Address
by
Bradley B Roberts
National Chairman
Progressive Liberal Party
PLP House

Freeport Grand Bahama
November 20th 2009

Residents of Grand Bahama it saddens me to have to confirm the reports that have been reaching me from your Island. But by every indication, the state of affairs in Grand Bahama is an unholy mess. I can understand why so many of you in our Party are anxious to get organized and ready to work. Clearly, Grand Bahama needs the Progressive Liberal Party. It has obviously been abandoned by the FNM and the Grand Bahama Port Authority, its partners, and agencies appear to be struggling to find the much needed solutions to put Grand Bahama on the right economic footing and return it to the glory days.   

The most ambitious initiative the GBPA seems able to do is something they call, “Down-town Turn Around.” My brothers and sisters, this is simply not enough. Grand Bahama needs a turn around, not with the planting of trees and other beautification methods, but with a focused plan to revive its tourism industry, the creation of jobs for its people, the return to the original formula of Urban Renewal, aggressive housing developments – simply, Grand Bahama needs the re-election of the PLP!  

I will share a little statistic with you: When the PLP came to office in 2002; construction starts in Grand Bahama totaled just $80 million. The record will show that by 2006, that figure had more than doubled to more than $180 million, breathing new life and vitality into this island’s construction industry. The PLP has done it before and we are a government in waiting to do it again.  

My confidential sources have told me that the Grand Bahama Power Company has cancelled the second 18 MW Medium Speed Generator Plant clearly signaling that the owners of the Power Company do no see a turn around in the Grand Bahama economy in the foreseeable future. I hate to have to share this with you but in order to emerge as the source of real hope on this Island we have got to come face to face with the real prognosis of what we are facing. Speaking of the Power Company, we know that GB Power has been no friend to the residents of Grand Bahama. They have sock it to you in their ability to go unregulated when it comes to their calculation of fuel surcharges.  

I understand that some months ago without warning, many found their power bills to be in some cases, double what it was the month before. You add this to the fact that Hubert Ingraham and the FNM have done nothing with significance to create lasting and rewarding jobs here, and we can understand why thousands are living without electricity in what is accepted as the Nation’s second City. 
 

This is Freeport, my brothers and sisters, the great City that was not designed with the average Bahamian in mind. Freeport which has given the Progressive Liberal Party a hard time historically because it’s owners and managers were unable to grasp the warnings of Sir Lynden in his landmark “Bend or Break” speech. Well I reiterate tonight that Freeport is still in search of a soul. And, the prophetic words of Sir Lynden ring true as an unbending Freeport seems on the verge of breaking.  

Two and a half years after the FNM hoodwinked and bamboozled the people of this Island, unemployment has gone through the roof. The Royal Oasis is only one on a list of closed hotel properties. Grand Bahama struggles to attract visitors even though it is only 55 miles from Florida. People are without food and light, and they call this FNM Country. We should have paid attention to anything branded as FNM Country because what is true for FNM Country is now true for the entire Country. Hubert Ingraham and the FNM have delivered desolation and hard-ship to the entire population of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. It ain’ right Lord – it ain’ right. 

Calling a spade a spade Hubert Ingraham despite having a hard mouth whilst in opposition has failed miserably in almost three years in using his clout to be of great influence with The Hayward Family. I understand from sources that Lady Henrietta is completely disillusioned with Freeport. 

From any plausible angle The FNM Government has had more than sufficient time to use the weight of their high office to resolve the massive impasse of the controlling shareholders of the Grand Bahama Port Authority but have disgracefully failed the people of Grand Bahama and the level of misery and hopelessness grow day by day here in the second city. 
 
Grand Bahama, do you remember The FNM Team of Hubert Ingraham, Kenneth Russell, Neko Grant, and Zhivargo Laing and the others, with their solemn promise of 10,000 new jobs in six months when they became the Government? Now what do you hear from each of them? They blame it on the recession which did not happen until some 15 months after the May 2007 General Elections. They are all saying that they are waiting for Obama to turn around the US economy. Ladies and Gentlemen, I must remind you that President Obama has been in office less that a year and the American people are demanding from Obama the delivery of the promises he made during the campaign. The Bahamian people must demand the same of Hubert Ingraham and his gang. 
 
Now Grand Bahama, just last week I heard a press release from the FNM trying to refute that their policy of ‘Stop, review, and cancel’ claiming that Hubert Ingraham and the Gang were not in any way responsible for the economic hell we are now catching. They went on to name some foreign investment properties which have stalled as a result of what they say was the global recession. I wish to point out that the global financial crisis occurred was not in effect until 15 months after the FNM became the Government in May 2007.  
 
It was the ill-advised, narrow-minded, spiteful, and shortsighted policies of the Ingraham administration, especially during this critical period, that exposed the Bahamian people to unnecessary risks and economic hardship. He clearly did not look after the interests of the Bahamian people and they should repay him and his FNM gang in kind and the appropriate time. 

Further, ladies and gentlemen, the record will show that in 2007 the Bahamian economy slowed down ahead of the US economy rather than the usual one quarter to two lag time. Do you know why this happened? This happened because the slow-down was artificially induced. Someone meddled with the economy and facilitated a virtual stall of the economy. 
 
After enjoying the largest level of foreign direct investment in any five year term, including more than $703 million in 2006 – THE ECONOMY JUST STALLED?? AND STALLED AHEAD OF THE US ECONOMY?? COME ON MAN, THAT DON’T MAKE NO SENSE.  
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, do you want to know the truth as to why there were major delays and devilish frustration to the Ginn Development? West End in particular will remember Kenneth “The Palm Sunday Cadillac” Russell bogus claim of massive environmental degradation at the development? This was investigated but was found to be a stupid and groundless claim; many of the FNM Cabinet Ministers visited several of Bobby Ginn’s US Developments and the failed promised speedy commencement of renovation to the Royal Oasis properties which they only crossed the t’s and dotted the I’s with respect to its sale? 
 
The FNM shamelessly wanted to rebrand and take credit for the many investments the PLP left in place. They deliberately caused there to be an un-necessary delay in the smooth continuation of projects around our Country so that they could oust any PLP with a contract or a secure job. And they did it so that they could convince the Bahamian people that it was the FNM who finished what the PLP started.  
 
My Brother and Sisters, It happened with the contract for the Junior High School as well here on Grand Bahama. The major Grand Bahamas seawall project which was ably executed by Smiths Construction, the lowest bidder by a mile that Neko Grant and Kenneth Russell without justification placed on hold; Thank God that GB was free of Hurricanes. Would you believe even a small Dock in Water Cay that Kenneth Russell attended the contract signing of during my tenure as Minister of Works, was held up for more than eighteen months and they then had the gall to announce the Water Cay Dock as an FNM Government project. They are a disgraceful and shameless bunch.  
 
No my brothers and my sisters, even the children of the Bahamas know of the selfishness, spitefulness and greed which caused the newly elected FNM Government to engage in a destructive policy of Stop Review and Cancel which has grossly adversely impacted the economy of Grand Bahama and the entire Bahamas, months before any recession. I don’t want you to let them get away from that. You must be in a position to tell their cronies, many of whom themselves are out of work, that the FNM should go and hide their heads in shame over what they did to the economic climate in this Country. They are at the heart of the escalation of unemployment and the many fiscal and social problems we find ourselves plagued with today and it is they now who must be STOPPED, REVIEWED and CANCELED and at the earliest opportunity, we must voted out of office! 
 
PLP’s in Grand Bahama, I need you to do me a favor. I am going to deal with Carl Bethel in his capacity as FNM Chairman, having already been rolled out of the Ministry of Education. Please, guarantee me that you will ensure that Zhivago Laing is gone whenever Pa Hubert decides to call the next Election. 
 
Carl Bethel came down here and disrespected the teachers, students and parents of Eight Mile Rock High School. What happened down there blew the lid on the gross neglect of the Minister of Education when it comes to serious problems facing our educational system. It was not until a pedophile was on the loose and the problem had become one of international proportion that Carl ever showed any real interest in responding to the cries at Eight Mile Rock High. He was a Minister that just seemed to be too important to address real needs. It was always more important for him to play politics. 
 
Carl played politics on the issue of police presence through Urban Renewal and in our schools. As a result, almost every week there was a report coming out of our Government schools of some act of violence which lands somebody’s child in hospital. Our campuses have become mini war zones because Carl opted to play politics with the safety of our children.  
 
And I have to address this because no doubt the FNM, as they like to, will try to point to the fact that there was school violence under the PLP. You know they have mastered the blame game. But the records will reflect that under the PLP we were putting in place strategies to address this very problem – strategies which if the FNM did not out of petty politics cancel, stop or review, would have been having an effect on the level of violence in our schools. 
 
We had through the Urban Renewal Program, the real one, a mechanism in place where the police were assigned to develop a relationship with students who were showing a tendency to get into trouble. Zhivago Laing grandstanding in the House of Assembly on Monday tried to down-play these facts. We had after school programs and strategies to deal with the holistic development of troubled youth designed to specifically direct their wayward energies in productive directions. And our strategies were working. Our final plan was the implementation of a form of school policing. Well, they came in and scrapped that. 
 
I mention Urban Renewal in such detail because it is from this department, along with Housing where they sent so many of our supporters packing. They will say that they didn’t fire anyone, good public relations for not extending contracts and sending people home. But this doesn’t cover the fact that honest, hard-working people, Bahamians at that, were stripped of their dignity and forced to endure one of the harshest economic periods in the history of our Country without work.  

The FNM is heartless. They did the same thing to Gladstone “Moon” McPhee just the other day, refused to renew his contract supposedly because they saw him at the PLP Convention. Now Moon McPhee who has given so much to the youth of Country through sports has also joined the many numbers of PLPs victimized by a merciless Government. 
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, Carl is gone from Education and if we are lucky, newly ordained Deacon Ken Russell may be gone from Housing, Neko is said to be on his way out of Works and into a new Ministry of Grand Bahama Affairs but we seem to be stuck with a menacing young man who is ostensibly the master of every issue of Governance in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. The brother knows so much and communicates it in such arrogant fashion, that I don’t think Hubert Ingraham really needs anyone else in his Cabinet. Just let Zhivago address it.  
 
In fact, Zhivago can be heard addressing anything and everything in The Bahamas except what he is supposed to be addressing - the concerns of Marco City, and the many problems facing Grand Bahama. He was missing also, at the dispute resolution meeting called in Freeport last Friday to see if the comments of two of our PLP Parliamentarians concerning the Mona Vie scandal could be resolved out of court. 
 
We couldn’t find Zhivago in town, just like so many of his constituents. I wish that Zhivago Laing could address less and do more! Everything he has to say is either an excuse as to why the FNM Government cannot get something done or an opportunity to blame the PLP. I don’t know about you but his rhetoric is starting to annoy me.  
 
So I am asking you please Grand Bahama, please, send Zhivago out of Marco City and back in the church where he belongs and never should have left. Or if you feel him unfit for the church after having served in one of the most vicious and vindictive Governments in the history of our Parliamentary Democracy, then maybe he can help his sister-n-law promote the sale of Mona Vie. I don’t know. Just please help me rid this Country of the FNM and in particular Zhivago Laing. 
 
Now to the officers, members, stalwart councilors and supporters of our esteemed Party, we cannot be successful in our endeavor to rid this Country of an FNM Government if we ourselves are not a united, well organized force. Having put my ears to the ground since my reelection as Chairman of our Party, I have to report that there are numerous challenges facing the Party machinery in Grand Bahama. As your Chairman, I cannot allow these problems to fester any longer. 
 
Please be advised that in addition to my recommendations made here tonight to weed out petty bickering and promote Party unity. The page has turned. It is a new day. There is a new Sheriff in town and one of my key objectives is to retool our Party so that we can be a viable and victorious force against the FNM in the next General Election. 
 
To this end, no one personality or groups of personalities can be made to feel special enough or important enough to hinder the progress of our agenda. I am going to end on the point of unity and leadership but there can be no unity if I fail to address critical issues which discourage members of our Party and the general public for that matter, from feeling welcomed to give the best of their time, talents and resources to our noble cause. 
 
I want the Women’s Branch, Young Liberals, the young professionals whom I will be commissioning shortly to form a new group, our constituency branches, and the Grand Bahama council to be assured that this chairman is open to your input and ideas. All are welcomed and encouraged to participate in the single cause of returning the Progressive Liberal Party to the helm of State with no less than five seats won here in Grand Bahama in the next Election. 
 
My brothers and sisters, Unity is very big on my agenda as your Chairman. I have not failed to mention it in any of my recent addresses in New Providence. I believe that the thing which is most missing in our Country is that feeling that somehow we are all each other’s keepers.  
 
In the early days of our Party, they boasted of having started a movement in part by meeting together in each other’s homes and fellowshipping one with another. I want to revive this in our Party, especially at a time in The Bahamas where are youth have been given no reason to feel a meaningful part of their own Country, and so many feel out of touch with their communities. 
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, Crime and violence is out of control because we have lost that sense of togetherness. Well I can’t think of a better way to start to revive this spirit of togetherness than to make politics, PLP politics once more, inclusive of building friendships and lasting bonds. This means that we have to drop petty difference for more important collective goals. This means that in our own Party we must be seen to be not only democratic in our functioning but to be harmonious in the way we treat each other and assemble together. 
 
This is one of the requirements of leadership. Just by showing up and making the decision to play a role in a political organization each and everyone of you have decided to be leaders of your Country. The Progressive Liberal Party, after all is not a social club. We are about being the champions of the Bahamian people and leading this great Country from strength to strength and height to height. 
 
I leave you then with the words of John Maxwell, an international legend when it comes to the topic of leadership. His books have sold over 13 million copies. He has spoken to many Fortune 500 companies and his organizations have trained over 2 million people. 
 
“The key to becoming an effective leader is not to focus on making other people follow, but on making yourself the kind of person they want to follow. You must become someone others can trust to take them where they want to go. As you prepare yourself to become a better leader, use the following guidelines to help you grow.” 
 

Maxwell then goes on to give 7 principles on effective leadership: 

I admonish you to adopt these principles as we move forward – forward to becoming the next Government of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas under the leadership of the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie and his deputy, Mr. Philip Brave Davis. 

Thank you and goodnight! 

PLP!