Nassau, Bahamas – Bradley B Roberts National Chairman Progressive Liberal Party Address to Golden Isles Branch Progressive Liberal Party August 25th:
Chairman Smith, it’s always a pleasure to address your very active Golden Isles branch. I wish to warmly congratulate your branch for the massive turn out in support of the candidacy of your MP and Champion Michael Halkitis on the occasion of his re-nomination and ratification at the Lynden Pindling Center.
I again salute Minister Halkitis on defeating Frank Watson and sending him into political retirement where he is now a constant thorn in the side of the challenged Leader of the Opposition, Dr. Hubert Minnis. I am very impressed with the home visiting program with your teams in Golden Isles.My sources tell me that the opposition forces are on the ground in the Golden Isles Constituency and it’s difficult to even notice the presence of the FNM candidate Kenyatta Gibson despite his height. The question is, will Kenyatta Gibson withdraw as the FNM’s Candidate in the face of lukewarm reception from the constituents coupled with the ongoing turmoil within the ranks of the FNM.
I trust that Mr. Halkitis will continue to execute his duties as the chairman of the Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development and the Investment Corporation to the benefit of all of CARICOM countries so that the regional developmental goals of the IDB and its corporation will be realized and the region is the better for it. I am confident that Mr. Halkitis will do well on behalf of The Bahamas.
Golden Isles, Monday was a very good day for The Bahamas. After much criticism, balking, stone throwing, name calling, cynicism and outright lies, the EXIM Bank and China Construction of America (CCA) reached an agreement for next month mobilization and completion of Baha Mar. The government of The Bahamas got what it wanted for the Bahamian people which are the settlement of outstanding payments owed to scores of unsecured Bahamian contractors and service providers in addition to the full severance package owed to the more than 2,000 separated workers.
I publicly thank Prime Minister Christie for his strong leadership on this matter, his focus, determination and tenacity in seeing this through to the end while addressing all of the other issues of governance facing our country. He is indeed the best person to lead our great party and this great country because of his extraordinary leadership skills, his temperance, his confidence and uncommon courage. He never wavers in the face of adversity, damnable lies and sleazy personal attacks.
Throughout this process, Dr. Hubert Minnis and the FNM have sought to use Baha Mar as some kind of referendum of sorts on Mr. Christie’s leadership and fitness to remain as Prime Minister after the 2017 general elections and by doing so, the FNM betted against the Bahamian people and lost; they lost badly.
Totally embarrassed with rotten smelly eggs all over their faces, Dr. Hubert Minnis, the FNM and their surrogates in their many incarnations now seek to change the subject to deflect from the masterful and competent leadership of Mr. Christie and the haplessness of Dr. Minnis, but not so fast Dr. Minni.
The record clearly shows that you Dr. Minnis together with your deputy and the member for Long Island, the bopsy triplets, all agreed that Baha Mar should have been allowed to go into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware and for The Bahamas Supreme Court to subjugate itself to a foreign legal jurisdiction, effectively giving up its independence. Further, you accused the Christie administration of “interfering” with Baha Mar’s bankruptcy proceedings.
Minnis did so knowing full well that a successful chapter 11 Bankruptcy would make null and void all of the contracts, agreements and financial commitments Baha Mar had with its employees, the government of the Bahamas and other private contractors and service providers and that they would end up with little or nothing at the end of the chapter 11 process. Local creditors would been faced with expensive legal costs to pursue justice in a foreign legal jurisdiction. That is the record of the FNM in handling this crisis.
The FNM did not care about Bahamian sovereignty, the Bahamian workers and the Bahamian contractors because they backed the chapter 11 process. They knew that the Bahamian workers and contractors would lose everything in chapter 11 but they simply did not care.
That is the real issue here golden isles! The PLP’s handling of this crisis versus the proposed handling of it by the FNM as a true test of fitness to govern!!
Now that the caring PLP has secured guaranteed payments to public corporations (yes Dr. Minnis including BEC BTC W&S CABLE BAH), severed employees and displaced contractors, the FNM is now pretending to care about the details by inserting a dishonest narrative about a secret government deal. Minnis, Turnquest and Butler Turner, The writers of Nasty Editorials needs to come clean and first apologize to Mr. Christie for the lies they told about him (with all that drunken talk about being delusional and selling empty promises, misleading the Bahamian people and lacking credibility).
Additionally, Minnis must apologize to the Bahamian people for failing to protect their economic interests and the sovereignty of this country. His proposed handling of the Baha Mar bankruptcy was a leadership test that he failed miserably and proved his unfitness to lead or govern. Minnis simply makes terrible decisions.
If Dr. Minnis gave a damn about the details of the deal, he would send his chief legal advisor, speech writer and the worse Attorney General and Education Minister this country has ever seen Senator Carl Bethel to petition the Supreme Court to have the documents immediately unsealed and to argue his reasons for having the same done.
Minnis’ sole intent is selfish – it is pure deflection and political bluster – and has absolutely nothing to do with the welfare of this country. On the one hand Minnis is defending the Supreme Court’s decision to keep emails private but on the other hand he is opposing the same Supreme Court’s decision to temporarily seal the details of the Baha Mar until its conclusion. Make no mistake about it, the contents of the Save the Bays emails and this Baha Mar deal have implications for the country, be it national security or its economic security so apples are being compared to apples in this case for sure.
In the middle of his flip flopping, Minnis is telling the Bahamian people that the government is keeping the deal a secret when he knows that the Receiver Manager for Baha Mar asked the Supreme Court to approve this routine procedural option involving negotiations of this kind and sensitivity and the Supreme Court agreed with the request.
Minnis is the only so called leader that I know of who manages to flip flop and mislead the public on the same issue at the same time but could never articulate a sensible policy position that he could defend on principle; he is like a jumping jack!!
Ladies and gentlemen, the FNM has been on the wrong side of history so many times since 1971 it is pitiful and downright embarrassing; they have an uncanny knack for making terrible policy decisions.
You would notice in the media that since the 29thJune 2015, the resident Mr. KNOW-IT-ALL Dionisio D’Aguilar has been on every talk show and in every business section in every newspaper seeking to convince the Bahamian people that the PLP government caused the failure of Baha Mar when he and other board members are the true culprits; at least the other board members save for Sarkis were quiet.
After the project was officially saved on Monday of this week, he was still in the press bad mouthing the deal and characterizing it as “scary.” Yeah right! The prospect of getting Baha Mar completed, opened, Bahamians and contractors paid off and Bahamians employed is scary to D’Aguilar because he is selfish and does not care about Bahamians. What he really means is that he is totally embarrassed by the success of Prime Minister Christie in saving this project that he almost destroyed.
Now D’Aguilar is now hypocritically advancing his deep concern over the presence of Chinese Investors in New Providence. I do not recall D’Aguilar expressing any concerns when Sarkis Izmirlian secured funding from the Export-Import Bank of China (CEXIM). I am obliged to ask? What did Mr. Know It All expect would happen if the terms of the loan agreement were not adhered to? Why is D’Aguilar trying to poison Bahamians against the Chinese?
Again I must mention that there was not a peep from D’Aguilar when Hutchison Whampoa invested in the GBPA, the Freeport Container Port, Hotels and the Airport on Grand Bahama.
Golden Isles the Government of Great United States of America is perhaps the largest borrower from the Republic of China.
Truth be told, D’Aguilar and the entire board of Baha Mar may be liable to a law suit by the Liquidator for negligence and malfeasance if they knew that Baha Mar was insolvent and failing but failed to disclose it.
Bahamian Creditors should be aware that the Baha Mar Liquidation by the Bahamian Supreme Court may offer them a prospect for recovery which they should not ignore.
In assessing the best recovery prospects for the Creditors of Baha Mar, its Liquidators are required to consider when did Baha Mar became insolvent? That is, when did the Directors of Baha Mar knew or should have known that Baha Mar had no reasonable prospects of paying its bills as they became due?
