BRADLEY B. ROBERTS
SANDY POINT, ABACO PLP RALLY
SOUTH ABACO CONSTITUENCY, BAHAMAS
My brothers and sisters of South Abaco, I come to you tonight fresh from the festivities in Nassau, on what was Nomination Day. My brothers and sisters, I want you to know that all is well in Nassau. For as I moved around Nassau, all I could hear was people saying how they wish today was Election Day, so they could show the FNM once and for all what they really think about their two terms in office. My brothers and sisters, I was told that the FNM Candidates paid sixty dollars a person for people to play junkanoo music as they went to the nomination polls. And guess what my brothers and sisters, the junkanoo’s that I saw on the road, where playing junkanoo music for the FNM Candidates, but as I passed they were showing the PLP hand sign!
My brothers and sisters, the
good news out of Nassau is that your PLP is ready to govern this Bahamas. The
bad news is that you have to wait 21 more days before we take office. My
brothers and sisters, the word also out of Nassau is that besides for the FNM
running a dirty and lying campaign, they have panicked and now they are running
what you call a “damned if you do and
damned if you don’t campaign.” It is called this kind of campaign because
they have now enlisted Hubert Ingraham to take over the campaign cause it seems
that Tommy T. can’t get the job done.
My brothers and sisters, all
of a sudden Hubert Ingraham has crawled from out of the hole he was hiding in
for the past two months and now he’s speaking at rallies again for the FNM.
Well what happened to all the talk about him passing the torch over to Tommy?
What happened to all the talk about him taking a back seat and letting the three
stooges, Tommy, Dion and Algernon run the election show? I understand that
Hubert told his Constituents in the North that this election will be the last
time that he will be running. But didn’t he say that in 1997, when at a rally
in North Abaco, he claimed that then would be the last time that he would
climbing a podium to ask for North Abaco’s vote? Do you remember that?
And what about right here
where we are tonight? How many times did Robert Sweeting say goodbye in the
House of Assembly to you the South Abaco Constituents? In fact that is just
about all he said to you and for you during his time in Parliament. And now
he’s coming back again begging you to elect him to waste your voice and his
time in Parliament, where if he is elected all you’ll hear him say his how much
he loves his FNM Government.
So my brothers and sisters, Hubert Ingraham and Robert Sweeting
are running again because they believe that if they don’t run, the PLP will win
both of the seats. In other words, they know you are not fool enough to vote
for any other FNM’s, but they believe you are fool enough to vote for them
again. Well this time you must show them better and let them know, like the
people in Nassau will let them know; tell them they are damned if they bring
Hubert back to the people again and they are damned if they don’t. Cause either
way, they are gone with him at the lead, or with that simpleton Tommy T. at the
lead.
Hubert
Ingraham and Tommy T. are bad news. And both are bad news for you. For example,
look how the farming industry has suffered with the FNM in Office. Farmers in
the Bahamas really have no need to grow anything because the FNM Government has
destroyed the market for agricultural products. The big foreign hotels in the
country have no need to deal with you the farmers of South Abaco, because the
FNM Government has not put in place any policy to demand that they deal with
you. Then they say that the farmer’s product isn’t up to the standard needed to
service the big hotel entities of the Bahamas. But if it isn’t up to the
standard, it could be brought up to standard. But, it can’t and won’t be
because the FNM Government couldn’t give two hoots about the Bahamian
agricultural product.
My brothers and sisters,
they would rather send our public money abroad to build up a good relationship
with foreigners, while Bahamian farmers and your products die a slow and
agonizing death. The FNM Government would rather have a surplus of food for the
nation for six weeks at a time, and make another country even richer by buying
their products, instead of putting real and serious money into our own
industry, with our own people first. And then if we need outside products as
supplements then we buy them. The FNM Government would rather import everything
and take our money, then export some things and you make money.
But my brothers and sisters, I have good news for you tonight, a
new PLP Government, will finally end all of the questions of whether we can
make agriculture work for us as a product that will guarantee that we can
always eat and as a product that will guarantee that we can make real money
from other nations. The UBP Government didn’t do it. The old PLP Government
started to do it. The FNM made sure that it wouldn’t be done. But your new PLP
Government will finally put to rest the worry about Bahamians not being able to
feed ourselves. And you the Abaco farmer will play a real and vital role in
that happening. So put on your farming
hat! Break out your seeds to grow! And get ready to farm like you’ve always wanted
to but really haven’t been given the chance. Your new PLP is gonna create for
you the policy for an agricultural explosion.
My brothers and sisters,
before I leave you tonight I want to deal with one of the FNM’s many lies and
that being that they don’t victimize Bahamians. Well I want you to remind them
of something when they come around you talking foolishness about the PLP
victimizing people. I want them to be reminded of Bobby Jones, right here in
Abaco, who in 1992 was moved from the Labour Department right after the FNM
won? Why was he moved? I want them to be reminded of Albert McKenzie who was in
charge of the Water and Sewerage right here in Abaco and he was transferred in
1992, right after the FNM took over? Why was he moved?
My brothers and sisters, I
want to remind them about Richard Gibbs, who was in charge of National
Insurance, right here in Abaco and was transferred in 1992 right after the FNM
took over. Why was he moved? It is my understanding that all of these fine
persons were PLP supporters. And the FNM wants to talk about victimization? I
can talk all night naming people that the FNM has victimized in Abaco and in
Nassau as well as every place else in the Bahamas. Look at how the FNM
Government has treated one of the finest Permanent Secretaries in the nation
and possibly one of the best in our history.
Here is an excellent
professional who knows more about government procedure than any of the 40 FNM
dummies, but they have that Permanent Secretary in an office sitting and doing nothing, thanks to Hubert
Ingraham. My brothers and sisters you should know only too well what a death
sentence that is for people who believe in working; to sit and do nothing. For
the FNM Government these last nine years have had you doing the same thing. Nothing!
My brothers and sisters, I
want to close by saying to you, that this is the most critical election that we
will face in this country’s history. Everything is at stake. The FNM Government
has all but wiped out your past, where you were proud to be Bahamian and the
world knew it. The FNM has made your present miserable. And the FNM is plotting
your fall into complete slavery as your future. Single handedly Hubert Ingraham has made the word Bahamian, a second
class word. And Tommy T. and the rest sat right there silent while he was doing
it. Single handedly, Hubert Ingraham forced you to have to accept that a job in
your own country was all you deserved. And Tommy T. and the rest sat right
there silent while he was doing it. Single handedly, Hubert Ingraham destroyed
the moral principles and quiet decency of what was once a peaceful Bahamas. And
Tommy T. and the rest of them sat right there silent while he was doing.
And yet my brothers and sisters, they now claim that are ready to serve
you and right all the wrongs and make new promises, after breaking the many
they made before. They believe that you are fool enough to think that the ones
who caused the problems can also solve the problems. Single Handedly, Hubert
Ingraham has caused this country to be in a position that if we don’t elect the
right people on May 2nd, our country will be ruined forever. That is
the place that Hubert Ingraham has caused us to be at after nine plus years of
FNM Government. And Tommy T. and the rest of them sat right there and was
silent while he was doing it.
Well my brothers and sisters, I want you to know that your new PLP will
run Hubert Ingraham back into his hole on May 2nd. And Tommy T and the rest of
them will be right there with him sitting silent when we do it. My brothers and sisters you
must do your part, bring your PLP Candidate Edison Key across the victory line
in first place. Don’t do it for him. Don’t do it for the PLP. But do it for
your country. Do it for your future. Vote Edison Key. Vote PLP.
PLP! ALL THE WAY! PLP! THE
ONLY WAY!