Introducing the Party's slate of candidates for the 2007 General Elections
Radisson Cable Beach
27th March, 2007

Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia 'Mother' Pratt greets Prime Minister Perry Christie onstage

Let me say without fear of contradiction, without equivocation or doubt, that the PLP candidates arrayed before you represent the best and the brightest of all the candidates that are being offered to the Bahamian electorate in 2007.

Collectively, these men and women constitute a magnificent constellation of talent.  And the radiance of that constellation will light the way for our second term in office.

This is a real TEAM you see before you.  These men and women understand the importance of cohesion and teamwork in governing a country.  They know that in a democracy, such as ours, there is no place for the one-man band.   They know that it takes teamwork and collaboration and co-operative effort to make a government.

And they can tell you that in the PLP, every person’s opinion counts, every person’s point of view is important.  Don’t believe for a minute that you will find that anywhere else in Bahamian politics today.

Yes, we are the sum of our many different parts.  Each part is as important as the next because it takes all the different parts, working in harmony with each other, to achieve our common objectives.

I charge you to remember that always.
 

The Prime Minister in a private moment of preparation

To you, then, to you, the proud standard-bearers of the PLP in the General Elections that are now just a heartbeat away, I want to thank each and every one of you for answering the call to be of service to our country.

Thank you to a distinguished Member of Parliament who served with great note.  I think especially of the honourable Bradley Roberts...

Thank you also to Agatha Marcelle...

May I also say a special “thank you” to a man who has proven himself to be a team player in the way that he conducted himself in relation to the recent boundary changes. In so doing he acted with a sense of selflessness and sacrifice that is truly commendable.  There will, however, be a role for Sidney Stubbs to play as we move forward to meet the challenges that face our nation.  Of that he can be assured.  Join with me, then, in expressing our thanks and appreciation to Mr. Sidney Stubbs for his service to the people of the former Holy Cross Constituency. Thank you, Sidney!
 

Onstage, the Leader interacts with delighted supporters

For those candidates who are seeking re-election, you know only too well, from your own experience, what an awesome responsibility it is to be a servant of a sovereign people in the halls of Parliament.

For those of you who are members of the freshman class of 2007, who are venturing forth for the first time, you will discover soon enough just how demanding this job really is.

But if you do your job well, you will have the priceless satisfaction of knowing that you have played an important part in helping to create for our people a more prosperous, a more peaceful, a more secure, and a happier place in which to live.

That is what we are in this for.  Not for personal profit or enrichment, not for vain or selfish ambition, but rather to be at once a listening ear and a fearless voice for the people.  We must hear their cries and be the medium by which their deepest hopes and fears find expression.  The people empower us so that we, in turn, might empower them.  And by empowering them, as they in turn empower us, we achieve the highest ideals of democracy and good governance for all.
 

Left: Grand Bahama Candidates Caleb Outten, Eight Mile Rock; Pleasant Bridgewater, Marco City; Ann Percentie, Pineridge; Doswell Coakley, High Rock; Constance McDonald. Luckay and Obie Wilchcombe, West End & Bimini.  Right: New candidates Jackson Ritchie, Clifton; Hope Strachan, Sea Breeze; Ricardo Treco, St. Anne's and Wallace Rolle, South Beach.

As you go into the homes of our people all across this country…
…As you walk the streets of our cities, and the roads and pathways of our settlements and towns, you will be asked:

What is it that the PLP has done to earn the continued support of the Bahamian people?

What has happened in the last five years that demonstrates that the PLP has governed our nation well?

And what has happened in the last five years that demonstrates that the PLP improved the lot of the Bahamian people, so much so that it deserves to be put back in office?

Those are the central questions that will face you as you campaign for election, street-by-street, house-by-house, voter-by-voter, in your respective constituencies.

So what, then, do you tell your constituents when you are asked these questions?

Tell them that we in the PLP are running on our record.  Tell them the facts, not “spin”, just the FACTS; FACTS that are based on the professionally prepared, scientifically tested statistics of independent experts who have no political axe to grind for either side.

Just give them the facts.  Because the FACTS will lay the case for why the PLP deserves a second term.
 

New South Abaco candidate Gary Sawyer holds a drowsy son during the candidates' launch

FACTS like these, for example:

• FACT 1:  the unemployment rate in May 2002 when the FNM was thrown out of office stood at 9.1%.  By May of last year, four years into our first term in office, unemployment had been reduced to 7.6%.

• FACT 2: the average Bahamian household income increased from $39, 379 in May 2002 when we took over to $43,420 in May, 2006 – an increase of over $4,000 per year in just four years of PLP Government.

• FACT 3:  in Tourism – the main generator of the Bahamian economy – the overall figures for visitor arrivals have increased significantly under the PLP.

Consider, in particular, air arrivals, the main source of stopover visitors to The Bahamas.  Total airlift to The Bahamas stood at 1,338, 120 in 2002.   By 2006, just four years into our first term – that figure had jumped to 2,015, 040.

This is made even more remarkable by the fact that under the FNM, air arrivals actually went down from 1,560, 640 in 2000 to 139,120 in 2002.
Under the PLP, then, not only have air arrivals gone up, they have gone way up, and they keep going up!  That means more money in the pockets of hotel workers, taxi-drivers, straw vendors, shop-workers and everybody else who depends on stopover visitors for their bread and butter.

• FACT 4: at the end of just last month, the country’s external reserves stood at $556 million dollars.
Moreover, under the PLP, the reserves scored an all-time high of $668 million dollars at one point last year.
By contrast, the figure under the FNM never exceeded $405 million dollars.

• FACT 5: At the end of 2001, under the FNM, the overall supply of money stood at $777 million.
At the end of last year, under the PLP, it stood at 1.25 Billion dollars.

• FACT 6:  The value of Bahamian equity ownership in the local economy – based on the Bahamas Stock Exchange – grew by 17% in 2004; 26% in 2005; and a whopping 34% in 2006 – all under the PLP.

This represents hundreds of millions of dollars of investments that are held by almost 10,000 Bahamians directly and another estimated 15,000 indirectly when the investment of union pension funds is taken into account.  This spreading-of-wealth through Bahamian capital markets under the PLP vastly exceeds anything that occurred under the FNM.

• FACT 7:  between 2003 and 2006, under the PLP, housing starts were 27% higher than in the three year period of 1998-2001 under the FNM.

• FACT 8: while still on the subject of construction, as far as Government low-cost-housing is concerned, we have already built more houses in our first term than the FNM did in its entire two terms in office.

•  FACT 9:  More direct foreign investment in capital projects has been attracted to The Bahamas in the last five years of PLP rule than in the entire 10 years of government under Hubert Ingraham and the FNM.

• FACT 10:  Through the PLP Government’s innovative anchor resort development policy for the Family Islands, islands like Mayaguana have been brought back from the dead.

These islands now have burgeoning populations with strong employment.  Indeed, for the first time in generations, there is now a powerful incentive to return to Mayaguana if you left.  There is an even more powerful incentive for the youth to build their futures right at home in Mayaguana rather than beating a path to Nassau and leaving their island behind to die.

This transformative phenomenon is manifesting itself not only in Mayaguana but all across our country as never before.  Make no mistake about it: we are on the threshold of a new era of unprecedented prosperity and social revitalization for our historically depressed Family Islands.  The importance of this to the overall well being of our entire nation cannot be overemphasized.  It is the single most historic plank in the entire economic and social transformation platform of the PLP.

And by the way, the FNM should stop telling lies about Mayaguana!  The land that is being developed at Mayaguana is not owned by any private development group.  Rather, it is owned by a joint venture company in which the Government of the Bahamas has a 50% interest.  The FNM has been telling similar lies about “land giveaways” in East End, Grand Bahama.  The falsehood they have been promoting is that we have agreed to give away, or sell, a 100 square mile tract of land to foreign private developers.  Not a word of this is true!

The Government has not agreed to give, or sell, anybody any such land, not even 100 square inches, much less this preposterous figure of 100 square miles.  Utter nonsense!  The Government has not approved, nor does the Government have under consideration, any development proposal for East End, Grand Bahama that would involve any kind of land give away.  It’s all lies!

Similarly, the FNM has been spinning a tall tale to the effect that the Government has been giving away Crown land or Treasury land to the Ginn Project developers in West End, Grand Bahama.  That, too, is a total lie!  The Ginn project, which will be bring over a billion dollars of new investment into Grand Bahamas, is based entirely on land that Bobby Ginn has bought from private persons.  The Government has not sold or contributed any land at all.

In fact, while I’m on this subject of so-called “land giveaways”, it’s important for you to know that far from giving away any large tracts of Bahamian land, your PLP Government, at my instigation, has actually been buying land back from private owners.  We have been doing this, firstly, so that more beach areas can be made available to Bahamians, especially here in New Providence.

Secondly, we have been buying back land so that an adequate inventory of land can be made available for new housing subdivisions for Bahamians to support the major resort developments that are coming on stream.  In anticipation, for example, of the new Albany development in southwestern New Providence, your PLP Government is paying top dollar to buy 350 acres from New Providence Development Company.  We will use this land to provide new housing subdivisions and other community infrastructure for the many hundreds of Bahamian families that will want to move to that part of the island in connection with the world-class billion dollar Albany Development.

Similar land-buybacks - at market prices I should emphasize - are underway for similar reasons in Harbour Island, Exuma, West End, Grand Bahama, and at Cape Eleuthera where the Government just recently purchased 500 acres in exchange for tax concessions.

So then, far from squandering the precious land resources of the Bahamian people, your PLP Government has been systematically adding to the national inventory of land.  This is part of an emerging new land policy aimed at ensuring that the land needs of Bahamians are met for generations to come.

So when you hear the FNM talking these lies about land, make sure that you confront them with the facts, and above all make sure that your constituents are not misled by the Opposition’s lying propaganda.

I could go on and on with a recitation of facts that you need to arm yourself with to refute the lies and distortions of the Opposition but there is obviously not sufficient time to do so tonight.

I could, for example, talk about the initiatives we are taking to combat crime more aggressively but the seriousness of this particular challenge to our national life deserves special, highly focused attention and I would be short-changing you by trying to deal with it tonight.  Over the course of the next several weeks, however, we will be devoting a great deal of attention to explaining what is being done – and still needs to be done – to combat this greatest of all menaces to the peace and well-being of our communities.

I am confident that with the latest round of promotions within the Police Force combined with certain other crime-fighting initiatives that are about to be launched, we are going to break the back of this scourge.  But you will be hearing more about this in the very near future, as indeed you will be hearing about the important roles that the Urban Renewal Programme and Prison Reform are already playing in dealing with the root causes of crime at one end, and the problem of recidivism, at the other end of the spectrum.

Similarly, I could go on to deal with some of the wonderful things that have happened on our watch to improve the quality of life of our people, including:

• the expansion of the supply of potable water to previously neglected communities in the Family Islands;
• the rehabilitation of our airports and docks that were so sorely neglected under the FNM;
• reforms to our educational system and the impressive strides that the College of The Bahamas is making;
• the expansion of our health care infrastructure;
• the laying of the foundation for National Health Insurance which is sure to be the jewel in the crown of PLP achievement in our next term in office;
• the empowerment of a new generation of Bahamian entrepreneurs through existing agencies like the Bahamas Development Bank, The Bahamas Mortgage Corporation and
• Of special note is the recently established  Domestic Investment Board which will become the leading instrument of entrepreneurial empowerment in the years ahead;
• And I could also talk about the steps we have now taken, despite the antics and ranting and ravings of the Opposition Leader to bring immediate relief to our senior citizens by increasing their monthly pensions and other old-age benefits.

Although this is also not the time to explain these new old age benefits in full, I really must tell you how deeply disappointed I was that the Leader of the Opposition behaved so badly yesterday over the $30 dollar a month increase for old-age pensioners.  I was disappointed in Mr. Ingraham because I could not believe that he, of all people, would be raising technical points about old-age pensioners getting an extra $30 per month.  Remember now, this is a man stuffs his own pockets with $10,000 in pension every single month of the year – a pension to which he has absolutely no moral entitlement whatsoever.

I need to repeat those figures. I want you to hear me good because these are facts I’m talking: every single month, $10,000 in pension, $10,000 of the people’s money, $10,000 of YOUR money, is paid into Hubert Ingraham’s bank account.  He gets $120,000 a year just in pension, so that works out to $10,000 every month.

But when we seek to add just $30 extra to what old age pensioners get every month; this same Hubert Alexander Ingraham tries to stall us.  Imagine that!  He finished fixing himself up with $10,000 a month - the biggest pension in Bahamian history - but when we try to put just a little more food on the table for senior citizens…When we try to lighten the load of the thousands of poor and aged grandmothers out there;…When we move to do the right thing for the old people among us, Hubert Ingraham tries to get all technical about what you can and cannot do with pensions.

Hubert Ingraham is the last person in the world to talk about pension.  But never mind.  Between April 12th and 19th, the increases in old age pension will come fully into effect.  And there’s nothing Hubert Ingraham can do to stop it.  He can huff and he can puff but this is one house he can’t blow down.

Ladies & Gentlemen, my fellow candidates:

We have a first-class record of solid, measurable achievement to our credit.  It is a record of which we can all be justifiably proud.  In the last election, the FNM ran AWAY from its record.  In this election, we are running ON ours.  We have, by no means, done all that we set out to do but in the five short years we have had so far, we have been faithful to the pledge we made to the Bahamian people to provide good governance and to bring help and hope to those most in need.  We have, however, only just begun.  If you think things are good already, just wait to see what the next five years have in store.

Fellow candidates, I charge you, then, to be of good courage.  We are sailing now on what the late, great hero of our party and of our nation, Clarence Bain, referred to as “the treacherous waters of political competition”.  Rough, tough days lie ahead.  There can be no easing up and no slacking off.  All hands must now be on deck.  The winds will soon pick up and the waters will rise and rage all about us.  But as the same Clarence Bain reminded us more than a half-century ago, the bark of this PLP ship is seaworthy.  It is tested and strong.  We have weathered many a storm before.  The tempest ahead will be no exception.  We will come through it triumphantly.

Our best days are still ahead of us.  There can be no turning back! We have come too far to turn back now.  Forward then!  Forward in unity and in strength! Forward ever, backward never!  Forward to another five years of good, progressive government!

Forward with the PLP!  Forward to victory!