42 THE PUNCH, Thursday, July 14, 2016

P Lunch inesLETTERS TO THE EDITORDear Editor COME on folks, send in thoseletters. to: ,Box N-4081, Nassau; sendto ; send to:

We reserve the right to edit your letters.

Write PunchLinesOR faxes

323-5268 OR e-mailthepunch@batelnet.bs .

COME on folks, send in those letters. Write to: PunchLines, Box N-4081, Nassau; OR send faxes to 323-5268 ; OR send e-mail to thepunch@coralwave.comWe reserve the right to edit your letters.

PM Perry Christie said the country has

come a long way since Independence in 1973. But I disagree with him! In many areas, we have failed to improve and even gone backwards!

Look at education. I think our schools

and teachers were better before Independence. Also, crime was under control—and law-abid-ing people didn’t live in fear for their lives.

Government cor-ruption is stifling

progress. That was not the case before 1973 when politicians for the most part wanted to im-prove The Bahamas.

Pete Murray, Nassau

DR Hubert Minnis can only blame himself for his troubles. He fails to inspire unity. And his

leadership has brought further fracture and divi-sion within the FNM. Sidney Collie must go too be-cause he has only caused further mischief since his appointment as Chairman. This crisis of confidence in the FNM leadership is largely Minnis’ own crea-tion. At the convention, both he and Colllie should be booted out of leadership. M Seymour, Nassau

Slick Chinaplotting toconquer usby takingour primeproperties

PM needs to fire Fitz for hisnegligence in gas-leak row

Minnis and Collie must go!

Fred’s advisoryploy backfireson Perry’s PLP

Ramsey wasFNM fall-guy

THE Bahamas is the laughing stock of the world. We have a knack for bowing to for-

eigners—and giving them our land for a pittance. The Chinese are set to take over The Bahamas lock, stock and barrel! We have lost our dignity and pride to the Chinese. In return, they gave us a stadium that is allegedly mould-infested.

There seems to be a plot by the Chinese to take every piece of prime real estate.

I believe the 1,000-acre Baha Mar nightmare is a snapshot of their intentions. Sadly, they are able to use our greedy politicians to get their way. The sinister Chinese are investing in The Bahamas to gain a geopolitical advantage over the U.S. in this region. S Washington, Nassau

Brad raps FNM in row

I STILL do not under-stand why only Fred

Ramsey was charged in the BEC bribery scan-dal. There were other members of the then-FNM Government who seemed to be involved. But apparently Mr Ram-sey was the fall-guy. I am glad he was not sen-tenced to jail. But I feel the justice system failed to make a case against others in the FNM Gov-ernment of that time, who may also have benefited from the bribes. People in authority need to learn that if you get involved in crookedness, you will eventually pay the price and possibly go to jail!

Vanria Moncur, Nassau

THE PLP was within its rights to issue a travel ad-visory on the U.S. But I feel it wasn’t the smartest action to take, given our dependency on the U.S. After all, some 90 per cent of our tourists come from North America. First, the advisory wasn’t telling Bahamians anything they didn’t already know. And,

PM wrong:we’ve gonebackwards

AS leader of the FNM, Dr Hubert Minnis should be the last person to talk about fighting corruption since the FNM seems to encourage corruption.

Just check his party’s record of recent events that have played out under the glare of the media. One could not make up this shocking stuff.

Members of the FNM Fort Charlotte branch claim their elections were corrupt and took the matter to court. The ammunition possession and conviction of

second, the advisory had no tourism, economic or reputational impact what-soever on the U.S. However, the advisory “in retaliation” by the U.S. on The Bahamas will al-most certainly impact the number of tourists visiting our islands. This will hurt us. And for what? Just because Foreign Affairs & Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell wanted to score cheap political points over the U.S. This was a case of “Dread Fred” Mitchell’s over-sized ego prevailing over common sense. Once again, Mitchell showed poor political judgment in the global arena. PM Christie needs to rein in “loose cannon” Mitchell before he does more lasting harm to our tourism and economy.

Jeremy Maines, Nassau

on corruption

FNM Senator John Bost-wick forced him to re-sign from the Senate in disgrace. FNM chairman and Senator Michael Pin-tard was caught on tape discussing a murder-for-hire plot to a former FBI agent and a criminal. He was later heard discuss-ing a payment by an ex-pat to a local gangster in exchange for the thug’s signature on an affidavit filed in a murder-for-hire plot court case. After ap-parently pretending to be ignorant of this sordid af-fair, Minnis was forced to admit that he met with both of the hired hitmen, Toggie and Bobo. The scandal that captured in-

ternational attention was the conviction of former FNM candidate and Sen-ator Fred Ramsey on the $300,000 bribery charg-es in connection with a BEC contract.

Minnis and the FNM believe that they are above the law and should not be held accountable for their actions. They pretend to embody in-tegrity by lecturing every-body else on integrity and smearing certain PLPs.

That is the worst form of deflection and political bluster—not to mention delusional.

Bradley Roberts, PLP Chairman, Nassau

THE PLP Government’s failure to warn resi-dents in the Marathon constituency about the health hazards of the Rubis gas leak was a betrayal of epic proportions.

Speaking on a radio show, Marathon PLP MP Jer-ome Fitzgerald coldly, proudly and shamelessly declared that he had “no regrets” about how he handled the disgraceful gas-leak scandal. At the time, when asked why he remained silent, Fitzgerald said he acted to save his job, explaining that if he had spoken out, he would have been fired from Cabi-net. HOW SELFISH!

Months later it seems the uncaring, arrogant Minister has absolved him-self of any responsibility in the matter and says he feels “NO REGRETS”.

He apparently has no regrets about the fact that scores of families were torn apart by sickness and death. And no re-grets about betraying the people who elected him to office—to preserve his cushy political job. In an-other country, Fitzgerald

would have been fired as an MP and Cabinet Minis-ter—and probably faced criminal charges for neg-ligence and dereliction of duty. Instead, under the lacklustre leadership of PM Perry Christie, he has got off scot free!

All members of the Christie Cabinet must be reminded that their first obligation is TO THE PUBLIC. And as MPs, the onus falls on THEM to protect and serve the in-terests of all residents in their constituencies.

Emily Williams, DNAcandidate, Marathon