Fox Hill Parade
PLP Branch Meeting
29th January 2007

My brothers and sisters of Fox Hill and across The Bahamas, my brother and sister Ministers and Parliamentary colleagues, let me add the words of welcome to this Branch meeting that we are holding out side in Fox Hill.

Those other people came here last week and brought out their entire machinery to introduce three candidates, three candidates that are going to lose.

But the real story is not about the three candidates, the real story and the real reason they came to Fox Hill is because the FNM has targeted Fox Hill because their leader has a hatred for the representative for Fox Hill that knows no bounds.  He is determined to spend all his money even as he knows he will lose in Fox Hill in 2007 just to try and stop Fred Mitchell.  Poor fellow.  We pity the woman that is being used as bait for this crazy plan.

Even at the height of the FNM’s power, the FNM has never won any polling division in Fox Hill.  They were only able to pull off a victory in 1997 by taking half of Fox Hill out of Fox Hill and putting it in Montagu.  This time no such trick can be used.

We defeated them in 2002; we are going to defeat them in 2007. We won this seat by over one thousand votes in 2002.  There is no evidence save newspaper propaganda of a shift in this constituency and in the country.  They cannot do it.

We are aware of all of the intelligence information that the FNM has at its disposal; what advice they are getting and what their plan of attack is.  It is all about smear, hollering scam and corruption and then they try to talk about trust.  But can you imagine the FNM running an ad that the PLP can’t be trusted when all you have to do is ask Tommy Turnquest if he can trust Hubert Ingraham.

So the FNM brought its whole machinery here last week, and when you looked around the crowd, you could not see one Fox Hill person.

When you looked around that crowd, the one Fox Hill person there was the one PLP who they have borrowed from us!  In fact, they had to re introduce their candidate to Fox Hill because no one really knows her here in Fox Hill.  What Fox Hill knows about her is that she and her family are PLPs.  So the FNM yet again had to look to a PLP to try and fool people into voting for them.  Fred Mitchell is the real deal, the real PLP.  Let’s not vote for a fake PLP.

Their candidate has tried to say that the FNM has a former Chairman of the PLP in Fox Hill with her.  How sad.  How desperate can you get?  You have someone who is in the employ of her husband, who is on their payroll and you are using him to try and fool people that PLPs have switched sides to go to the FNM.   That man is a PLP in his heart.  We in Fox Hill can never believe that in his heart he is FNM.  It just can’t happen and when he is ready he will come back home to the PLP, when all of us are waiting with warm hearts and open minds.

What was also laughable was they also brought in someone who we have not seen in five years.   Five years ago she was defeated, sent packing.  Today, there is not one person who can tell you what marked her term in office, yet she was brought on a public platform in Fox Hill last week to say you must vote for a new candidate for the FNM in Fox Hill.  They must come better than this.

The whole rally was amusing; they must have called the name of Fred Mitchell one thousand times a pretty popular fellow you would guess.  And yet they say that Fred Mitchell has done nothing in Fox Hill and sometime they say he’s done nothing for anyone in Fox Hill.

Let’s start with the personal favours for the very people making the charge.  The FNM candidate stood on this platform last week to allege that nothing has been done by Fred Mitchell in Fox Hill.  But I remember receiving a call from a close personal relative of hers and I mean close, who was retiring from the government service and was having a problem getting her pension cheque.  She called me to ask if I could help.

I spoke with that close, close personal relative of the FNM’s candidate on three occasions and in a shorter time than usual she had her cheque.  She thanked me over and over for helping her get the cheque.   Yet she too is going around now saying that I did nothing for her.  Remember the money my dear.  It was Fred Mitchell who got it for you.

And what about the husband of the candidate?  Who now employs our former Chairman?  We sat around at a meeting at his request shortly after the elections because when the PLP came to office he thought that because he was FNM, he wanted to know if I as his representative in Fox Hill would speak to the people at Atlantis who he thought would end his contract because the Government changed.

We sat in Athena’s café and he asked for my help.  I agreed because I support any Bahamian contractor and I did speak to them to say simply this: the PLP does not condone or support any action that would jeopardize any Bahamian contractor and certainly not on the basis of political affiliation.

I did not think that anyone at Atlantis needed that reminder because that is not the kind of company they are but the candidate for Fox Hill for the FNM is able to enjoy the good life that she has today, the money that her husband is spending to try to defeat the PLP in Fox Hill because Fred Mitchell did a favour for him.  So when you say I did nothing; talk that to your husband.

And then there is the candidate herself.  In 2002 following the General Election I asked her to head the Fox Hill Festival Committee.  I wanted to take politics out of the Committee work and she agreed.  She did not last as long as you know who in the army.

Six weeks give or take a few later, I learned to my shock and the utter dismay of the rest of the Committee that the lady with all the ideas had quit without so much as a by your leave, had abandoned her duties and responsibilities in her word for ‘personal reasons’.  No one can know what these personal reasons are, but what the Committee told me is that she simply can’t get along with anyone.  It’s her way or the highway, and that is the way it is.

Now the candidate says that Fred Mitchell does nothing but one recalls a conversation with her, the Government had arranged with my intervention for the Director General of UNESCO to come to Fox Hill, with The Bahamas Ambassador to UNESCO Sidney Poitier to visit the Sandilands Primary School and to lay a plaque to honour the abolition of slavery in the western hemisphere on the 200th anniversary of the Haitian revolution.  This is an initiative with which the candidate for the FNM had absolutely nothing to do.  She had left the Festival Committee.  Goodbye, she said.

But she was at the time studying for the Ph D, a fact that is so unique and special that she never lets anyone forget it, and because of this, she needed to stay on as the Coordinator of the event at the Sandilands Primary School to help with her Ph D studies.  Against the advice of the Members of the Fox Hill Festival Committee I agreed to keep her on.

What ensued since then is the greatest piece of story telling in Fox Hill’s history.

Would you believer that the FNM candidate has brochures claiming that she brought Sidney Poitier to Nassau and get this; that she told her FNM supporters that she has seen no evidence of my international contacts in Fox Hill.  None so blind as those who will not see.  Blind as a bat she is.

As for the outrageous claim that 40, 000 dollars worth of foundation for the Community Centre was dug up, again she is blind as a bat and does not know what is going on in Fox Hill.  That land was acquired on Romer Street when George Mackey was the Minister of Housing and he began with a Committee to build the Centre.  When the PLP lost office in 1992, the Centre project could not continue and the foundation was abandoned.

I came to office saying that I would complete the project.  The foundation had great big trees growing through it; the pipes were all ruined.  The foundation could not be saved.  In the mean time Shane Gibson the Minister of Housing wanted to build low cost housing there for Fox Hillians.  Leaders came together in three town meetings and one of the most vocal was the person who introduced the candidate to Fox Hill last week Fred Ramsey.

The town meetings were adamant that there should be no housing but they wanted the Community Centre.  So said so done.  Today, the Community centre is up.  It is a completely redrawn project by a Fox Hill architect, Sheldon Maycock.  The Committee that runs the project is headed by Rev. Carrington Pinder and Benjamin Rahming and other members include Rev. J. Carl Rahming, Edgar Moxey, an accountant and Charles Johnson, Head of the Fox Hill Festival Committee.

The project is financed by cash donations raised from events attended by my friends and well wishers and all who wish the community of Fox Hill well.  $17,000 from the old committee started by George Mackey was contributed to the present Community Centre.  The churches have contributed too; the Sandilands Primary School children have contributed $1500 from collections and a special concert.  Noticeably absent from the list of donors is the candidate for the FNM in Fox Hill, not one copper but of course she has plenty to say.

The next stage of the Community Centre is to pour the second floor for the Computer Building and the auditorium, which will seat 800 people, will be operational within six months.  Somewhere around $750,000 has been spent already; and the brand new Fox Hill Community Centre is going to be a $2 million dollar structure when it is finished.

Yes, the FNM’s candidate is blind as a bat when it comes to things the PLP has done here in Fox Hill.  But be that as it may, we have to congratulate anyone who has risen to higher heights from Fox Hill.  Even as we speak the truth about her campaign, let us not engage in any personal attacks against her.  She is a product of us all; and we must treat everyone with respect.

Even as we defeat the FNM candidate in the next General Election, I want to appeal to all those who are FNM supporters to join us in the PLP in making this a united village in 2007.  We are asking you all to vote PLP and to support the PLP's candidate.

You have known me for over 10 years.  The FNM's candidate has been here for less than six months and so in the big tent of the Progressive Liberal Party, all FNM supporters should be voting PLP in Fox Hill in the next General Election because you all know that I work for everyone; whether they are PLP or FNM.

To all PLPs; I want to assure you that I will continue the traditions in Fox Hill of defending our African heritage; of promoting the image of Fox Hill in the tradition of George Mackey.

I congratulate Mr. Eric Wilmott on being honoured by Her Majesty the Queen in the New Year's Honours for his contribution as a journalist and a community leader of Fox Hill and no amount of racist talk by John Marquis can denigrate your legacy in Fox Hill.

The PLP has always protected Fox Hill since the days it was part of the far east district and we will continue to protect and defend Fox Hill.

Now for the future of Fox Hill, these are the projects for the future:

TEN POINTS FOR FOX HILL’S FUTURE

1. The completion of road infrastructure, parks and meeting room at Eastwood
2. The completion of the Community centre and its staffing and equipping
3. Seeking the Incorporation of the Fox Hill Village and its demarcation with appropriate street signs and sidewalks
4. Development of a park at the Ocean Hole
5. A Programme for Youth Jobs and Youth Development
6. The Construction of Additional classroom block, recreational facilities, library and teacher’s staff room at Sandilands Primary
7. The Acquisition of the land for expansion of Sandilands
8. The complete computerization of L.W. Young
9. The replanting of tree cover in the constituency
10. The expansion of Urban Renewal to complete the upgrading of the housing stock and settling of land issues.

I want to turn my attention to some national matters.

I wish also to address the concerns of defence force officers with regard to their promotions and the review of their pay.

There have been complaints from the RBDF that their pay parity with the Royal Bahamas Police Force was eroded during the FNM administration.  The PLP came to office with the intention of reverting to parity.  That exercise is underway and it is expected that the exercise will be completed shortly and with some good luck and goodwill within the next pay packet.

This matter has raised some concern with Immigration and Customs officers who have said that their concerns about promotions and pay remain unaddressed.  I have spoken to the President of the Bahamas Public Services Union and advised him that the question of parity for the Defence Force was an issue that was on the table prior to the existing settlement between the Bahamas Public Services Union and The Government.

While it is true that there is a compensation study, the RBDF issue pre dated the agreement and the study, and all persons will see adjustments once the compensation study is completed within the resources of the Government.

I wish to ask for the continued patience of Customs officers and Immigration officers with regard to their promotions.  The promotions files at the Public Service are complete and the additional information is now in the hand of the PSC.  Unless there are unforeseen difficulties, then the matter should be settled soon.

The Department if Immigration is still in the process of compiling their recommendations for promotions.  They have not yet reached the Public Service Department and when they do, the will be processed in a timely fashion.

I asked for patience from all public servants because I want to say that elections are not the end of the world.  The PLP is pledged to getting the job done and if you want to be assured that the promotions, pay raises and increases are done vote PLP in the next election.

Finally, I wish to speak about the upcoming pensions bills in the House of Assembly.  The bills will allow for the bridging of service of public servants who have had broken service, that is two periods or more where the service is not continuous.  The break cannot be more than two years.  Two bills will seek to protect the years of service of the beach wardens who were transferred by the FNM into the police force and without the legislation will not be able to keep their years of service at the Ministry of Tourism as pensionable.

I warn the FNM not to oppose these Bills, particularly since their leader Hubert Ingraham is collecting two salaries; that of an MP and one as Leader of the Opposition AND at the same time a Prime Minister’s pension, even though he is not retired.  Yet Mr. Ingraham denies hundreds of pensioners from the Government service that entitlement.

I want also to say that on the 22nd November 2006, the Government agreed to provide a lump sum payment of $300 to all civil service pensioners with an increase of 50 dollars per month beginning 1st January.  We hope that those who are on retirement from the Government will be able to feel the additional sums and that this will help all those who are on fixed incomes.  You should see the increases shortly in your pensions as the formalities are worked out with the Public Treasury.

This year the Customs Department is expected to get the highest ever level of revenue for the country: 730 million dollars over all, a record never before established.  It was done under the PLP.  Grand Bahama will give $75 million to the total, $36 million will come from Abaco and Eleuthera will contribute $20 million.

This is real money, real activity and real jobs.  The country is booming and it happened under the PLP.

The PLP is the party you can trust to protect the heritage of our country.  The intelligence of the FNM is saying that the hardcore support of the PLP is dead and dying; that there is no more support for who believes in The Bahamas.  Their view seems to be everyone for a price.  That is not the PLP way.  We believe in our country and believe in our people.   That is why we can proudly say 54 years after its founding: PLP ALLTHE WAY!

It is good to have all you here in Fox Hill and I thank you for coming.