{"id":33206,"date":"2013-03-20T09:05:35","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T13:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=33206"},"modified":"2013-03-20T09:05:35","modified_gmt":"2013-03-20T13:05:35","slug":"lynden-pindling-an-overrated-national-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/03\/lynden-pindling-an-overrated-national-hero","title":{"rendered":"Lynden Pindling: An Overrated National Hero"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lynden
Lynden Pindling<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2006, the PLP renamed Nassau International Airport after Sir Lynden Pindling when Prime Minister Perry Christie was serving in his first term as leader of The Bahamas.<\/p>\n

I believe the party was mimicking Barbados, which named Seawell Airport after Sir Grantley Adams in 1976, five years after his death.\u00a0 The airport facility in Nassau is presently undergoing a $400 million upgrade which has made it the envy of the region.\u00a0 The PLP government announced last year that a bronze statue of Pindling will be placed at the entrance of Lynden Pindling International Airport to commemorate The Bahamas\u2019 40th independence anniversary.<\/p>\n

The government of Barbados had also erected a statue of Adams.\u00a0 It is located in front of the Cabinet office complex on Bay Street, St. Michael.\u00a0 About 13 or 14 years ago, a prominent businessman who supports the PLP named a housing subdivision his company built in New Providence after Sir Lynden.\u00a0 The subdivision is called Sir Lynden Pindling Estates Subdivision.\u00a0 It was the Free National Movement government which placed Pindling\u2019s image on our $1 bill.<\/p>\n

There are now talks of naming a major thoroughfare in Grand Bahama after Pindling.\u00a0 If these rumors are true, I think it would be a bad move by the PLP.\u00a0 Truth is, Pindling hardly accomplished anything worthwhile in Grand Bahama in the 25 years he led this country.\u00a0 His most notable achievement in Grand Bahama was his 1969 \u201cBend of Break\u201d speech, which frightened away hundreds of expatriates and investors.\u00a0 That speech took away the magic from the Magic City.\u00a0 Freeport has never recovered from the economic fallout his speech caused.<\/p>\n

Pindling was also leader when Jack Tarr closed is doors in West End, the most loyal PLP constituency in Grand Bahama.\u00a0 Seeing that South Androsians are so enthralled with Pindling\u2019s name, why not name a street in that community after him?\u00a0 Even though South Andros never had paved roads when Pindling was its MP \u2013 and even though that community just got electricity in the mid-1980s \u2013 the people were willing to elect him as their MP for decades.<\/p>\n

Historians are of the view that had it not been for Randol Fawkes, majority rule would have not been possible in 1967.\u00a0 Fawkes turned down many financial bribes from the UBP in order to support the PLP and Pindling.\u00a0 But despite his selflessness, he was kicked to the curb in 1968 after Pindling saw that he was no longer needed.\u00a0 PLP founders Bill Cartwright, Henry Taylor and Cyril Stevenson were all treated similarly by Pindling after he and a group of young ambitious black politicians took over the PLP in the 1950s.\u00a0 At the pinnacle of the PLP\u2019s success, two of the original PLP founders were all but forgotten by the party they founded.\u00a0 Taylor lived in Florida between 1968 and 1978 and was appointed editor of the Hansard by the PLP government in 1979.\u00a0 He was appointed deputy and acting governor general on several occasions between 1981 and 1988.\u00a0 In 1991, he was appointed governor general after the retirement of Sir Gerald Cash.\u00a0 Taylor was at the ripe age of 89 when he was appointed, and was hardly in the physical condition to carry out his duties as governor general.\u00a0 Pundits believe that Pindling and the PLP only appointed Taylor to this position in order to soothe their guilty consciences for how they treated him.<\/p>\n

Today, Pindling is considered the father of the nation.\u00a0 He is credited with introducing national insurance and establishing the defence force and ZNS TV.\u00a0 He also led the country to independence in 1973, even though he along with his PLP colleagues were opposed to the idea in the mid-1960s when the UBP government was considering it.\u00a0 He built many schools and is credited with establishing the black middle class.\u00a0 Pindling did some good things.\u00a0 But I believe PLPs are guilty of overrating him and his contributions to nation building.<\/p>\n

Pindling cannot stand in the shoes of Sir Grantley Adams, the legendary Barbadian and West Indian statesman.\u00a0 Adams was never hauled before a commission to answer to allegations of corruption as was Pindling.\u00a0 Adams is a true national hero that all Barbadians can be proud of.\u00a0 Whether we want to admit it or not, non-Bahamians look at Pindling with jaundiced and suspicious eyes.\u00a0 Nowadays there seems to be a concerted attempt by PLPs to revise Pindling\u2019s biography and to aggrandize his accomplishments.\u00a0 These people are working hard to erase from the memories of Bahamians his many shortcomings as prime minister.\u00a0 They don\u2019t want us to remember the 1984 commission of inquiry.\u00a0 They don\u2019t want us to remember that this country\u2019s image was severely tarnished in the eyes of America while Pindling was prime minister.\u00a0 They don\u2019t want us to remember that his government is alleged to have victimized many of his political opponents.\u00a0 They don\u2019t want us to remember that he was an opponent of the press and free speech.<\/p>\n

Many of his milestones are what one would expect a first government in a post-colonial era to accomplish.\u00a0 Even if Pindling had never existed, sooner or later the country would have achieved independence and majority rule.\u00a0 The PLP has made a mountain out of a molehill when it comes to majority rule and independence.\u00a0 Is Sir Lynden Pindling a national hero?\u00a0 Yes, but in the opinion of the whistleblower, he is an overrated one.<\/p>\n

By:\u00a0 The Whistleblower<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pindling did some good things. But I believe PLPs are guilty of overrating him and his contributions to nation building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[93,31,40,1404,60],"class_list":["post-33206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions","tag-corruption","tag-crime","tag-government","tag-pindling","tag-plp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}