PLP Is The Solution To GB’s “Unholy Mess”

Mr. Roberts was addressing the crowd at the party’s rally to introduce the party’s new leadership to Grand Bahama Friday night.

He said from the look of things he could understand why so many of PLPs are anxious to get organized and ready to work.

"Clearly, Grand Bahama needs the Progressive Liberal Party," he said. "It has obviously been abandoned by the Free National Movement (FNM) and the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA). 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, ‘downtown 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."

Mr. Roberts said two-and-a-half years after the FNM "hoodwinked and bamboozled" the people of Grand Bahama into returning the party to power; unemployment has gone through the roof.

He also reminded Grand Bahamians that the Royal Oasis Resort is only one on a list of closed hotel properties in the second city.

He said Grand Bahama struggles to attract visitors even though it is only 55 miles from Florida, and said many people on the island are without food and light.

Mr. Roberts said Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and the FNM have delivered desolation and hardship to the entire population of The Bahamas.

He said the government has "shamelessly" sought to rebrand and take credit for the many investments the PLP left in place.

The PLP chairman said Grand Bahama deserves so much more.

"This is Freeport, my brothers and sisters. The great city that was not designed with the average Bahamian in mind," he said.

"Freeport has given the Progressive Liberal Party a hard time historically because its owners and managers were unable to grasp the warnings of [former Prime Minister] Sir Lynden [Pindling] in his landmark "Bend or Break" speech. Well, I reiterate 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."

  Mr. Roberts told supporters that the FNM deliberately caused an unnecessary delay in the smooth continuation of projects around the country so that it could oust any PLP with a contract or a secure job.

He said the party did it so that it could convince the Bahamian people that it was the FNM that finished what the PLP started.  

  He said from any plausible angle the FNM Government has had more than sufficient time to use the weight of its high office to resolve the massive impasse of the controlling shareholders of the GBPA, but has "disgracefully failed" the people of Grand Bahama.

He said the level of misery and hopelessness grow day-by-day in the second city.

Mr. Roberts then called PLPs to action.

"PLPs in Grand Bahama, I need you to do me a favor," he said. "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."

But Mr. Roberts said all of this would be impossible if the PLP does not find a common ground.

"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," he urged.

"Having put my ears to the ground since my re-election 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."