FOX HILL RESPONDS TO ANDRE ROLLINS STATEMENT
illness times;”>Andre Rollins MP has a penchant now for getting into stuff that doesn’t concern him. He has not been in the headlines anytime lately. We predicted that after leaving the PLP in a huff and not thinking about it properly, his star has faded with the press; warned him not to get intoxicated or addicted to newspaper headlines. Newspapers don’t vote. Newspaper editors are in the business of selling news. Whatever is convenient for their headlines they do? Of course he cannot be advised so he proceeds to attack his first and last supporter in the PLP Fred Mitchell by making the libelous statement that Fred Mitchel, the Minister of Foreign Affairs is an enemy of the state. Hmmm.
The Fox Hill Constituency office issued the following statement:
From Altamese Isaacs, Office Administrator:
Fox Hill Constituency Office
6th August 2015
(Fred Mitchell is off the island and the following statement is released after consultation with him)
We consider the statements attributed to the MP for Ft. Charlotte and reported in The Tribune 6 August to be a betrayal of the worst kind of Fred Mitchell our Member of Parliament.
We are aware of the following:
The efforts of Mr. Mitchell to actively recruit Andre Rollins to the PLP;
The shepherding of his career by Mr. Mitchell, both personally and publicly from the time he was a little boy;
The protection by Mr. Mitchell of Mr. Rollins from criticisms within the PLP when Mr. Rollins made errors of judgment.
We stood silent as he betrayed the principles of the PLP which gave him a free ticket into a PLP seat, launched his career, and mishandled his appointment as Chairman of the Gaming Board.
Within the PLP he had become a poster child for emotional outburst and not thinking through the many statements that he made.
We witnessed the complaints from constituents that he had largely abandoned them and continues not to pay attention to his constituency.
Our view now is that the statement about Mr. Mitchell is not only ill-advised and inaccurate but it is an attempt to remain relevant after crashing and burning his political career in the face of all that was provided to him gratuitously by the PLP with Mr. Mitchell’s support and guidance.
All of that is perhaps passable, but what is not acceptable is the great ethical and moral failing of stabbing Fred Mitchell in the back with this latest statement. The statement is in our view defamatory. We hope the appropriate legal action is taken.
It is a fundamental tenet of politics that when someone is your protector and ally that you don’t stab that person in the back.
Cecil Wallace Whitfield used to say he would only attack someone who attacked him.
The great failing of Andre Rollins in all of this then is his failure to appreciate the fundamental lessons of loyalty, faithfulness and trust. Ingratitude is stronger than a traitor’s arms. Mark Anthony when describing the cowardly murder of Julius Caesar described the last stab by Caesar’s friend Brutus as the “unkindest cut of all”.
Mr. Rollins must be a very unhappy young man. We truly pity him.