The annual British honours may be abandoned if MPs pass the relevant bill in the House of Assembly, but Prime Minister Perry Christie said on Wednesday that the government wanted to get further the views of the Bahamian people in this regard.
It came as he led debate on the National Heroes Bill and the National Honours Bill, but Mr. Christie said the bills would go to the committee stage to allow for a period of consultation.
The National Honours Bill would lead to the establishment of a Bahamian system of honours. There would be four “societies of honour”: the Order of The Bahamas; the Companion of the Order of The Bahamas; the Order of Merit; and the Order of Distinction.
The National Cultural Development Commission has recommended that the British honours be eliminated.
“The report of this commission has indicated categorically that there should be a bill for national honours,” Mr. Christie said, “that the bill should be based on eliminating the British system and they indicated that to have concurrent honours would downgrade our national honours given the national view on this.”
The bill and the regulations would outline who can receive the awards, how those awards are given, how the ceremonies are conducted, and the privileges awardees are entitled to.
The prime minister said the National Cultural Development Commission is now putting together the “privileges of the honour”.
The bill before parliament would empower the governor general to make regulations for the better carrying out of the purposes and provisions of the Act, which would among other things provide for the prevention of abuses in the wearing of insignia, regalia, medals and badges issued in relation to any order or award under the Act.
The prime minister said the committee that will be responsible for recommending people for the honours would be required to advertise so that the public could make recommendations of their own.
In order to be eligible for the honour, a person if he is alive has to be a citizen of The Bahamas or if he is receiving the honour posthumously had to have been a citizen upon death, and must be a “national hero”.
The bill defines a national hero as a person who has made “a seminal contribution to The Bahamas and which contribution has altered the course of the history of The Bahamas.”
A national hero is also defined as a person who has “given service to The Bahamas which has been exemplified by visionary and pioneering leadership, extraordinary achievement and the attainment of the highest excellence which has rebounded to the honour of The Bahamas and which service and attainment have been acknowledged as a source of inspiration by a significant portion of the nation.”
The other definition given in the bill is a person who “has, through that personﾒs heroic exploits and sacrifice, having gone beyond their personal and historic limitations, contributed to the improvement of the economic, spiritual and social conditions of the nation as a whole.”
The prime minister said, “Very few Bahamians, very few personalities in the history of our country would qualify for this award and that is why there is something super special about this award.”
The bill provides for the establishment of an advisory committee, which will determine the persons to be designated national hero.
Every person upon whom the honour of national hero of The Bahamas has been conferred shall be entitled to wear as a decoration the prescribed insignia of the order; (and) shall be referred to as “right excellence”.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
