stroll through Yellow Elder Gardens where he lives.
He also agreed that the MPs sent “a very negative message” when they fought.
Asked what he would say to Mr. Smith if he came to his door on the campaign trail, Mr. Pickstock said, “I would tell him I donﾒt want to see him, plain and simple.”
In the Kennedy Subdivision, some constituents there had a similar message for Mr. Gibson.
“I would [ask] him plain and simple, how could you be so stupid? Just plain and simple, Kenyatta, how could you really be so stupid?” said Deon Johnson, who lives in Kennedy Subdivision.
“If we hear stuff like that going on, we wonder whatﾒs going on out there. How can he talk about him representing the people and come and tell us about how to live among each other? Thatﾒs an outrage, come on. Thatﾒs ridiculous. Itﾒs too shocking to see a man in a high place like that whoﾒs supposed to be representing us,” Mr. Johnson said.
Around the corner, Derek Cartwright, who said he was an ex-policeman, told The Bahama Journal that he had nothing against Mr. Gibson and would still vote for him, but he also expressed disappointment in his MPﾒs reported actions.
But he said the fight would be bad for the PLP.
“I think itﾒs going to cause the PLP to look bad because it seems like the leader is not a leader,” Mr. Cartwright said. “All of this is giving the FNM party more power.”
Sidney Moss, another Kennedy constituent, said he believes both MPs will be able to move on from the incident, but he said they owed the Bahamian people an explanation and an apology.
“The representative for Kennedy should conduct himself better,” Mr. Moss said. “I think they should sort themselves out so it doesnﾒt happen again.”
He said while he recognized that human beings do have tempers, grownups should know how to conduct themselves and control their tempers.
“I donﾒt know actually who started the fight, but if both of them are wrong, they should apologise to the Bahamian people because people are going to say, ﾑI never knew my MP was like thatﾒ,” Mr. Moss said.
He said he planned to communicate as much to Mr. Gibson if he sees him on the campaign trail.
“That was very much disorderly behaviour,” Mr. Moss said.
Another Kennedy constituent, Jarmaine Hanna, said it makes no sense to re-elect MPs who cannot control their tempers.
“Think about what you doing,” he said, indicating it was a message he wanted Mr. Gibson to hear.
“Think about the people who put you [in parliament] and whether they would agree with what youﾒre doing.”
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
