KEYNOTE ADDRESS

BY

THE HONOURABLE PERRY G. CHRISTIE, M.P., LEADER OF THE PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL PARTY

TO

THE 43^rd ANNUAL GENERAL PARTY CONVENTION

MARRIOTT CRYSTAL PALACE HOTEL

THURDSAY, NOVEMBER 16^th, 2000

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Thank you, Alex, for introducing me so wonderfully. You made your Daddy so very proud of you. Isn’t she growing into a fine young lady ? She takes right after her mother! Thank you, Alex. I guess I owe you a large pizza!

You know, as I watched my daughter standing at the podium tonight I was reminded of how past and future are bound together in a continuum of hope. The Bahamas of the future I want for my daughter is the same Bahamas my mother wanted for me in the past: a country that is safe, a country that is free, a country whose people feel good about themselves and hopeful about their future; a country that is progressive in its outlook and fired by high ideals; a country which prizes compassion for one’s fellow man as the highest of all its social virtues; a country in which we treat each other with kindness and mutual respect; a country in which each of us is his brother’s keeper; a country in which we care about our neighbours and the communities in which we live; a country in which we help each other, build up each other and watch over one another; a country which is secure, whose streets you are not afraid to walk on by day or by night; a country in which Bahamians are the boss and not the servants to fast-buck profiteers and their local lackeys; a country that is prosperous not for the few but for all.

That is the Bahamas of the future I want for Alex and it is the same Bahamas my mother and father wanted for me.

Yes, the dreams our parents had for us are the same dreams we have for our own children. The past and future are indeed bound together in a continuum of idealism and hope for a better world.

But we do not live in the past anymore and we do not live in the future yet. We live in the present and it is in the present that we must find our way if the future we want for our children is ever to be realized.

That is why we are here in this Convention, isn’t it ? We are here as an affirmation of our commitment to the struggle for a better Bahamas for our children. Young or old, black or white, well-off or not so well-off, city-dweller or family islander, we are all of us soldiers in the continuing struggle for a better Bahamas and a brighter future.

Each of us has a special calling and it is in answer to that calling that we have assembled together in Convention this week. and my o’ my what a Convention it has been ! Hasn’t this been an exciting, uplifting week for all of us as we have come together in fellowship and in love and with a common purpose ? Over the last three days, we have laid out for the Bahamian people our vision of the kind of Bahamas we want for ourselves and for our children . And we will leave this Convention with stout hearts and a belly full of courage. We will leave this Convention feeling good about our Party and the course that we have set for the future as the next Government of The Bahamas before the next year is out.

Fellow Delegates :

Let me say how proud I am of all my colleagues in the leadership of the Party and in the halls of Parliament. But let me say a special word about my friend and colleague, Bradley Roberts. He has been a tower of strength to me and our party. He is a fearless warrior for truth and a resolute critic of all the failings and transgressions of the FNM Government. No one can question this man’s sincerity or his determination to leave no stone unturned in his quest for honesty and integrity in public affairs, especially when it comes to the war on drugs. It is a matter he believes in passionately and upon which he is utterly uncompromising. And lest there be any doubt as to where I stand, let me say that I am behind Bradley 100% in his stance against drug trafficking in all its nefarious forms. I salute him tonight and applaud him for his election as the new Chairman of our Party.

I also congratulate my esteemed and trusted Deputy, Dr. Cynthia “Mother” Pratt and all the other colleagues who were returned to office at this Convention.

I should also like to make special mention of Sen. the Hon. Obie Wilchchombe for the magnificient job that he did, along with the Convention Committee, in staging one of the best Conventions we have had in years. I congratulate you, Obie, on a job well done and I thank you also for all your many positive contributions as National Chairman of our Party over the past several years.

Fellow Delegates :

Wasn’t it so refreshing to hear the voices and the vibrant ideas of some of the candidates we shall be offering for the first time in the next elections. Young men and women like Kenyatta Gibson and Glenys Hanna-Martin; John Carey and Veronica Owens; Ron Pinder and Agatha Marcelle - champions all and future members of parliament each and everyone of them.

Having heard from them, there can be no doubt that we are assembling a fine team of PLP standard-bearers for the next general elections : men and women who are intelligent and industrious, who care passionately about people, who want to serve their fellow man and not themselves; men and women who understand the mission of the PLP and are prepared to struggle and fight to further that mission in the hearts and minds of all our people; men and women of honour and integrity, each and everyone of whom all Bahamians can hold up and feel proud; men and women who can serve as role models for the people they aim to serve, especially our youth. As your chief steward, I pledge to you tonight that all the candidates of the Progressive Liberal Party in the next elections will meet the criteria I have just enunciated. We can do no less. We must give to the nation our very best. The Bahamian people will accept no less. And as your Leader, I promise the Bahamian people that I will be faithful to this pledge.

And we are going to win the next election, fellow delegates! A fresh wind is blowing! Our time has come!

The Prime Minister says that this is the last lap for him; that come the next election, he’ll be stepping down. We take him at his word. But tonight let me send out this message loud and clear : whether Hubert Ingraham steps down or changes his mind and decides to hang on, it makes no difference to us because either way, come the next election, Hubert Alexander Ingraham will be GONE ! GONE! GONE! If he stays on we’re gonna beat him into retirement or opposition - the choice is his. If, on the other hand, he is true to his word and steps down, we are going to beat the man who succeeds him even worse! The PLP is on a roll! Our time has come ! A fresh wind is blowing! A fresh wind is going to blow the torch out and sweep the PLP to victory!

Are you ready, PLP’s? Are you ready to take your country back?

This FNM Government is really something else, isn’t it ? One broken promise after another.

The FNM, you know, can best be likened to a beauty pageant. In this beauty pageant there are eight contestants, all vying for the title of “Miss Ogly”. And the contestants in this FNM pageant are these :

MISS MANAGEMENT!

MISS RULE !

MISS BEHAVIOUR !

MISS TRUST!

MISS REPRESENTATION!

MISS USE!

MISS ING MONEY FROM BAHAMASAIR! and

MISS TAKE!

And the winner is ……… all eight contestants because that has been the story of the FNM for eight long years.

But, fellow delegates, the show is nearly over. Already, the lights are turning off. The time has come for the Bahamian electorate to boo them off the stage. The time has come to tell Hubert Ingraham and Frank Watson and Tennyson Wells and the FNM Government to take their tarnished crown and mashed-up flowers and head for the exit signs.

Oh, yes, A fresh wind is blowing now! The PLP is on the march again! It’s our time to take to centre-stage. And this time, it’s going to be PLP ALL THE WAY!

Are you ready, fellow delegates? Are you ready for one more march to victory? The next election is ours! When we next meet in Convention it will not be as Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition but as the Government of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. I feel it in my bones. I feel it pounding in my pulse. Stand up and march with me! Victory is just around the corner!

A week ago, Hubert Ingraham shouted “look around and see”! You heard him. I heard him too. Well, I don’t know about you but when he was finished with all his litany of boasts about how great and wonderful it all is, I wondered what planet he was living on. I wondered how anyone could be so out of touch with the world around him. I wondered how anyone could be so blind, deaf and dumb to what is really happening in his own country.

Let me therefore say at once that The Bahamas I see most assuredly is not the Bahamas that Hubert Ingraham sees.

Let me be even more frank about it: I do not see my country through the lens of the rich and powerful. I do not see it through the lens of the fat cats who are grinning from ear to ear because of the prosperity the FNM has brought their way. No, I see my country through a different lens. I see it through different eyes.

I see it through the eyes of Bahamians who watch in horror as this FNM Government of Hubert Ingraham sells our country out lock, stock and barrel to fast-talking land developers and quick-buck artists.

I see it through the eyes of mothers and fathers who go for a drive along the coastal areas of New Providence and worry whether their children will be able to go to the beach and play in the sea when they grow up. Even more than that, they worry whether there will be any land left for Bahamians to possess at a price within their reach.

Yes, Prime Minister, I see my country through different eyes. I see it through the eyes of young Bahamians who see their ambitions for upward mobility shriveling on the vine because the FNM Government has thrown Bahamianization overboard and is handing out work permits like they were going out of style

I see it through the eyes of young Bahamian professionals who are worried stiff about the blacklisting of the Bahamas and who are fearful for what the future holds for their jobs and the security of their families. They can’t for the life of them understand why the Ingraham Government did not see it coming, why they sat on their hands for so long and took no action whatsoever to prepare our #2 industry for the assault that is now rocking us from pillar to post, leaving us all in awful peril.

Yes, I see the Bahamas through different eyes because when I look around and see, I see a different picture from the picture Hubert Ingraham sees.

I see thousands of Bahamians living in barricaded homes, too fearful to go to sleep and too afraid to come out because of the crime that rages all about them.

I see hundreds of school children who are afraid to go to school because of the violence that awaits them in the classroom or on the playfield or on the way home.

I see that violent crime is out of control in our cities, snuffing out lives, mangling the limbs of the innocent, raising anxiety levels sky-high. Don’t brag about economic prosperity, Prime Minister, if you have failed to deliver on the most basic, the most fundamental need that any person has : safety and security in one’s own home and on one’s own streets and in one’s own workplace and in one’s own church and in the shops and stores of our land. Without that safety and security there can be no peace of mind, Mr. Ingraham, and without peace of mind of what use whatever is the economic prosperity of which you so often boast, Prime Minister?

But you see that’s exactly the problem because the Prime Minister is looking at a different Bahamas from the one you and I see day in and day out.

When I look around I see aspects of our present condition that the Prime Minister either cannot or does not want to see.

I look around and see that illegal immigration is out of control, threatening the social stability and future of our nation.

I look around and see that drug trafficking is back in full force while Mr. Ingraham’s own Minister of National Security admits on national radio that every day of the week drug money is sprouting up out of the ground in construction sites all across the land with Government approvals and permits and that the Government headed by Hubert Ingraham cannot or will not do anything about it.

Yes, I see a different Bahamas from the one Mr. Ingraham sees.

I see thousands of school children in overcrowded classrooms being taught by frustrated, underpaid teachers.

I see hundreds of young men who have given up on hope and given in to guns.

I see hundreds of young men and women who have given up on hope and given in to dope.

I see hundreds of young girls, some of them as young as 11 and 12, who have given up on hope and given into pregnancy.

Yes, Prime Minister, The Bahamas you see when you look around is not The Bahamas I see.

When I look around I see industrial unrest as never before. I see workers who are angry and fearful while respected, upstanding union leaders are treated with arrogant contempt by the Prime Minister when they seek to press their case for labour laws that are fair and just.

And as for all Mr. Ingraham’s boastful talk about economic prosperity, I ask the simple question: “Economic prosperity for whom?”

Because, you see, when I look around I see far too many Bahamian families still struggling to make ends meet.

I see other hundreds of school children who still go to school without lunch or to bed without supper.

I see old-age pensioners still waiting in long lines to collect pensions that are too little to live on with any kind of dignity.

I look around and see too many families who still have to sell conch-fritters out on Montague Bay to raise money for medical emergencies because there is no national safety net to help them.

I look around and see that 12,000 low-income Bahamians have applied for, and are in urgent need of, low-cost homes while the Government is building them at the rate of only 200 new homes a year. At this rate it will take 60 years to build homes for the people who have already applied and by then they’ll all be dead and buried!

I see family island communities that are dying from neglect and economic starvation. West End, South Eleuthera, South Andros, the list goes on and on. So don’t brag, Prime Minister, about what Sun International and Hutchinson Whampoa have done for our cities without begging for forgiveness for all the hotels that have closed in our family islands and all the projects that were promised but never got off the ground.

People are suffering out there, Prime Minister, and you just simply don’t see it.

Instead of a month-long tour of the capitals of Europe and North America from which you returned home empty-handed, you should have taken a month-long tour of the family islands and opened your eyes and the purse of the Government to the poverty and human suffering which afflicts so many of our communities. What ever became of all those grandiose promises of Deliverance you made to these same people who believed you and who put their trust in you only to be let down by your betrayal?

Yes, Prime Minister, you may want to crow about the prosperity you have created for some. But as for me, I must concern myself with the many who are still waiting for that prosperity to touch them. Those are the people for whom I am fighting. Not the rich, but the poor. Not the greedy but the needy. Not the powerful but the weak. Not the foreign business tycoon who is here today and gone tomorrow but for ordinary Bahamians who have nowhere else to go. It is not the big shot but the small man for whom I fight. Not those who can take care of themselves but those who need a helping hand.

That is what Perry Gladstone Christie is all about and that is what the struggle of our great Party is all about, yesterday, today and forever!

Fellow Delegates, Brothers and Sisters:

Time will not permit me to touch on more than one or two areas of national importance. One of these must necssarily be the issue of Crime.

When I assume office as Prime Minister, the first and most urgent order of business will be to break the back of crime. Nothing can possibly be more important than restoring peace and sanity to our society. To do this, we shall have to move aggressively and simultaneously along three fronts :

FIRSTLY, We must re-order our budgetary priorities in the short-term so that the financial resources are available to implement the policies that will be needed to break the back of crime. This budgetary boost must take account of the need to increase the personnel of our police force; to provide them with state-of-the art equipment and tools to get the job done; and to increase the salaries of police officers from the Commissioner of Police right down to the lowliest Constable so that they are better paid for the risks they take and the job they do to secure the peace. This is not only the fair and just thing to do but it will raise the morale of the Force and make it a more effective instrument of crime detection and law enforcement generally.

SECONDLY, we must concentrate more resources and adopt more creative strategies for crime prevention.

Too many lives are being lost to crime! Too many young lives are being given over to careers in crime! It has got to stop! It is time for the blood of violence to stop flowing in our streets and in the sanctuaries of our homes and schools. We must make our country safe again! Safe for our mothers and fathers and our grandparents! Safe for our children and their schoolmates and neighbourhood friends! Safe for ourselves and for everyone! We need not so much as a war on crime as a war for peace. We must reject the insanity of bloodshed! We must reject the corrupt morality which makes it alright to kill and to maim and to rob and steal and to deal in dope and death. We must make that kind of mindset, we must make that kind of morality a thing of the past. We must - we must all of us - commit ourselves, commit our families, commit our circles of friends, commit our neigbourhoods, commit our schools and commit our churches to the restoration of peace and social stability. Our war for peace must be a war to end all the other wars that threaten our wholeness as persons and as a people.

If the problem of crime is centred around our young, we must look to our youth not only for many of the answers to Crime but we must also not be afraid to let our youth take the lead in instituting the kind of community awareness and the kind of social outreach and interaction programmes which are so desperately needed if we are to succeed in creating a new social culture which places the sanctity of human life, the necessity for peaceful co-existence, and respect for the life and liberties of others, at the centre of our value-system.

One of our primary challenges, then, will be to engage in an intense and searching dialogue with the youth of our nation so that the underlying causes of crime can be diagnosed, properly understood, and then articulated and so that appropriate remedial measures can be undertaken to arrest the crisis.

But let me be more specific. We need NATIONAL YOUTH SERVICE to harness the restless energies of our unemployed young who are done with school. We need to instil in them discipline and purpose, respect for others and, most important of all, a reason for living wholesome, productive lives that enrich their own lives and the lives of their fellow citizens.

THIRDLY, we must ensure that our criminal justice system is expanded and modernized and better equipped to mete out swift and certain justice to those convicted of crime, especially violent crime.

Session Chairpersons, Ladies & Gentlemen :

I should like to say a brief word on trade unionism and our labour laws :

This I pledge to you and to our brothers and sisters in the trade union movement : The PLP will not introduce any reforms to our labour laws without the widest possible consultation with Trade Union leaders and representatives of Employer organizations. Any such legislation can only have legitimacy - and can only work - if it rests on a broad platform of consensus between workers and unions on the one hand and the community of employers on the other.

But let me add this: I share the concerns that have been expressed by union leaders about the regressive, union-busting provisions which appear in the FNM Government’s proposed legislation. We, as a Party will continue to oppose these provisions and if the FNM persists in, we will see to it that these union-busting provisions are repealed when we take office as the next Government of The Bahamas.

Session Chairpersons :

I must say a few words about the unhappy state of our nation’s #1 industry, Tourism.

If we look at the tourism statistics for the period 1990 – 1999 we will observe that the total visitors to The Bahamas has not grown substantially during that ten year period. We have only to review the data to observe that the total visitors to our shore in 1990 was 3.6 million and ten years later, the total visitors in 1999 was 3.6 million. In ten years, there has been virtually no change in the number of visitors to The Bahamas.

Interesting enough, we also observe that the total expenditure by tourist in 1990 was $1.334 Billion and remained at an average of approximately $1/3 Billion except for last year (1999) where the preliminary results by the Central Bank of The Bahamas says that the revenue would have risen to approximately $1.5 Billion. This number has not changed in twenty years; in fact the evidence suggests that today a higher proportion of our traffic is American than in 1980, not less.

One of the reasons for this is that we have lost a significant amount of Canadian and European business to the Dominican Republic and Cuba. To demonstrate this, 20 years ago 150 thousand Canadians visited The Bahamas annually. Today only 80 thousand visit The Bahamas per year. Our market share has gone to Cuba and The Dominican Republic. 20 year ago 140 thousand Europeans visited The Bahamas annually, 20 yeas later the number has not changed.

Twenty years ago the Dominican Republic had less than 4,000 hotel rooms. Today – they offer almost 50,000 hotel rooms catering mostly to Europeans, Canadians, Latin Americans and, increasingly, Americans.

Twenty years ago the Cuban tourism industry was non-existent. Today it offers 33,000 hotel rooms catering again to Europeans.

This is not at all an impressive showing for our premier industry, which has virtually stood still in the last ten years. This in spite of the fact the government talks about how well it has managed the Bahamian economy.

But the gross negligence however is the Government’s failure since 1997 to allow its tourism planners to have detailed information as to the origin of visitors coming to the Bahamas. As a result of the failure to process Visitors’ Immigration cards in a timely fashion Government cannot and does not have available to it accurate information as to where our tourists are coming from. How in the name of common sense can you continue to spend millions of tax payers dollars blindfolded so to speak without any basis without any basis for proper planning. Tourism officials imply have no idea where the people are coming from to The Bahamas.

This is absolutely and totally disgraceful and unacceptable and they should be totally ashamed of the lack of leadership. Again it demonstrates a reckless and caliver disregard for the use of public funds.

BAHAMASAIR.

Fellow delegates the FNM Government has made a total mess out of Bahamasair, the national flag carrier. The Government has something to hide. But I can assure you that your PLP will flush out the truth and we will lay it on the table before you the Bahamian people.

My fellow Bahamians, the examples of the FNM’s Government’s incompetence at Bahamasair are multitudinous . I will provide you with just a few to sink your teeth into tonight.

Number one.

1. Bradley Roberts told you last night about the missing $135,000 that has not yet been explained or recovered.

2. After one year of asking the Government to explain the circumstances surrounding the purchase of two approximately 22 year old 737 jet aircraft we ask again why has the Government not been able to produce a certificate as to the technical competence and value of these aircraft. It is now reasonable to conclude that the Government purchased these two aircraft at a cost of $10.5 million without having the benefit of an independent certification of the technical competence of these two aircraft and an independent appraisal that they were worth $10.5 million of the Bahamian tax payers money.

3. Bahamasair recently hired an international company named Sabre as consultants. These new consultants are costing the Bahamian taxpayer at least one million. But listen to this. Shortly after engaging Sabre at a cost of $1 million, Bahamasair made a decision to change its reservation system to the Sabre reservation system. Fellow delegates, we are advised that this change will cost Bahamasair another $15.4 million of the Bahamian tax payers money. Once again we in the PLP have asked Bahamasair to provide again independent certification that this was the right decision to make. We are advised that Bahamasair had for years relied on an internationally accepted reservation system called World Span which was created by Delta Airlines and used by Delta all over the world. I ask again, why would Bahamasair have abandoned the World Span system for the Sabre system for this extraordinary sum of $15.4 million.

We are told that the Sabre system is used by American Airlines. The Bahamian people need to know and they need to know now why the decision was made to change from one reservation system to another at a cost of $15.4 million by Bahamasair which we all know is a financially troubled airlines. My friend something stinks in Denmark and it aint the cheese.

(4) I have yet a new matter to raise with the Government and Bahamasair. I am advised that in 1993 a Canadian national whose name I know who worked as Stores manager at Bahamasair packed up $3.8 million worth of Boeing spare parts which belonged to Bahamasair and sent them on consignment to be sold by a company in Florida called Aegis.

Tonight I ask the Government and Bahamasair to tell me and the nation where is the money that must have been realized from the sale of this $3.8 million worth of spare parts by Aegis? Or where are the valuable and much needed spare parts. Who can tell the Bahamian people where did the money go or where can we find the spare parts? Sounds like we need a new Commission of Inquiry!

(5) Last night you heard Veronica Owens, our candidate for the Garden Hills constituency tell you that under the PLP Government, Bahamasair had a fleet of 12 aircraft with a staff of 820 employees and the airline had an average loss of $12 million per year. Bahamasair then had flew to significantly more international routes. The PLP was severally criticized by the FNM for running a grossly overstaffed airline and losing too much money. Tonight as I speak Bahamasair has five aircraft. Did you hear me. Bahamsair has five jet aircraft down from the 12 under the PLP and Bahamasair has more employees. To be exact, we are advised that the airline employees 840 persons and flies to substantially fewer destinations than under the PLP Government. And we are advised Bahamasair has lost at least some $16 million last year. And the airline is bracing itself for an expected loss this year of $25 million. Look around. It aint about you.

(6) We are advised that as a result of the Government not settling with the Bahamas Public Services Union the request for overtime pay on behalf of firemen and other Government employees at the Exuma International Airport, these employees stopped working overtime some three weeks ago. Unless this matter is settled this will be very disruptive to Bahamasair’s decision to fly to Exuma at 6:30 am and at nights and of course those international flights serving Exuma.

This FNM Government stands condemned by the very yardstick they used to measure the PLP Government. The record speaks for itself. Against the PLP’s record at Bahamasair, the FNM Government is a colossal failure and a millstone around the Bahamian tax payers neck.

Look around at the mess they have made of things in eight short years.

Distinguished Ladies & Gentlemen:

As we bring our Convention to a close, we are only too aware that amidst all our excitement we remain saddened by the recent loss of our beloved former Leader.

Sir Lynden was the Father of our nation. It was he who led the popular struggle for Majority Rule; the march to full nationhood; and the flowering of the promised land for all Bahamians. For more than forty years he strode across the Bahamian stage as a colossus, preaching the gospel of social justice and the economic upliftment of his people. With a single-minded dedication to his mission, he laboured without cease to improve the lives and lot of ordinary Bahamians all across our archipelago. For Sir Lynden, his work was never done. There was always one more tear to wipe from someone’s eye. No one in our history ever applied himself with more energy, discipline, creativity and visionary insight in the service of his fellowman than our late brother and fallen comrade, my friend, my mentor, my inspiration and my hero - the greatest of all our national heroes - Lynden Oscar Pindling. We remember him tonight as we shall remember him always.

But we must go on. We must go forward. Sir Lynden’s shoes can never be filled. Not by me. Not by anyone, now or ever. But still we must go on. I don’t care how many centuries come and go, there will never ever be anyone whose achievements will ever compare with what Lynden Pindling achieved for this country. But still we must march on. He would have wanted us to and our destiny compels us to.

We pride ourselves, then, on being on the right side of history. We know, as our forefathers in the struggle knew, that the things we collectively believe in as Party and as a matter of private conscience are the very things which have throughout history propelled humanity the world over towards the promised land of social justice and equality for all.

The challenge which faces us today, however, is to enlarge upon the tradition from which we have sprung; to re-define the progressivism, the liberalism and the democratic values which Sir Lynden championed for more than 40 years.

I therefore re-enlist you all tonight in our ongoing crusade to rescue our beloved homeland from the grip of crisis and to restore us to the quest for a better Bahamas that was interrupted eight years ago.

I therefore charge you tonight to rouse yourselves. Rise up ! Stand tall and strong ! Ready yourselves for the march ahead ! Join now hand in hand and with a robust voice full of determination and courage, march forward with me to rescue our beloved homeland and to keep it safe for our children and the generations to come.

GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

PLP ALL THE WAY!

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