by Larry Smith
We saw The Queen this past weekend.
That award-winning film portrays the British political elite sparring with the royal family over what to do about the death of Princess Diana in 1997. It has been described as "the most reverent, irreverent comedy imaginable."
As we all know, the death of Diana was the media-political event to end all media-political events - until the death of Anna Nicole Smith, that is. But enough about that.
The movie pits an upstart commoner named Tony Blair (who was swept into power by a Labour landslide just before Diana's death in a car crash) against the aloof monarch who has remained on the throne for more than half a century.
Although it seems rather mundane in retrospect, this was a confrontation that brought the whole issue of the British monarchy into question.
As one reviewer noted, "The enormity of the public response and the queen's continued insistence that Diana was no longer a royal when she died and doesn't therefore merit special considerations evolved into questioning the monarchy itself, with more and more Brits on the street asking 'what do we need it for?'"
Prime Minister Blair's wife, Cherie, is an avowed anti-monarchist who reportedly denounced Princess Anne as a 'bitch'. In fact, it is said that every time Mrs Blair walks into the queen's residence at Balmoral "her eyes bulge and begin to water, she comes out in red blotches and her nose runs constantly."
Of course, that is not entirely the queen's fault - it's her famously spoiled corgi dogs that cause the allergic reaction - but I am sure you can spot the irony.
Mrs Blair's distaste for the monarchy doesn't begin to compare with that of Labour MP Dennis Skinner, the prankster who recently called for Helen Mirren (who plays the queen in the movie) to give the Speech from the Throne at the last opening the British parliament.
Still, less than 20 per cent of the British public favours abolition of the monarchy, which is rather strange considering the nonsense that various royal families have perpetuated over the centuries - ever since King Alfred consolidated the anglo-saxon earldoms in the 9th century.
Actually Tough Call can relate to this movie. You see, I was a personal guest of the queen aboard the royal yacht Britannia in Nassau harbour during a state visit in 1975, as part of a group of Bahamian journalists. And meeting Elizabeth came very close to saying 'hello' to Helen Mirren.
At the time I was a radical republican who considered the royal family "overpaid, inbred spongers who should be thrown out". But it was nevertheless interesting to munch on cucumber sandwiches amid all that polished brass-work with all those obsequious white-uniformed servants.
Britannia was launched in 1953 and conveyed the queen, and other members of the royal family, on almost 700 visits around the world. It's final mission was to bring back the last British governor of Hong Kong after the return of the colony to China in 1997 - the symbolic end of the empire. Britannia was decommissioned in 1997 and there has been no replacement.
Those cucumber sandwiches my bros and I enjoyed on the yacht were paid for by the queen's government subsidy, which now runs to about $80 million a year (not counting more hundreds of thousands in public funds for other family members). All of this is tax-free - and until 1993 the royal family paid no taxes on their personal fortune either.
That fortune was recently estimated by Forbes magazine at around half a billion. But it does not include many priceless works of art and historic properties that are part of the national patrimony and cannot be sold.
The queen's current relationship with the Bahamas was fixed in 1931 by the Statute of Westminster, which implemented political decisions on the evolution of the empire. At that time, the British renounced legislative authority over major colonies like Canada, Australia and South Africa that were then known as dominions.
A few years earlier, an Imperial Conference acknowledged that these dominions were "autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth."
This meant that governors-general no longer represented the British government. They represented the monarchy as head of the Commonwealth - a voluntary association of 53 independent but formerly British territories. In practice, the queen heads the Commonwealth in a symbolic capacity.
But there is more to it than this. Queen Elizabeth is also the head of state of 16 Commonwealth countries, including the Bahamas. The Commonwealth is the successor to the British Empire, which was dismantled after the Second World War in response to the rise of national independence movements.
We became a British crown colony way back in 1718. And the present monarch has made five official visits during her reign - in 1966; in 1975 when she opened the Bahamas parliament; in 1977 when she opened ZNS television; in 1985 when she presided over the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference in Nassau; and in 1994.
It is an interesting fact that the British monarchy is the oldest surviving political institution in Europe. And it created what is perhaps the world's first nation state.
But word is that the present royal family are actually fakes "descended from a deception", in the form of Edward IV. He was born in 1442 in France, and the circumstances say that his biological father wasn't the king of England, but a French soldier whom the queen had a brief fling with.
When historian Michael Jones uncovered this evidence in 2003, it threw the legitimacy of all the kings and queens who followed him into question. It appears that the royal line should have extended, not through Edward, but through his brother George - the Duke of Clarence.
To cut a long story short, the real king today is a guy named Mike Hastings, who left England in his teens to live in Australia , and who actually voted for a republic in the last Aussie referendum on that subject.
But not everyone thinks the monarchy is a joke. According to another British historian, David Starkey: "I'm not sentimental about the royal family. But I do think that constitutional monarchs make surprisingly effective heads of state...It's a case, I suppose, of better the crowned devil you know."
While this theory may not apply in quite the same way here, it is also true that republicanism has never been a popular theme among Bahamians. It has been more than 30 years since Independence and our politicos still look forward to British honours and fall over themselves to meet British royalty - Arthur Hanna excepted.
In fact, the government appointed a Constitutional Review Commission in 2002 which has been canvassing public opinion on a variety of issues, including whether or not we should retain the queen as head of state.
In its preliminary report last March, the commission recorded "mixed feelings" on the matter:
"There was a significant number who expressed no opinion as to the institution of the monarchy; there were others who were of the opinion that the status quo should remain, while others were of the view that the link to the British monarchy was inconsistent with Bahamian independence and should be severed while preserving membership within the Commonwealth, of which the queen is the symbolic head."
They added that people are satisfied to regard the governor-general as the head of state: "the proposition that the queen is constitutionally queen of the Bahamas is usually met with silence.
"We cannot on the one hand assert ourselves as a sovereign country while relying on the legal fiction of 'Her Majesty in Parliament' to give legitimacy to our government...this is inconsistent with being a completely independent legal entity."
So the commission has "provisionally" recommended abolition of the office of governor-general and its replacement by a presidency, to make the Bahamas a parliamentary republic. Under this scenario the head of state would be elected by both houses of parliament and would function in a role similar to that of the current governor-general, while executive power would continue to be exercised by the cabinet.
The constitutional commission has been laying low since last March. Probably because an election is in the offing. But at some point in the very near future, we will be called upon to make these far-reaching decisions. It is incumbent upon us to contribute to the debate - otherwise the politicos will simply make the decision for us.
And it may not be the right one.
If you think the state of the Bahamas is bad now just wait until the real effects of Perry "Anchor" Christie's unfortunate playout of his anchor development economic program comes to fruition.
Have you ever looked up the definition of "Banana Republic". A country controlled by foreign corporations, dependent on one export and industry and with a self dealing corrupt governmental system.
The Banana Republic status of the Bahamas is becoming more entrenched, and Bahamians are becoming more and more dependent upon foreign control and worse they are living with the expectation that it will take them to glory.
This dependence on foreign ownership and its effective control of the superior market position in each Island, and the current foreign land grab will doom the Bahamas. Its Banana Republic status will be all we have to look to if nothing is done about the way the Christie administration plans to develop the Bahamas.
It is such a myopic policy it is amazing Bahamians are not up in arms all over the country demanding its abolishment. How can you develop a country without native ownership at least somewhere in its one major industry, much less where there is also a giveaway of its most precious asset its land, superior market positions and large scale pollution of its culture by an overwhelming increase and domination of the populace by rich foreign second homeowners and a foreign support workforce.
Its a disaster happening before our eyes as we sit and watch this unfortunate development policy rollout. A
Where is the responsible Journalism. We are a society numbed by greed, stupidity and lack of talent, we don't even need to worry about corruption, it is inherently a part of the package when all these other deficits are in place. A Banana Republic no doubt.
Posted by: Interested Abroad | February 23, 2007 at 05:07 AM
HOW MANT GOVERNAL-GENERAL HAVE THERE BEEN SINCE THE BAHAMA BECOME INDEPENT? NAME EACH ONE
Posted by: AYESHA WILLIAMS | September 12, 2007 at 05:40 PM