Rev. Fr. Sebastian Campbell - Chairman of the National Heroes Committee says: ...parliamentarians are “lazy” in the naming of national heroes in The Bahamas throughout the years

Campbell: Parliament “lazy” in naming nat’l heroes

Travis Cartwright-Carroll
Guardian Staff Reporter
travis@nasguard.com

Chairman of the National Heroes Committee Rev. Fr. Sebastian Campbell blasted parliamentarians for being “lazy” in the naming of national heroes in The Bahamas throughout the years.

Campbell spoke at a state-recognized funeral for Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) co-founder William ‘Bill’ Cartwright at St. Gregory’s Anglican Church on Carmichael Road yesterday.

Campbell said he met with the Cabinet last week to discuss the funeral and proposed that Cartwright be referred to as the “honorable William Wilton Jose Cartwright, national hero”.

“Some around the table almost had my head,” he said.  “I was told that only Parliament could give such a designation. I told them under my breath ‘that’s nonsense’.

“On the January 10, 2007, the National Heroes Committee designated William ‘Bill’ Cartwright as honorable for life on behalf of the Bahamian people who are the true sovereign of any country.

“Parliament of The Bahamas has been extremely lazy in this regard. To date only one person, I believe, the late Sir Milo B. Butler, has been declared a national hero by Parliament.

“We wait patiently for people of the stature of ‘Bill’ Cartwright to die then we flirt with the term national hero of the first order. This is our national character on which we seem not to be ashamed.”

Campbell noted that people of “lesser pedigree” than Cartwright overshadow him in accolades.

“Those who sacrificed nothing, gave up nothing, now have roadways and superstructures named in their honor,” Campbell said.

He continued: “And many of today’s players in the political platform know nothing about William ‘Bill’ Cartwright, Cyril Stevenson and [Sir] H.M. Taylor. No wonder tributes paid in recent days to Cartwright lack so much substance.”

The men founded the PLP in 1953.

Cartwright died at 89.

He spent the last two years of his life in an old folks home, before being taken to hospital in the days before his death.

Cartwright, a native of Long Island, represented Cat Island in Parliament for seven of the 20 years he devoted to public life.

PLP Deputy Leader Philip Brave Davis said at Cartwright’s memorial on Friday that The Bahamas failed Cartwright.

At the funeral yesterday, Prime Minister Perry Christie agreed with Campbell that Cartwright deserves special recognition.

Christie said the government would allow The College of The Bahamas to begin immediately to record the history of the country to “fill in the gaps that have been left by those who have offered their own experiences”.

“We have an obligation as a country to do something about this deficit that the Rev Fr. spoke about, and quickly,” Christie said.

“To the family...I have indicated as the leader of the PLP on the one hand that I would move to ensure the upliftment of the names of those who are a part of the original visionaries and [their] name in the annals of our party, so that henceforth we will no longer have to guess, but will be properly lifted and institutionalized.

“So from a party perspective the history will be complete.”

Jun 19, 2012

thenassauguardian

Caribbean Blog International

Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham admits non-disclosure

By JUAN MCCARTNEY ~ Guardian Senior Reporter - juan@nasguard.com:



Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham yesterday admitted that like many other members of Parliament, he has not been complying with the Public Disclosures Act for the past several years.

"The last one I did was the day before the election in 2007," said the prime minister in a candid interview with The Nassau Guardian in his office at the Churchill Building yesterday.

Ingraham was responding to questions raised after a Guardian investigation uncovered that published public disclosure among elected and publicly appointed officials has basically become a thing of the past.

"I saw your story and we will give some attention to that," Ingraham said when asked if he was aware of the issue. In fact, Ingraham admitted that, "the Public Disclosures Act is not being adhered to by members of Parliament."

The last disclosures published were done on November 3, 2004. However, that information was only current up to the end of 2000.

On Tuesday, the prime minister said that he has all of his financial statements up to end of last year in order and has only to turn them in.

"I brought all of mine up to date," Ingraham said. "I've prepared all the others for 2007 and 2008. I haven't filed them yet, but I'll file '07, '08 and '09 between now and the end of March and early April."

With an entrance tucked in a corner behind the Office of Government Publications and next to the Royal Bahamas Police Force Drug Enforcement Unit's Marine Division on East Bay Street, it's easy to see how somebody could have difficulty locating the Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) if no one explained exactly where it is located.

The secreted location of the PDC might be one reason public officials have trouble turning in their disclosures.

For years, various parliamentarians have claimed that the disclosure laws are more to allow the public a glimpse into their private lives.

However, the law - drafted in 1976 - was created specifically to ensure that elected and publicly appointed officials do not enrich themselves off of the public purse.

As far as how the Ingraham administration will address its own elected and publicly appointed officials' delinquencies, Ingraham said that he was in no position to tell other public officials to disclose their financial information in light of his own transgressions.

"The first thing I must do is bring myself up to date before I have the moral authority to ask others to do so," Ingraham said. "I've done so up to 2007 and I haven't done so since. I don't seek to find any excuse for not having done so. I just haven't done it. But I'll do it."

The penalty for not disclosing the information or providing incorrect information is a $10,000 fine and/or two years in prison.

To be fair, even though the information is ultimately forwarded to Cabinet, the process for public disclosure is that all information is to be submitted to the PDC, then audited by its appointed board, according to sources within the PDC.

Why two administrations have passed and a third has almost reached the halfway mark with no new information having been published since 2004 is a question that has yet to be answered.

When contacted last week, the head of the PDC, Oswald Isaacs, said he wasn't prepared to sit for an interview because he had only recently been appointed to the post.

Isaacs referred The Guardian to the secretary of the commission, who did not return messages left for him.

What was gathered from multiple sources is that the hold up usually occurs in Cabinet. Getting anyone connected to Cabinet to confirm that proved fruitless. Cabinet meetings are considered top secret.

It is also understood that if even one person required to make public disclosure fails to do so, the entire process is held up.

Also, the verification process was said to take quite some time.

But how a government that produces a yearly budget for dozens of government departments outlining thousands of line items in minute detail, cannot compile the financial data of fewer than 100 people on a yearly basis is a question that might never be answered.


February 10, 2010

thenassauguardian

Bahamas Blog International