An Open Letter to the Former Attorney-General of the Bahamas

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

Dear Mrs Gibson:

First of all, I have a public confession to make. It is a confession I have made privately to some of my readers who have accused me of having a soft spot for certain people in the PLP.

They have made remarks like “Why did you go so easy on Allyson?” and “Why do you never criticize Glenys?”

On those occasions when I felt I had no choice but to criticize you -- even if with great restraint -- for your actions in the political arena, someone close to you accused me of wielding a “poison pen”.

He obviously did not know that the definition of “poison pen” is an abusive or slanderous anonymous letter. I took it that he meant I had been too severe in my criticism of you, or perhaps he meant that I should not have criticized you at all.

I could have given him an example of what a scathing attack really looks like but I said to myself, “If only he knew”, and offered no response but a smile.

The truth is (and this is the confession) that I have indeed nurtured a soft spot in my heart for a number of people in the PLP including you and your former ministerial colleague, Glenys Hanna Martin. I will explain.

Even now (if I might borrow words from my friend and comrade the late Sir Cecil Wallace Whitfield), my soul dances as I recall the days when I was privileged to struggle alongside some very courageous Bahamians and to do my little bit for the achievement of majority rule and the full social, economic and political emancipation of the Bahamian people.

One of them is Bahamian national hero Arthur Hanna who was on the frontline from beginning to end. Another is his wife, Beryl, a truly remarkable Bahamian woman.

I say Bahamian because although she was born in Britain, she came here, identified thoroughly with the Bahamian people and their just cause, and became one of us. They are the parents of Glenys Hanna Martin.

Then there is Clement Maynard who also played his part in the struggle along with his wife, Zoe. And, of course, there was the late Georgina Symonette Maynard, a tireless crusader for the rights of Bahamian women and for majority rule. They are your parents and grandmother.

Your parents know of the involvement of all of us who later went on to form a new political party and who were known as the Dissident Eight, and two others who were called Number Nine and Number Ten:

Cecil Wallace Whitfield, Warren Levarity, Maurice Moore, Curtis McMillan, Elwood Donaldson, Jimmy Shepherd, George Thompson, Arthur Foulkes, Kendal Isaacs and Orville Turnquest.

You know full well that all of the Eight were elected to the House of Assembly in 1967 as a part of the group that ushered in majority rule.

You know that some of them had been fully engaged in a long and arduous struggle and had made great personal sacrifices to reach that day.

You know that Mr. Levarity and I were among those who advocated Bahamian independence as far back as the Fifties, and were reprimanded by the leaders of the PLP for bringing up the issue in public.

You know that Sir Cecil suggested in 1967 on the floor of the House of Assembly that perhaps The Bahamas should consider making a unilateral declaration of independence.

I know that you know all these things, Mrs. Gibson, and that you have heard them repeatedly recalled.

Yet on the floor of the Senate last Friday you likened us – the roots of the FNM -- to the slave master who tortured to death a slave girl, poor black Kate, in the 19th century. Then you went on to say that we were opposed to majority rule and independence.

By what perverted mental processes could you come to compare us with murderous slave masters?

How could you malign us in such a fashion, Mrs. Gibson, especially those of us who have passed on and are not able to defend themselves?

How could you stand there and slander all of us like that?

How could you, in just a few short minutes, spew such a torrent of wicked lies?

How could you, with a counterfeit smile on your face, refer to Sir Cecil as “Uncle Cecil” while spitting on his grave?

You know full well that the Sir Cecil who advocated independence in 1967and warned against independence under Sir Lynden Pindling in 1972 was the same man but with an added experience.

The Sir Cecil who spoke in 1972 had, along with the rest of us, been publicly condemned as a traitor by PLP colleagues.

In an orchestrated attack at Lewis Yard he had also been beaten over the head with a metal chair because he dared to criticize the leadership of the PLP.

There had also been an attempt on his life by a knife-wielding would-be assassin in Parliament Square.

Do you wonder that under these circumstances he questioned whether we had attained the level of maturity necessary for a successful transition to an independent and tolerant democracy?

Sir Cecil had also witnessed the rapacious greed and corruption that was threatening to consume the PLP along with a growing personality cult. He was stunningly correct when he warned about possible disaster, as the events of the first decade of independence clearly demonstrated.

You remember that, Mrs. Gibson.

The country was indeed brought to the edge of disaster when the Colombian drug dealers took over and the bank accounts of some in very high places were stuffed with unidentified deposits.

The country has not yet -- may never -- fully recover from those dark days when the best Bahamian values and traditions were swept aside in an avalanche of greed, corruption and unprecedented violence.

Sir Cecil did not want to see his country go the way of some others. He was aware of the familiar pattern of high hopes and eventual disaster in some territories emerging from colonialism.

This pattern had been dramatically portrayed in two novels by Nicholas Monsarrat: The Tribe That Lost Its Head and Richer Than All His Tribe.

You should read these books if you have not read them before or if you have forgotten them, and you should read more post-colonial history. Then take a long, hard look in the mirror.

Sir Cecil did not want our beloved Bahamas to be like that. He did not want us to exchange the imperial masters only to be abused by corrupt and tyrannical local masters whose main objective was to become richer than all their tribe.

Sir Cecil had come to lose faith in some colleagues who talked a lot about people like poor black Kate while using the inheritance of the very same people to stuff their private bank accounts.

It was through the rare courage and determination of Sir Cecil and others that a healthy two-party parliamentary democracy survived in The Bahamas.

I am glad that I am able to defend his good name and his place in history from your brand of revisionist vandalism.

I also believe that when all of us will have passed off the scene, others will be informed enough to defend us from your malicious misrepresentations.

More importantly, I pray that there will always be champions like Sir Cecil to defend our country against the demons let loose in the Seventies and Eighties, demons that are still very active today.

Sincerely
Arthur A. Foulkes

Comments

[Rick]

Wow. What a barn burner Sir Arthur.
Have you calmed down yet?