Dear Editor,
On Tuesday of this week Dr. Rollins got his wish for a headline grabbing story complete with a colored head shot when he threatened to name names if Wells is fired.
“Some other people need to be fired too,” smarted Rollins, and “in time, if that happens, I am prepared to say who also should be fired, because there is more than meets the eye when it comes to this whole, as you all call it, ‘LOI affair’.”
With that pronouncement, many believe he had publicly attempted to blackmail the government and party of which he is a member by suggesting malfeasance in claiming to have damning information about “others” in connection with a Letter of Intent, but its release was contingent on the employment future of a colleague. Is that the behavior of a new generation leader or an unethical and scheming charlatan?
His new found notoriety and love for chasing headlines have obviously placed him in a conflict of interest conundrum in that he is conflicted between his public duty to disclose what he claims to know and his personal interest which is the employment protection of a friend and colleague. Additionally, the last time I checked, blackmail was illegal in The Bahamas. Either way, Rollins comes across as corrupt, deceitful, conniving, dishonorable and untrustworthy. This is most ironic because Rollins loves to get up on his self righteous soapbox in Parliament and in the media and lecture others about honor, transparency and avoiding the very appearance of corruption.
I remember him waxing eloquent from the floor of the House about how the PLP would lose the next general election if they did not do as he suggested. Now here he is, literally days later seeking to shake down an entire government and political party in pursuit of his self-serving personal agenda.
The Deputy Prime Minister told the media that the threat was “hollow” and that Rollins was seeking to “promote whatever his personal goal or ambition might be.” The National Chairman of the PLP demanded that Rollins “put up, or shut the hell up” and the leader of the FNM told the media that Rollins’ behavior was “dishonorable” and that he had a public duty to disclose whatever information he had unconditionally.
I would say to Dr. Rollins only this: “Physician, heal thyself.”
So how did he fall from his lofty perch of a bright eyed and bushy-tailed new generation leader to an embattled MP, fired Gaming Board Chairman and fired Majority Whip in twenty-eight short months?
Was it ignorance or arrogance on the part of Andre Rollins? Try both, but oh what a toxic mix.
Yours etc.;
Charles David Rolle
