PLP Rally
Clifford Park

Friday 20th April, 2007

Have you seen any sign of salt and pepper lately?

You remember the time when they called themselves salt and pepper and strode up to the FNM platform to the strains of Ebony and Ivory?  I wonder what ever happened to salt and pepper.
 

I wondered because the evening before last someone took down all of the posters of the FNM candidate for St. Anne’s and replaced them with this huge photo of the candidate for North Abaco.

Everywhere you go along the Eastern Road, there is no sign of salt, but there is plenty of pepper to be found.

Pepper is everywhere, talking on the radio about the joys of being a grand pappy and how it’s made him more patient, talking to civil servants about what he is going to do.

Well grand pappy, you have plenty of talking to do and you had better come good because nothing that you have said up to now is believable.   This time is your last time, a time for retirement.

One thing you must tell us is where is salt and is he in hiding, and if so why is salt in hiding?  I call on salt to come out come out from wherever he is and let us see him. Let salt and pepper show the real face of the Free National Movement.

This evening, I wish to speak of the public service, since the FNM’s candidate for North Abaco seems to have made it an issue.

I am amused by the comments of the FNM’s candidate for North Abaco who says that he promises to remove the political neutrality of the public service so that those who want to run for political office can do so without having to resign once they are nominated.

 
This of course will legalize the practice he has done under us where many of his candidates violated the rules of the public service and were candidates in everything but in name.

By their actions they worked for the present administration but certainly in retrospect raised the suspicion that the whole time they were working to undermine the government, sabotaging the Government at every turn.

I won't call names tonight but you know who they are.

The Public Service already allows political participation by its workers.  Those in the category below $19,000 per annum are in the politically free category so they can participate in any activity, except they cannot hold party office or run for the House without resigning.

Those in middle management are partially restricted and can only do so with permission and then there is the top management that is absolutely prohibited.

So there is no restriction on politics that needs to be changed.

What I believe is that there ought to be changes in the rules but not the one proposed by Mr. Ingraham.  That is when a government comes into office; it ought to be able to choose who it wants as its top managers and policy advisors; but when the Minister or the Government goes those advisors go with them.

That is the American system and I believe it ought to be practiced here.
 

I appeal to the public service to tell grand pappy that he is still remembered for firing public servants at will.

Public servants remember how he called in senior police officers and fired them on the spot, told them to pack up their belongings and leave office.  Some of them were so heartbroken that they passed away soon thereafter…fired summarily without any thought for their futures, their children’s education, and their mortgages.  That is the Hubert Ingraham we know and remember and we have not forgotten him.

No one has forgotten that it was he – and you must not let him forget – that it was he who told pensioners in the public service that they could not collect their pension and their salary at the same time if they were rehired by the government, unlawfully deprived them of their rightful entitlement to a pension.

Yet he today collects both his salary and his pension.
 
It is this government that changed the policy and is seeking to restore pensions to those wrongfully deprived.  Indeed a decision was recently taken to redress a list of prison officers who were wrongfully deprived of their pensions.

All public servants should remember that it was the same Hubert Ingraham who suspended the air traffic controllers because he did not want to give them a fair contract.

This government signed an industrial agreement with them and restored them to their rightful place in the service.

I want to remind you that this same Hubert Ingraham who begs your pardon for his bad behavior and bad manners last time; who describes himself as a patient grand pappy;  this same Hubert Ingraham was the one who opposed the raise for old age pensioners and national insurance pensioners not even one month ago in the House of Assembly.

This is the same Hubert Ingraham who said two years ago that he would reduce the public service if he came to power and send public servants to the private sector.

He accuses us of hiring persons in the service, but what he does not tell you is that we inherited a disastrous policy of a moratorium in hiring left by him which gutted the fresh entries into the service and the management class of the service.

He forgot to tell you that he hired 300 people just before he left office on a three month contract and it was we who had to keep those persons on in the service when we inherited the Government in 2002.  We did that because we care for people.

It was this government that signed industrial agreements with the BPSU, the Nurses Union, the Bahamas Union of Teachers.  We signed legally enforceable industrial agreements with these public sector unions for the first time.

Anyone who wants to be honest must know that the PLP is the best to lead this country and better for the public service and the reform that is needed because we are people-focused and people-oriented.

So, armed with the facts you can now go out into the country.

You speak proudly about how the PLP government gave the largest promotions ever in the history of the Police Force and the Defence Force.

The PLP is simply better.

I believe it is also important to put a stop to the lies being told about the PLP’s land policies.  This same Hubert Ingraham is the one who repealed the PLP’s Immoveable Properties Act to make it possible for all his rich friends to sell away Bahamian land to their hearts content.

And he has the unmitigated gall to tell us we are selling land.

We bought back Clifton… hundreds of acres bought back from the private sector for 18 million dollars for the heritage of the Bahamian people.  In Harbour Island we bought land that the National Trust wanted to sell and placed it in public hands for the Bahamian people.
 
 

In Mayaguana, there is no give away of Bahamian land, we have invested in a joint venture company with a developer and the land is therefore still owned by the Bahamian people but it will be developed in their best interests.

We bought back 220 acres of private land in West End and it now belongs to Bahamians.
In Winding Bay in Abaco, land there is owned in a joint venture between the Government and  the Winding Bay Developers.  It is not sold into private hands.  That is a big lie.

Now the FNM attacks the Bahamar development pledged for Cable Beach.  My friends the only point about Bahamar is jobs.

This project promises to create as many as 8000 jobs.  At that rate, this is a project that we ought to see through to conclusion and we can work out anything that causes a problem but so far there are no insurmountable issues.

And never mind the unusual style of these developers of negotiating in press.  The fact is our young people need work and we have to keep the jobs coming.

The land does not part from the Bahamian people if the company does not perform.  If they do not perform and do what they say they are going to do, the land still belongs to the Bahamian people.

So when the FNM seeks to spread lies about the project, it is meant only to defeat the PLP and we must not let them.

These folks, this man, they are masters of deceit.  A whole campaign run on smoke and mirrors, trying to attribute to us what they themselves were guilty of.

No one gave away more Bahamian land than Hubert Ingraham.  The PLP have bought back the land and saved it for the Bahamian people.  Just take a walk at Clifton and see what belongs to you; forever.

I want to end by warning you to be on your guard.  This is a campaign led by wickedness, evil and deceit.  Nowhere is this more evident than in Fox Hill, where one lie after another has been told.
 

The latest lie is that somehow PLPs were engaged in stopping the FNM caravan in Fox Hill small though it was when it is clear from the facts that if there were any trouble at all it came from the Free National Movement’s side.

They must explain why they and their leaders in Fox Hill continue to tear down our posters…

They must explain why they and their leaders in Fox Hill continue to seek to intimidate voters by drunken and unlawful threats and intimidation.

In one case they even tried to crash our grill party and eat our food, led by you know who.

PLPs be strong.  You must keep focused.  Work door to door to door.  One person at a time.  That is the formula for victory.  I am certain we will prevail.

I end as I began, where is salt in the old salt and pepper duo?  Salt is clearly in hiding and he knows why.

That is why we say: Forward Ever, Backward Never! Forward Ever Backward Never! Forward Ever Backward Never!

PLP ALL THE WAY!