Phenton Neymour, Chief Operations Officer of the CDR, said the government should apologise for its remarks regarding LNG, which he said was an insult to the Bahamian people.
He was referring specifically to remarks made by Leslie Miller who indicated that the government would go ahead with plans to approve LNG, after which it would inform Bahamian people why it made its decision. Mr Miller was quoted in Tuesday’s Guardian saying, “I think it is now best for us to have the meeting to approve the project so that we just lay out to the Bahamian people what we did. It makes no sense to have a meeting before we approve, because everything is ready. I don’t see the sense in having a town meeting.”
Describing those remarks as haughty, Mr Neymour said, “The government, by making this statement, is acting as though it is ‘All-Knowing, Lord, dictator, and ruler over all.'”
He said he felt Mr Miller’s remarks were “disrespectful and insensitive.”
Mr Neymour also asserted that as a member of the PLP, Mr Miller’s comments were a reflection on the entire government. “The appointed authority of the minister clearly makes him the spokesperson on behalf of the government.”
On these bases, he said his party called for the government to apologise “immediately.”
He also accused the government of reneging on its promise to be “consultative” with the Bahamian people. “It shows total disrespect for the fact that the Bahamian people are more than capable of giving enlightening insight into the LNG approval process,” Mr Neymour said.
His party felt such attitudes could prove detrimental to the government, and he was confident Bahamians who thought they were being fazed out of the decision-making process would soon lobby for “a change.”
By: Barry Williams, Nassau Guardian Staff Reporter
