Free National Movement (FNM) Chairman Carl Bethel accuses paper of 'character assassination'

tribune242:


FREE National Movement Chairman Carl Bethel has criticised a local tabloid newspaper for what he has described as a continued "campaign of character assassination".

Responding to an article which appeared in The Punch last Thursday, Mr Bethel claims The Punch has continued to misrepresent his achievements during his tenure as Minister of Education.

He also stated that despite reports, he at no time expressed any interest in rejoining the FNM Cabinet.

In a letter, Mr Bethel said: "The Punch, in an obvious and sustained campaign of character assassination, continues to propagate outright lies about me. In the Thursday, March 11, edition this pattern of attack has been repeated and expanded."

Mr Bethel further stated: "The Punch has continued to misrepresent the achievements of my tenure as Minister of Education. For the record, I was the Minister who conceived of, and set up, the Sexual Complaints Unit in the Ministry of Education, with the hardworking members of my staff, not Minister Desmond Bannister, as was untruthfully claimed in The Punch.

"The Sexual Complaints Unit was set up at my command when it became clear that the ministry had no institutional mechanism, or capacity, to appropriately and expeditiously investigate all complaints involving alleged sexual misconduct by teachers and support staff in our schools." Mr Bethel stated.

According to Mr Bethel, he was more concerned with ensuring a safe environment for students in every school in The Bahamas.

"That achievement is among other positive initiatives which I left for Minister Bannister and every succeeding Minister of Education, and for the benefit of generations of Bahamian students to come," Mr Bethel stated.

He added: "At no time did I ever ask to re-join, or even so much as hint to anyone, that I was interested in re-joining the Cabinet. In fact, had I been asked to re-join the Cabinet in any capacity, at this time, I would have refused for the same reasons that I decided to resign from it in November 2009 namely, that the Party needed a Chairman to help prepare it for the next general elections."

Mr Bethel noted that he had resigned from the FNM Cabinet so that he could do all in his power to help the party prepare for the next general elections.

"Those reasons have not changed, and I am not interested in returning to Cabinet until that job is done," he stated.

March 15, 2010

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