Prime Minister Perry Christie said the government still planned to continue to consult on the issue even after the debate.
Members debated the National Heroes Bill and the National Honours Bill simultaneously. The Honours Bill proposes the establishment of a system of local honours, but the prime minister said it would be for the Bahamian people to decide whether the country should abandon the annual British Honours.
Recognizing that there is controversy over whether the October 12 holiday should be renamed, the prime minister stressed that the issue is a sensitive one and revealed that the cultural commission he appointed early on in his term presented two reports detailing recommendations in this regard.
Mr. Christie said the majority report recommends that Bahamian history month be observed in October, and that Discovery Day be observed as National Heroes Day.
The minority report, however, recommends Bahamian history month be observed in January, and that January 10, the anniversary of majority rule, be named National Heroes Day.
The minority report recommends that the Discovery Day holiday be renamed Encounter Day to acknowledge the significance of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in The Bahamas in 1492, but also to recognize that he did not “discover” the people he met here.
That minority report also conceded that Columbus exterminated an entire people, the prime minister added.
He said the government has to recognize the “division” that exists among the Bahamian people regarding the issue of whether to rename Discovery Day, and he assured that a decision would only be made after the widest possible consultation.
“It will not be answered in this debate,” he said, referring to that particular question.
He noted that both reports recognized that it would be an “historical mistake” to continue to promote the idea that Columbus discovered the people he met in The Bahamas.
In addressing the issue, the prime minister also pointed to the National Heroes and Honours Bill 2001, which the Ingraham Administration brought to parliament in September 2001.
The FNM government had proposed the establishment of a public holiday to be called National Heroes Day on the second Monday in October of each year beginning in 2002.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
