PLP on FNM Chairman's Comments Re South Africa State Visit

THE PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL PARTY

PRESS STATEMENT

Issued by
Raynard Rigby
National Chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party
Sunday, the 4th day of January, 2004

“FNM must show greater political maturity in 2004”

The recent press statement issued by the Chairman of the FNM, Carl Bethel, and which was published in The Tribune of Friday the 2nd January, 2004 edition under the captioned: “FNM: PM ‘insulted’ hotel workers”and in the Nassau Guardian of even date under the captioned: “Go-slow stopped”; smacks of the most brazen political immaturity ever seen in Bahamian politics.

It is the position of the PLP that the comments that were made by the Prime Minister arising out of the industrial action of hotel workers during the state visit of President Thabo Mbeki was indeed appropriate, wise and sensible.

The attempt by the FNM to suggest that the Prime Minister criticized and attacked hotel workers smacks of a “smear” campaign designed by the FNM to engage in a senseless and opportunistic political witch hunt against the Government. It also amounts to a brazen and irresponsible attempt by the FNM to seek cheap political points over the industrial unrest at a time when the integrity and reputation of all Bahamians were at stake.

It is really a sad commentary when the Official Opposition can publicly suggest that the Prime Minister’s comments in respect of the need to review the Labour laws and the actions of the workers amounted to an international insult and was akin to the struggles in South Africa during apartheid. It is these comments that the PLP find politically offensive, devoid of common sense and naked of any real understanding of the international importance and respect that come along with a state visit of the caliber and standard of that made by President and Madame Mbeki to The Bahamas. In fact, to make the comparison to apartheid shows real insensitivity and a lack of respect by the FNM to the struggles of the Blacks in South Africa and belittle the role played by The Bahamas and the international community to bring an end to apartheid and to secure the freedom of Nelson Mandela and the other freedom fighters.

It remains the considered posture of the PLP that it is important for all mature political parties to act in the fashion that the public demands. And it is even more important for there to be a common consensus in respect of matters that are of a non-political nature. It is the hope of the PLP and its leadership that during this New Year the leadership of the FNM will demonstrate a greater degree of political maturity and will cease from their undignified manner of seeking to create division over matters that really and in substance are non-political.

For our part in the PLP, we thought that the proper thing for the FNM to do is to congratulate the Prime Minister and the Government for recognising the importance of such a state visit and to challenge the Government to formulate closer trade, educational, cultural and economic ties with the peoples and Republic of South Africa.

Further, it is also incumbent on the FNM to publicly recognsie the inherent dangers that may flow to the international reputation of The Bahamas when industrial action occurs during a state visit. It is essential for FNM politicians to understand that there are occasions when it is appropriate for them to abandon their political differences with the PLP; particularly when the issue involves the rights of all Bahamians and/or when the matter is one where the international reputation of The Bahamas is at stake. Surely, the FNM must recognize that the days of blind partisan politics as a means of showing the electorate the differences between the parties are over.

The PLP renews its call for the FNM to show a greater degree and appreciation for mature politics. It is our hope and prayer that in 2004 the FNM and its leadership will gain a better understanding of when issues deserve criticism and when issues deserve no comment from them.

Certainly and with an objective approach, the statement made by the Prime Minister deserved no comment. Carl Bethel and the FNM must learn when to speak and when to be quiet.