Brave Davis asks: “Where is Brent Symonette?“

Nassau, Bahamas – The following are remarks by Perry Christie, Leader, Progressive Liberal Party at the South Beach Candidate Launch held on Friday, March 9, 2012:

GOOD EVENING SOUTH BEACH – CAN YOU HEAR ME?
SOUTH BEACH — I HEAR YOU ARE GOING GOLD THIS TIME!

SOUTH BEACH — I UNDERSTAND YOU’RE LOOKING FOR SOMEONE WHO BELIEVES IN BAHAMIANS!

SOUTH BEACH – YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE HERE IN HAMILTON?  SHE’LL CARE FOR YOU LIKE A NURSE BUT SHE’LL FIGHT FOR YOU LIKE A LION!

Cleola Hamilton has it all – she is smart and she is tough and she is compassionate.
You know, my mother was a nurse.  Nurses are often the unsung heroes – the ones who combine the science of medicine with the love and caring that really helps patients heal.

As a nurse and an advocate for nurses and for Bahamian workers, Cleola Hamilton is fierce and relentless.

They tell me Hubert Ingraham is afraid of her.  I’m not speaking about her opponent down here now – I said Ingraham is afraid of her.  She is relentless on behalf of those she represents, a warrior with the truth on her side, she won’t back down and she won’t back away!

Isn’t that the kind of representation you need in the House of Assembly, South Beach?

You all look so wonderful tonight – you look like Bahamians who deserve a fighter on your side!

And it’s a good thing she’s used to working with doctors – we have six doctors on our team this year – with six doctors and a nurse we’re going to heal this country!
He joined us in voting for National Health Insurance in Parliament when I led the nation then abandoned it and now Bahamians are still holding cookouts to pay for medical procedures.  Now, just before election, he wants you to believe that he will implement it.

Of course, there’s no problem in The Bahamas that Ingraham won’t blame on the PLP.  He’s been Prime Minister for 15 out of the last 20 years but all the bad stuff’s someone else’s fault.  Does that sound like leadership to you, South Beach?
He won’t admit his terrible failure on crime.  He won’t admit selling a majority share of BTC to foreigners for a fire sale price was a crime in and of itself.  He won’t admit the roadworks in New Providence are the worst-mismanaged infrastructure project in the history of The Bahamas.

The FNM slogan is “We Deliver”.  Can you imagine that, South Beach?  How out of touch do you have to be, to be surrounded by piles of rubble and closed roads and closed businesses, and still come up with a slogan like that?

The worst cost overruns in the history of The Bahamas!

I’ll tell you what they’ve delivered:

Terrible incompetence!
Endless delays!
Missing accounts!
Shady backroom deals!
And no end in sight!

They hired a foreign contractor instead of dividing up the work for Bahamian contractors….Bahamians on the sidelines when we needed jobs the most!
They sent their Attorney General to court to fight small business owners who wanted to be compensated for the harm this government caused them!

They deliver?  They deliver pain and misery, that’s what they deliver.

Hundreds of jobs lost — they turned a project which was supposed to be a stimulus for the Bahamian economy into a jobs killer!

They have delivered for foreign contractors and for special interests, but they have not delivered for Bahamians.

$93 million over budget!

Hubert Ingraham strolls into Parliament and asks for tens of millions more like he’s asking for more peas and rice, like it’s no big deal whatsoever.

As if adding nearly one hundred million dollars to the national debt is no big thing.  As if having been caught violating the specific terms of international agreements is no big thing.  Do you know how much work we’re going to have to do to clean up after him, South Beach?

Almost a hundred million dollars overbudget.  Do you know how urgently that kind of money is needed to address other needs in our nation?  We need a major new investment in education and training, not just the crumbs they’re throwing your way now it’s election time.

But when it comes to you, my friends, the cupboard is bare.

Don’t ask him to support real intervention for at-risk youth to prevent crime – oh no, he doesn’t have time or money for that, or any interest, either.

You know, South Beach, Hubert Ingraham should be asking you for forgiveness, not for votes.

He cancelled anti-crime initiatives like Urban Renewal and Witness Protection because they were PLP programmes.  He made the recession worse by raising your taxes.  He made the recession worse by failing to put Bahamians first.  He hasn’t invested in you and he doesn’t believe in you.

And their campaign – it’s disgusting.  It’s a scorched earth campaign – with one lie after another churned out to avoid dealing with the real issues.

A murder record which has doubled, a decimated middle class, one in three young Bahamians out of work, our borders not secure, too many Bahamians without the skills or training they need to compete in the 21st century.

That’s what this campaign should be about – about the future, about how we build a safe and prosperous Bahamian nation.

Instead, it’s one baseless attack after another from them.  Weapons of mass distraction, I call them.  You can picture it, can’t you?  They’re sitting in some backroom with their lie machine fired up and ready – where do we aim it now, sir?  One joker after another coming up with one distraction after another.  They’re failing on the big issues so they want to have a campaign about their little lies.

The FNM may be rich in special interest money, but they have a poverty of ideas.
SOUTH BEACH, HAVEN’T YOU HAD ENOUGH OF THIS WRECKING CREW?
ARE YOU READY FOR CHANGE?

ARE YOU READY FOR A NEW GENERATION OF PLP LEADERS?

Ready to bring back Urban Renewal?  Ready for all the innovative new ideas in the PLP’s Project Safe Bahamas?
Ready for the PLP’s plan to create Career Path Academies?
Ready for a government which will believe in you and invest in you?
Ready to make sure Bahamians have access to the best technology, the best education and the best training?
You should be ashamed of yourself Hubert Ingraham.

Imagine bragging about how much unemployment benefit you’re paying to Bahamians, when your policies and your actions helped to put them out of work. Your bad decisions made the recession so much worse.

Imagine bragging about how many lights you put back on when your government told BEC to turn them off, in the first place!

DO YOU BELIEVE IN BAHAMIANS, SOUTH BEACH?
WELL IF YOU DO LET ME HEAR YOU MAKE SOME NOISE FOR NURSE CLEOLA HAMILTON!
I CAN’T HEAR YOU SOUTH BEACH … PLP! PLP! PLP!

_________

The following are remarks by Philip Brave Davis, Deputy Leader of the Progressive Liberal Party at the South Beach Candidate Launch held on Friday, March 9, 2012:

Good Evening South Beach!

Good Evening Bahamas!

Team South!  Are you ready?

South Beach we chose right for you!

Cleola Hamilton is a winner!

I can see it now – she’s going to be standing on the floor of the House of Assembly fighting for Bahamians with everything she’s got!

Fighting for you because she believes in you!

Fighting to invest in your future!

Fighting for Project Safe Bahamas and fighting to create jobs – jobs for BAHAMIANS, South Beach!

As for Phenton “NO MORE” Neymour —

A country songwriter sang sometime back – “You picked a fine time to leave me…”

One in three young Bahamians out of work!

Murders have doubled!

Families losing their homes!

Phenton “No More” Neymour sure picked a fine time to leave South Beach.

Yes, he gave you free light bulbs and spent millions to buy it – but, Phenton, current off!

You picked a fine time to leave South Beach while taxes on gas and food are as high as they have ever been.

You sure picked a fine time to leave!

South Beach, we in the PLP are committed to you!

We know the FNMs have no commitment to anything.

Papa Clown’s junior puppets have no commitment to anyone but him.

You saw what Loretta did to her own brother.

She went on the stage in Bamboo Town to tell the people to vote against him.

Her own brother!

That’s how scary the cult is over there!  She put her dictator first, over family!

He such a dictator he trying to intimidate the Church and the Bishop!

He such a dictator he’s victimizing Family Islanders and government workers who don’t support him, who don’t bow down to him.

On the one hand, he’s insulting some of our most distinguished Bahamians as “geriatrics”, and on the other, he’s turning thousands of young people away from the job training they need.

Papa Clown believes in himself, Bahamians.

He believes in his own power, but he does not believe in you.

And have you noticed, South Beach, that, like your current MP, you cannot find Brent “Hot Mix” Symonette anywhere on the FNM platform these days?

Tomorrow around 3PM we have an opening in St. Annes constituency and I will ask, “Where is Brent “Hot Mix” Symonette?”

Wednesday in the House he was nowhere to be found.

In fact, Tommy Turnquest acted for him, tabling some items on the floor of the House relating to his ministry.

Where is Mr. Hot Mix?

And how many millions richer has he become while serving as your Deputy Prime Minister?

Maybe he’s sitting around counting all that money he made off the roadworks – the New Providence Road Improvement Project – which has now been revealed as a travesty and a fiasco.

The Endless Road….

Look what they put the people of New Providence through, particularly you here in South Beach!

– they should hang their heads in shame

– and asking for forgiveness not votes!

The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament did an extensive investigation

– And after interviewing numerous government witnesses, including the government’s own Auditor General,

– And reviewing more than a thousand pages of documents,

– Massive incompetence, missing accounts and a tangled web of shady dealings have been uncovered.

And we all know who is at the heart of this!

Because after tabling, it was – Bush Crack and man was gone!

Hot Mix gone!

The worse things went on with the roadworks for the Bahamian people and their businesses, the better things went on for Brent Symonette and his cozy friend the foreign contractor.

You see what we have here, don’t you?

We have abuse of power!

We have a cancer of corruption!

A whole stadium full of cookie jars couldn’t hold all the millions they made off their own incompetence!

Clean hands?

The cookie crumbs are still there on their hands.

The whole project STINKS!

Don’t you think it stinks that the foreign contractor that got the contract to dig up our roads consulted Bahamas Hot Mix before bidding on the contract?

It was the only company they consulted!

Don’t you think it stinks that the foreign contractor turned around and handed nearly 80% of the contracts to Bahamas Hot Mix?

They take care of their own, they sure do!

Clean Hands?

But this is not a game, South Beach.

When small businesses close down, that is not a game.  Jobs are lost, dreams crushed, and there terrible pain everywhere – that is not a game!

When nearly 100 million dollars is added to the national debt because of incompetence and inside dealing – that is not a game.

South Beach – you know what the FNM said when the PLP said the nation needed a major new investment in education and training? They said “we can’t afford it.”

Isn’t that something?

They have absolutely no idea how to create jobs or expand the economy in the 21st century – you do it by having the best-educated citizens.

If you believe in Bahamians, you give them the skills they need to compete, the skills they need to become owners and innovators.

The FNM is running Work Permit Nation – Not empowering Bahamians or putting them first!

Bahamians, the FNM doesn’t know anything about investing in people.

They know how to screw up an infrastructure project and benefit from it, but they don’t know much about believing in people.

Bahamians – isn’t it time for a government which believes in you?

South Beach – we believe in you so much we gave you the nation’s top nurse – and when you elect Cleola Hamilton – she will bring her healing powers to the halls of Parliament!

Bahamians –

School soon out and the Bell soon ring!

PLP!

It is time to register Bahamas!

It is time to get rid of this corrupt, tax and spend, foreign loving Government!

South Beach!

Elect the caring woman who will nurse you back to health!

Come with us as we move to restore peace back into our communities again!

Come with us as we point young Bahamians to an era of prosperity and growth!

Come with us as we build our nation and restore opportunity to thousands of our men and women.

Come with us and send to Parliament a leader among the nurses – Cleola Hamilton!

Believe in the Bahamas.

…As we in the PLP Believe in you!

PLP…PLP…PLP

Thank You South Beach!

Good Night and God Bless!

—END—__________

Address By Bradley B Roberts

National Chair Progressive Liberal Party

March 9th 2012

At Launch PLP South Beach HQ

South Beach the countdown is on and it aint long now before voters will go to the polls to reject Hubert Ingraham and the FNM.

The Leadership of our Party was in Long Island last Wednesday evening and even Long Island says they cannot wait for the bell to be rung. They told me that Papa Clown was also in Long Island and failed to mention the word JOB not one single time during his address. The FNM has bitterly failed the Bahamian People in creating JOBS.

It aint long now before the next PLP government will begin the process of rebuilding the Bahamas, energizing the economy and creating badly needed good paying jobs.

While the FNM talks boastfully about welfare, the PLP is committed to workfare.

For the past almost five years thousands of Bahamians have lost jobs thanks to the bad FNM policies and governance.

While the PLP created 22,000 jobs during its last term, the FNM has lost almost 30,000 jobs over the last five years and has no job plan in sight.

Hubert Ingraham and the FNM gang have offensively mismanaged the New Providence Road Works. The contract was for $113 million, now Papa Clown hopes the final cost will be $206 Million, some $93 million more than the original contract price – the single largest cost overrun on any project in Bahamian history. What is amazing is that Papa Clown is unable to tell us when these works will be completed.

I strongly invite Bahamians to wake up and consider carefully what Hubert Ingraham has done to poor and struggling Bahamians including businesses with their eyes wide open.

My Brothers and Sisters, imagine the tremendous benefits to our challenged young and not so young people if some of that $93 million were invested in advancing and enhancing the welfare and well-being of Bahamians, but instead have gone to making a handful of persons including a Cabinet Minister and his family much richer.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I invite you to consider the number of persons murdered in the past four years that could be alive today if the FNM Government had invested in Bahamians where there was a compelling demand.

Ladies and Gentlemen, murders have more than doubled under the FNM and it must be clear to even the blind that they have no plan to deal with crime. Last night Tommy Turnquest said only the FNM can do the job. God help us all if that was true.

South Beach, you embraced Phenton “black out” Neymour in May 2007 and rejected the then PLP Candidate Wallace Rolle.

The record is clear South Beach; you have been stuck with a do nothing, posturing and trifling MP who is not only a stranger to the truth, but is a serial failure and a terrible Member of Parliament.

Phenton Neymour and Earl Deveaux ran BEC into the ground resulting in increased BEC rates compared to the PLP’s record of reducing rates. There have been major blackouts under Neymour’s watch and it continues to-date. With a $125 million brand new power plant in Abaco, the FNM gang cannot provide uninterrupted power there.

Hubert Ingraham got the message loud and clear that South Beach would soundly reject Neymour and responded by imposing the serial failure Neymour on the people of Exuma and the Ragged Island.

Return Hubert Ingraham’s favour and reject his hand-picked candidate and ex-employee.

The PLP and its South Beach Branch have been very careful in selecting the Lady whom I am here to fully endorse and support. Nurse Cleola Hamilton served with great distinction as a nurse and President of the Nurses Union.

Nurses are special breeds who care for the sick and injured, they work to restore health and alleviate suffering. Nurses also work to promote public health and prevent illnesses in all communities.

Cleola Hamilton is a committed trade unionist and her record as a strong fighter for the interest and welfare of her members are legendary. Ask Hubert Ingraham and Hubert Minnis whom she fought toe to toe until nurses were given medical insurance coverage.

South Beach, I strongly invite you to cast your vote for Cleola Hamilton who will put your interest as Bahamians first.

As a family woman, she understands the concerns and needs of working families. She will work on your behalf to create safe and healthy neighbourhoods and increased job opportunities.

She will work to increase your access to public transportation and access to funding for your community development projects.

As I always do when I address supporters around the country, please offer your time and talents to the Hamilton campaign. We need every hand on deck to retire Hubert Ingraham.

For those who have not done so, please register to vote and take a friend with you because the time is very, very short and every vote counts.

On Election Day, VOTE FOR CLEOLA HAMILTON, VOTE PLP

Good night and God bless.