22nd December 2008

Notes For December Press Conference
 

Delimitation of Boundaries
The PLP welcomes the deposit of the base line points at the UN to delimit the boundaries of The Bahamas.  We call for a speedy resolution of talks to settle the boundaries issues with bordering states.

Patrick Manning
A message of concern has been sent to the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Patrick Manning on behalf of the party and the PLP’s Leader Perry Christie.  Mr. Manning recently underwent an operation for kidney cancer in Cuba where he is convalescing.

The Prime Minister on Petro Caribe
Both newspapers carried stories that pointed out the contradictions in the Prime Minister's statements with regard to this matter.  On the one hand, he described the Petro Caribe proposal as a stupid proposal.  On the other hand, he spoke at the summit in Brazil and said that it was beneficial to Caricom countries.  When asked about the apparent contradiction, he said that his first remarks were taken out context.  That reply is not credible.

The fact is everyone heard him say that the proposal was a stupid proposal.  The PLP pointed out at the time of his remarks that the remark was inelegant, undiplomatic and injudicious.   It is one of a number of glaring contradictions that we have found with Mr. Ingraham.

You will remember the litany of matters for which he apologized during his press conference because he was not able to achieve them.   I also point to his remarks on diversification which he first said was nonsense in answer to a question by the Nassau Guardian’s reporter and later when confronted with his contradictory comments about diversification at his press conference, he again claimed to have been taken out of context.

The public must come to see these inconsistencies for what they are and understand that these internal inconsistencies infect the entire operation of Mr. Ingraham’s government.  The decisions on Petro Caribe under the PLP were made by the Cabinet of The Bahamas without anyone resigning from office.  That decision was to reserve The Bahamas ability to join Petro Caribe if it proved to be useful at some future point for The Bahamas.

The Hotels In Grand Bahama
The Prime Minister told the Nassau Guardian in response to a proposal put by me that the government should intervene and buy the abandoned Royal Oasis protests in Grand Bahama in an effort to restore employment in Freeport said that it would not happen.  Mr. Ingraham said that the government was not in the business of running hotels.   He gave a history of the alleged failure of the policy of owning hotels by The Bahamas government, which led, according to him, to high losses.

It is interesting that Mr. Ingraham says now that he agreed with Perry Christie to sell the Cable Beach Hotel.  This again contradicts what he said during his campaign that he disagreed with its sale. It also flies in the face in what seemed to many in the PLP as a deliberate effort by Mr. Ingraham’s government to wreck the plans for the Baha Mar development of Cable Beach.

I wish to address this point as follows.  I am not arguing for the government to run hotels.  That is what professional management and franchises are for.  I also argue that the policy of buying the hotels was not a failure.  In fact, it was a roaring success.

You will note that the reason why the government of Sir Lynden Pindling bought the hotels at Cable Beach was because the properties were about to close and no owners or operators could be found for them.  In order to save jobs, the hotels were bought by the Government through the Hotel Corporation.  In that singular policy of saving jobs, they were successful.

The policy was also successful in galvanizing and mobilizing development capital to reenergize Cable Beach. Carnival invested in Cable Beach as a direct result of the government’s investment under the PLP and Prime Minister Pindling.   In fact, that is precisely in the American context what the government of the United States is now doing to save essential industries in their country from collapse.

To take the matter to the extreme, if Sol Kerzner of Atlantis said to day that he was closing his hotel, the government of The Bahamas would have little choice but to take the property off his hands to save the jobs.  The situation then is equally as grave in Grand Bahama where with regard to the hotel properties it will be at least a year before the Harcourt group is able to find money to start their project.  In the mean time, capital in the form of the hotel plant in Grand Bahama is idle and unused.

We know that a recovery will come and the tourism product in Grand Bahama should be ready for the return to health of the industry.

I want to repeat concerns about the state of the tourism product in Nassau.  While the Ministry has been quite vocal on the marketing side of tourism, there is little being said or done about product development.  It is clear that the city of Nassau itself needs to be rebranded and retooled.

In an effort to help, I am myself seeking to engage a number of businessmen about the possibility of a tourism development in the Dowdeswell Street area where my businesses are located.  Dowdeswell Street has become a place of ill repute at night.  I am thinking that it may be possible under the new legislation to come together and develop Dowdeswell Street as a bed and breakfast area for tourists who are interested in that kind of experience.  It would mean the purchase or lease of properties in the area and their redevelopment as Bed and breakfast establishments, with restaurants and other similar amenities.  I hope to say more about this in the New Year.

New Providence Road Improvement Project
One remit that I had as Minister of Foreign Affairs was that of relations with the Inter American Development Bank, the lenders of the money for the New Providence Road Improvement project.  I want to support the comments made by the Opposition’s spokesman Vincent Peet on this matter.

The answers to the questions raised by Mr. Peet were not satisfactorily answered by either the Deputy Prime Minister or the Minister of Works.  In fact, there is a contrast in the styles of the answer, the Minister of Works sought to be insulting even though he himself was clearly short on the facts of what transpired with the project.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs at least sought to cooperate with the press. The Minister must still answer the question about the financial health of the Jose Cartellone Civil Construction, the prime contractor from Argentina on the New Providence Road Improvement project and its ability to finish this job against the backdrop of the problems of the company in Jamaica and the issue of their earlier problems with posting a bond when Bradley Roberts was the Minister of Works.

Further, the Deputy Prime Minister must disclose the answers to the question of the trust that he now says bought his shares in Bahamas Hot Mix one of the subcontractors on the New Providence Road Improvement    Project.  Who is the beneficial owner of the trust?  Who controls the trust? These are pertinent questions in the interests of transparency.

Leadership of the FNM
While the press has been busy scrutinizing the leadership of the PLP, we in the PLP have been scrutinizing the future leaders of the FNM.

There is no vacancy for leadership in the PLP and there is none in the FNM.

What we know is that the man who now heads the FNM is there for the third time after promising to step down after two terms.

We would be foolish not to review what is happening in that party and who we will have to face.

Many think that Brent Symonette wants the job and believes that he is to the manor born. There seems to be an organized campaign to promote his candidacy. Then there is Tommy Turnquest who led the party before and is believed to be the Prime Minister’s favourite to succeed.  Then there is Carl Bethel, Zhivargo Laing and Bran McCartney.

I certainly am looking at all of them so we can see what we have to do to meet an organization with them at its head.

Indeed, we have also to allow for the real possibility of Mr. Ingraham staying, infected as he is by the disease that many leaders have and that is not knowing when it is time to go.  This is his third time and enough is enough.  Mr. Ingraham needs to step down.  So in this respect, Perry Christie is not the issue.  Mr. Ingraham is.