Rotary Club
East villa
10^th January 2006

I thank you for inviting the Prime Minister to come to speak to you today. I apologize that he is unable to be here due to another engagement. I hope that my appearance will suffice.

This is an important date in the history of our country. It was the first time that all Bahamians of full age, then 21 and without any requirement for property or tenancy could vote to elect their Government. That vote took place on 10^th January 1967.

There was quite a lot of excitement in the air. The Progressive Liberal Party had set the campaign for the election against the background of the disappointing loss in the year 1962. In 1962, women voted for the first time and many people blamed the women for the loss. The facts are quite clear; had the votes been distributed fairly around the country, the vote would have gone in favour of the PLP. The PLP outpolled the United Bahamian Party by about ten thousand votes. But in the seat distribution, the number of seats in the then Out Islands outnumbered the seats in New Providence. The vast majority of the population lived in New Providence.

There was then a need for further constitutional reforms. Let us look at how and what changes had come about in The Bahamas’ constitution by the time the vote took place in 1967.

Most analysts see the history of the current political order as beginning in 1942 with the Burma Road riots. There had been individual champions of various public causes on behalf of the African majority in The Bahamas but there was no organized public opinion in the sense of a political party. The riots of 1^st June 1942 and 2^nd June are seen as the awakenings of an organized political opinion.

That is my view. Whether they were or not, however, all of the political demonstrations in The Bahamas for social and constitutional change had the Burma Road Riots in the background of the planning. Sir Clifford Darling says that in planning the General Strike of 1958, he remembered how the riots got started. Someone reportedly broke a Coca Cola bottle on a truck parked on Bay Street and the riots began. As he and his men planned what to do around the 1958 strike, they were conscious that this should not be repeated.

In 1965, when the Speaker’s Mace was thrown out of the window of out of the House of Assembly, Sir Lynden Pindling recalled that he remembered as a boy the story that someone who broke a bottle on a Coca Cola truck had started the riots. He too was conscious of the fact that there should not be repeat of that when he led the marchers off Bay Street in 1965 following the throwing of the Mace out of the window. He led them to the Southern Recreation Ground.

So I think there is some objective evidence to support Burma Road as the beginning.

The next stop along the way for me is the Citizen’s Committee. This was the forerunner of the first political party in The Bahamas. The film ‘No Way Out’ starring Sidney Poitier was banned from being shown in Nassau. The ruling elites believed that the racial theme of the movie would prove to be inflammatory. The Committee headed by the late Maxwell Thompson joined by amongst others Kendal Isaacs and Dr. Cleveland Eneas formed the Committee to reverse the decision and they did. The Committee tried to survive that event but it did not.

What the Committee showed was that there was need to organize around social and civic matters if changed were to be effected. The next stop along the way was the report by the late H.M. Taylor that he received a call from Cyril Stevenson and William Cartwright that having returned from the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London, they were to travel to Jamaica for talks with the PNP and Norman Manley and his colleagues about forming a political party. Upon their return, the three men met in 1953 at the home of Mr. Taylor then located across the street from the Police Barracks on East Street. That evening they wrote the platform and constitution of a new and the first organized political party in The Bahamas, the Progressive Liberal Party. Sir Lynden Pindling joined that political party as a young lawyer and was chosen its leader in 1956 when six men were elected to the House of Assembly under that banner. The United Bahamian Party was formed in 1958 in the face of the social pressures of the 1958 strike and the pressure for political change.

The next stop is 1958 and the General Strike that came about because of a dispute over the use of buses by hotels to collect their guests from the airport. But as the Commission of Inquiry report indicated in the case of the 1942 riots, there were underlying social causes that led to the general walkout. Sir Clifford Darling has written an excellent book on this subject. I will simply say here that the pressures from the strike brought the Secretary of State from the Colonies to The Bahamas. The strike led to updated labour legislation, the vote for women, and the abolition of plural voting, the increase in seats in the Assembly to more fairly represent the citizens in New Providence.

The 1962 General Election turned out to be a disappointment. There was a series of bye-elections held in 1960 that resulted in the PLP increasing the number of seats in the Assembly to 10. The PLP was reduced to six after the 1962 election. The PLP polled 32, 299 votes and the UBP 26,826 votes. The PLP then set about the quest for further constitutional reform.

The highlight of that campaign came on 27^th April 1967when the Speaker’s mace was thrown out of the window. Arthur Foulkes reportedly coined the name ‘Black Tuesday’. The constituency boundaries for the 1967 General Election were approved on that day.

In the mean time, in 1963 the constitutional talks in London led to the abolition of the old constitution of The Bahamas that existed in a group of orders from the Queen called Letters Patent. The Ministerial form of Government that we have today came into force on 7^th January 1964. The country had a Premier and eight other Ministers for the first time. That constitutional minimum still exists today.

In 1966, there were a series of reports about casino gambling in The Bahamas and how it got to be approved. Similar allegations surfaced with regard to Freeport and its establishment. There were allegations of a conflict of inertest. This came to a boil at the end of 1966. The Governor Sir Ralph Gray told the country that he had tried to persuade the Premier not to call elections but that the Premier felt in the circumstances of the allegations, his government could not continue without a fresh mandate. The elections took place this year 40 years ago.

Those early violent steps for social change had borne fruit. From 1942 to 1967, it took 25 years. It was 133 years since slavery was abolished. It was 14 years since the PLP came into existence, 11 years after first being elected to Parliament. There was a bit of drama in the interregnum because the results were 18 for the P and 18 for the UBP. Sir Randol Fawkes against whom the PLP had not run a candidate and who is known as the father of Labour in The Bahamas threw his lot in with the PLP and Sir Alvin Braynen, who had been disaffected from the UBP agreed to serve as Speaker and to lend his support to the PLP. With that Sir Ralph on 13^th January offered the chance to Lynden Pindling to try to from a Government as Premier. He did and on 10^th April 1968, fresh elections were called leading to a landslide victory for the PLP.

What is the meaning of the day? In its barest terms the African majority were able to assert their humanity and their right to lead the country. In its broadest sense it embraced the principle, of one-person one vote, and gave a fresh impetus and direction to the country. In the forty years since, there has been peace and stability. The wealth of the country has increased. Indeed the look and feel of the institutions has changed. The country’s horizons are wide open and the wealth of the country is available to all.

This is a cause for celebration. But a ruling group has always to be careful not to pat itself on the back for too long. The story of this day and how we came to be here should be told, should be known. It was not easy and must not be forgotten. But it is still only part of a continuing story of our march toward development as a people. There is more to come. The story will be enhanced and grow larger than life if those who come behind us embrace the struggle of those who went before us. The ruling group must be open to new ideas, new thoughts, new people, never become closed group. For those like myself 14 years old at the time of majority rule in 1967, the lesson that I have learned is that a ruling group must not be closed. It must always reinvent itself, refresh itself, so as to maintain itself. I think that we have provided that opportunity for all to access power, and it is our pledge to continue in that journey started back in 1942 by those folks going down Burma Road.

On behalf of the Prime Minister, I thank you all.

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