The Member of Parliament and PLP candidate for Golden Gates, Shane Gibson, officially launched his campaign last evening with a grand celebration.  Mr.  Gibson’s remarks can be read in it’s entirety below.

I just love that song;

They whisper, conspire, they told their lies, God favors me.

My Character, my integrity, my faith in God, God favors me.

Will not fall, will not bend, won’t compromise. God favors me.

I speak life and prosperity and I speak health. God favors me.

My brothers and sisters, firstly I would like to thank the Almighty God for directing my life thus far and having me to be in a place to continue representing the wonderful workers of this great country.

Then I want to thank my wife of 26 years, who came into my life and made it complete. I want to thank my kids for sacrificing their father over the years as I do the people’s business. Then I want to thank my parents for instilling in me the principles and foundation, which created the platform to be where I am today.

I want to thank the wonderful people of the great constituency of Golden Gates who have supported me from 2002 to now. I want to thank the hard and dedicated campaign workers of Golden Gates, who work tirelessly year round to help me represent this great constituency. Finally I thank my friends and family who have all contributed significantly to my success over the years.

Through their support, we have made Golden Gates the envy of many constituencies throughout The Bahamas.

Then the man God used to bring me to the place I am today, and who will take me to the next level. I speak of Rt Hon. Perry Gladstone Christie. Thank you Mr. Christie, The Bahamas is so proud of the way you represent us, and we will forever be proud of the way you built on the bridge to the future, creating a new generation of leaders for tomorrow.

Golden Gates, this is not my story; It is your story. I make no apology for being a passionate, result driven person.

From I was elected in Golden Gates, I was able to accomplish the following:

We will continue to expand our programs and reintroduce our senior citizen association to create an outlet for the precious pearls of Golden Gates.

So as you can see, we have a lot to be proud of.

Now if you’re listening to the FNM, you won’t hear any of those things – they aren’t going to tell you about all the things we’ve accomplished together in Golden Gates.

The FNM may have delivered a completely botched roadworks project, tens of millions of dollars in cost overruns, and millions missing – that’s what they’ve delivered.

The other thing they’ve consistently delivered is lies, lots and lots of lies.

I said in parliament in October 2010, that The Bahamas will see the most vicious campaign ever seen in this country launched against me and so it has come to pass.

That’s what cowards do when they have their backs against the wall – they invent lies, they try to justify their record of failure with lies about us.

But the truth is a beautiful thing, Golden Gates!  The truth will set you free!

Let me tell you how this all started.

I was home minding my own business one day, many years ago, and while watching Parliament, I heard the then-Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham attack me, telling my members that if I didn’t  support the privatization of BTC, then they should send him the man or woman who believed in privatization. That was his first mistake. At that time, I was a strong supporter of the FNM., but a stronger supporter of labor, and I will always put the interest of workers above the interest of any political party. We then mounted mass demonstrations against the FNM administration who was adamant that they wanted to give away Batelco to Foreigners — Bahamians need not apply has always been their philosophy!

During one of those demonstrations, I called Hubert Ingraham a Coward on two occasions, and when I saw him later that day, he was visibly upset – he said, Shane, you called me a coward, not once, but twice. He has never forgotten that!   We all know Hubert Ingraham never forgets an insult!  He may have no idea how to fix crime or create jobs, but he knows how to carry out a feud or a vendetta!  He specializes in revenge.

Well, I’m not one to back down — so I say to you here tonight, he is as much as a coward now as he was back then.

The FNM didn’t believe in Bahamians then, and they don’t believe in Bahamians now.

Since coming to office in 2007, this government has terminated Customs, Immigration and Police Officers, they have terminated hundreds of BTC workers, NIB staff, ZNS workers. Now I’m advised that they have a big termination plan in their back pockets, just ready to go if – God forbid – they win.  That’s right, they intend to terminate forty percent of BEC staff, twenty percent of Water and Sewerage staff and twenty five percent of the public service.

You remember in 2007?  We warned then they had a big round of layoffs planned, and they said we were making it up.  This time Bahamians know whom to believe.  The history speaks for itself.

They will go down in Bahamian history as ending more jobs than they were able to create — a stunning record of failure.

They have one set of rules for their special friends and supporters, and another set of rules for everyone else.  You know who ends up getting the good deals and who ends up getting the boot, don’t you?

That’s why these government ministers run through back doors, ducking the constituents they’re supposed to represent!

Hubert Ingraham may be the most mean-spirited Prime Minister this country has ever seen, but it won’t be for too much longer.  He won’t even be an MP in a few more weeks – as Renaldo Curry is going to send him packing!  The people of Abaco are getting ready to deliver change!

Even before today’s blockbuster revelations by the Public Accounts Committee about missing millions and terrible incompetence and major abuses of power, Bahamians were tired of a government that raised their taxes, failed on crime, allowed murders to double, running a broken-down electronic surveillance system on people accused of the worst kind of crimes.

One in three young Bahamians is out of work – and the FNM is out there telling lies and jokes.

I talk to Bahamians every day who have lost their homes, who can no longer afford to pay school fees, who live in darkness, who even go to bed hungry.  I talk to Bahamians every day who are really desperate.  And then we have this obscenity of the people who produce concrete, asphalt and sand lining their pockets to dig up and pave the same roads over and over.

They’re trying to fool you, Bahamians.  Just at the very last minute, after years of insult and neglect, the Prime Minister’s trying to pretend he cares.

I hear the Prime Minister attempting to bribe the Bahamian voter by instructing BEC to turn on the 8000 plus electricity. Well why wasn’t the instructions sent before, why wasn’t instruction sent when the food was spoiling in the refrigerator, why wasn’t the instruction sent when the kids had to go to school in mashed up uniform because there was no electricity and the other kids at school laughed and humiliated them. Why wasn’t  instructions sent when the house was so hot small children had to be taken outside in the middle of the night until they cooled off.

Then after instructing BEC to turn on the electricity, you will still owe them that money, notice the Prime Minister didn’t say to write the bill off – after elections you’ll be paying that bill.

Now we all know, when these Ministers tell you that they can’t help you, what they really mean is that hey are not prepared to help you until they need you to vote for them.

Then there is the now sitting Cabinet Minister who charges a minimum of $1500 to potential investors who want to meet with him.

All this money spent opening the stadium and they can’t give civil servants and Police a raise.

They blame everything they can on the global recession – but look what they did – when other governments were trying to lower costs and taxes so people and businesses could survive tough times, our government raised our taxes and fees.  Car license fees – up!  License plate fees – up! Customs duties – up!

This Government increased the amount need to reconnect your electricity, they increased departure tax, they increased stamp tax for real estate transaction if you are not a first time owner, they increased bank fees, increased NIB contribution, they increased duty on chicken, hundreds of BTC phone card retailers unceremonously terminated, fuel prices for going up while Government Ministers continue to park their cars and instead drive red plate vehicles where they get free gas.

They took away all of the overtime from Customs and Immigration officers and gave them stingy salary increases. Now the Prime Minister is threatening them – threatening them, acting like the dictator he is.

They also stop paying these officers overtime on the family islands. They orchestrated for some of their family and supporters who were junior officers to supersede senior officers. They froze public servants salary and promotions, they stopped giving promotions to Police and defense force until just recently, leading up to elections.

The bottom line is, they squeezed the life out of thousands of Bahamians over the past five years.

The bottom line is, all they have left are lies.

The bottom line is, The Bahamas cannot afford one more day of the FNM, let alone five more years!

That’s why Bahamians are voting for change!

PLP!