In their first interview since a fight at the Cabinet Office sent tongues wagging throughout the country, two disgraced PLP MPs involved in the confrontation declared that they have “buried the hatchet” and postured to the public that they are great political allies and friends.
But Kennedy MP Kenyatta Gibson and Mount Moriah MP Keod Smith refused to go into the details of the fight, and in fact denied that they had a physical confrontation last Monday.
The two instead apologized for being involved in an “event” in the room where Cabinet meets in downtown Nassau.
The two men sat nearly side by side at the interview table on the Love 97 programme “Jones and Company” which aired on Sunday, clinging to their assertions that the matter had been completely exaggerated by the media.
“Keod Smith is a friend of mine; heﾒs a colleague,” Mr. Gibson said. “Weﾒre contemporaries at the bar. We have spirited opinions. We have spirited conversations. Thereﾒre no ifs, ands and buts about it. Keod Smith is my friend.”
Mr. Smith quickly concurred.
“Certainly, Kenyatta is not just a friend of mine, but politically, I consider him to be one of the strongest allies that I have on a personal level and as we go through the rigors of parliamentary discourse and debate heﾒs someone from whom I feed off on a regular basis and vice versa,” Mr. Smith said.
“And so the friendship goes beyond just simply knowing one another. A lot of what would come out of my mouth in parliament is as a result of his input, and so the connection is intricate. We are as united as weﾒve ever been and will be even stronger. There are those who would try to drive a wedge between that friendship because of what people believe or think or saw or heard as the case may be, but that will never be shaken.”
Mr. Gibson and Mr. Smith also declared that the incident “in and of itself” would have no bearing on their bids to hold on to their constituency seats or the ultimate outcome of the next general election.
Pressed by the showﾒs host, Wendall Jones, both men still declined to reveal explicit details of the confrontation in which they were involved.
Mr. Jones asked the men whether it was true that the table in the Cabinet Office was broken during the so-called event.
“Iﾒm not aware of any table being broken,” Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Jones then asked, “Now, if it is proven that the table was broken, what would you say?”
Mr. Gibson jumped in and responded before Mr. Smith, saying, “He has said heﾒs not aware of any table being broken.”
Mr. Smith then insisted that he was not aware of anything in the room being broken.
But he said, “If it is that something has been broken and especially if it was done by the two of us ﾖ I have not been told that by anyone ﾖ If Iﾒm responsible, I take responsibility. And whatever the consequencesﾅIf the consequence is I have to pay for it, I have to pay for it, if I caused it to be broken, anything along those lines.”
One source told The Bahama Journal that the two men were at a parliamentary meeting on Monday night and became involved in a heated exchange that related to one of the menﾒs representation of a client in a property litigation against the other.
The confrontation eventually escalated into a fight, which caused several other parliamentarians to either scramble in fear or attempt to separate the two, another source told the Journal.
However Financial Services and Investments Minister Vincent Peet, the government leader in the House of Assembly who chaired the meeting that night, would only call the events that transpired a “spirited disagreement.”
When asked by Mr. Jones if he had slapped Mr. Smith, Mr. Gibson retorted, “No sir! No sir! No sir! No sir! Not Kenyatta Gibson.”
Mr. Jones then said, “We have to speak truth on this programme, you know gentlemen.”
To that, Mr. Gibson responded again, “Not Kenyatta Gibson.”
Mr. Smith quickly added, “Mr. Gibson has made it very plain and very clear what he didnﾒt do and even in the court of law once you offer an answer, the answer is the answer.”
The Mount Moriah MP insisted that reports on the “event” had been sensationalized.
“At this point what ought to come out of this is something positive,” Mr. Smith said. “And so, out of what has been reported, what I believe what really ought to be dealt with is how do we [use] this occasion [to advise] ourselves and others on conflict resolution.”
When pressed further, the men still refused to provide an explanation in any detail on how the incident happened.
“Discussions were overheated. The passion that both he and I have about whatever it is we stand by would have gotten to a point that it went beyond where it needed to go. Those things took place in a very private setting; not a public setting and as far as both he and I are concerned, not unlike any family member, those matters are finished,” Mr. Smith said.
“In the end, once the parties involved have made a determination that they have moved on, the matter is really complete unless there is an offense committed that public entities need to delve more deeply into, but as far as we are concerned all of the details of what may have happened or not happened add to the sensationalization of an issue which needs no longer any discussion.”
Mr. Gibson chimed in that the whole matter had been “overstated.”
When probed about whether he is prone to violent outbursts, Mr. Gibson declared, “Anyone who says that is telling an unmitigated untruth!”
Mr. Gibson also sought to defend his colleague when the showﾒs host asked Mr. Smith to respond to the characterization that he is a no-nonsense angry politician. The Kennedy MP classified his parliamentary colleague simply as a passionate man.
In his own defense, Mr. Smith responded, “It saddens me and hurts my heart. I donﾒt have time to cause people to want to see me in the light that I want them to see me in. History determines how people ought to be truly characterized.”
The two said they have disagreements all the time, but they said thatﾒs not unusual for allies.
“I have a beautiful wife; I love her,” Mr. Smith said, “but we donﾒt always agree on every point.”
Mr. Gibson added, “The nature of politics, especially party politics in The Bahamas, is itﾒs about disagreements, debates and discourse. You agree to disagree sometimes and sometimes you donﾒt agree to disagree. It just happens; itﾒs the ordinary course of things.”
Mr. Jones then asked whether it would be true to say that last Monday in the Cabinet Office a disagreement “really got out of hand.”
Mr. Gibson pointed to a statement he released on Friday where he said the events were particularly unacceptable and undignified.
While on the show, he described the incident, saying, “It was a heated, spirited and I would even call it a confrontation, but a fistfight? Bruises? No, Wendall, none of that,” the Kennedy MP said with a chuckle.
Mr. Jones told the men that witnesses to the incident speak of blows, but the MPs refused to characterize their confrontation as a fight.
“Who people were around, who speak of blows? I donﾒt think so,” Mr. Smith said. “I am fairly sure that that is not the case. I believe that unfortunately whatever would have taken place has gotten to the imagination of a lot of people and it has gone beyond where it ought to have gone.”
He said he was “pretty sure” that the prime minister would speak to the matter in due course. Prime Minister Perry Christie did speak to the matter last Wednesday, telling The Bahama Journal the event was “more apparent than real” and suggesting that reports had been exaggerated.
Mr. Smith said he believes there are many more urgent and important issues that ought to be addressed at this time. He said that to say that the spotlight was unnecessarily being placed on him and his colleague.
“Mr. Gibson has already issued a statement. For me, I want to be sure that people, especially those who support me, who felt the need to have to go out there to defend my character or my integrity from what they would have heard, I do apologize that they had to go through that before I came to the public,” Mr. Smith said.
“But certainly, it is something that is unfortunate. [Itﾒs unfortunate] that it got to this point, but coming out of this whole affair are a number of issues which are worthy of discussion at this time, by both Mr. Gibson and myself.”
But he did not expand on that point,
In his statement on Friday, Mr. Gibson said he was “deeply saddened” that human frailty led to behaviour he deeply regrets. Mr. Jones asked him to be more specific about what he meant.
Mr. Gibson said, “What you would have called the altercation and the events that took place. I described those events and I said what they did not amount to earlier.”
Mr. Smith said he does not fault members of the public for coming to the conclusions that they came to based on what was being reported, but he suggested that much of what was reported was not based on facts.
“What was being reported, as I told you, it really hurt people that were close to me,” he said, “because they had to defend that, but sometimes you have to let things take their natural course.
“Who would have been pushing it and prodding it is not important. What is more important is all that what has been discussed and talked about, I believe and I hope the history and the future would determine that Kenyatta and myself, our relationship is as strong as it ever was and if God wills it, it will never dwindle.”
The Bahama Journal
