Soldiers urged to be compassionate

“Put yourselves in their position.”

That advice was issued by Prime Minister Mia Mottley to 36 members of the Regional Security System (RSS) who left the island this afternoon to lend assistance to The Bahamas.

During a brief visit to the RSS’s Air Wing at Paragon, Christ Church, the Prime Minister urged those taking the trip to be especially compassionate to persons with whom they come into contact.

“Whatever patience is required, exercise it; whatever tolerance is required, exercise it; whatever firmness is required, hold to a line, but remember always that we are there to help and to understand because none of us would want to be in that position, of many of the people who have been left homeless or who have lost members of their family, today,” Mottley said.

The officers will be deployed in The Bahamas for the next three weeks, particularly in Grand Bahama and Abaco, which were devastated by Hurricane Dorian.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Attorney General Dale Marshall greeting members of Regional Security System.

As she stood flanked by Attorney General Dale Marshall; Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith and Chief of Staff at the Barbados Defence Force Colonel Clyde Grannum, the Prime Minister said it was at times like these when the RSS was needed most.

“I know the benefit of having the RSS come in to help stabilize the situation, such that normal life can resume for as many of the citizens of The Bahamas as possible,” Mottley said.

“And we know this because when the prison burnt in Barbados, we had to make the decision as a Government then and they were those who felt it was a sign of weakness to ask for the assistance of the RSS. I differed fundamentally then, as I do now, because the most important thing in a crisis is for people to conduct ordinary business on a daily basis and if you therefore can help do the task such that their police force, in their civil capacity within the Bahamas, can continue to do that which they were doing at the beginning of August, before Dorian hit them on September 1, then you would have aided significantly in helping to stabilize the situation,” Mottley added.
randybennett@barbadostoday.bb