The Advent of Majority Rule in The Bahamas

What does Majority Rule in The National Affairs of The Bahamas mean?

Majority Rule Day marks the day when, for the first time in history, The Bahamas had achieved full democratic status

Majority Rule: a different eyewitness report

By Patrick Rahming

Someone once said that anyone who wants to test the veracity of history should listen to two eyewitness reports of the same car accident. In that spirit, this is another eyewitness report of the advent of Majority Rule and the events following. This report may appear to contradict one that appeared in The Nassau Guardian on the eve of Majority Rule Day, January 9, 2023, but it does not. It simply adds another shade of color to the picture. To be even clearer, then, I would refer to another quote about history: “History is created by those who write it.” I share my opinion for the benefit or otherwise of Bahamian history.

What does Majority Rule mean?

The popular belief is that Majority Rule has something to do with the majority party in Parliament finally looking like the majority of the people – that is, black. That, of course, would suggest that a community of majority black citizens could not choose to be represented by white politicians, and that The Bahamas determines its national affairs on the basis of race. I cannot believe that is the meaning of Majority Rule Day.

More likely, Majority Rule Day marks the day when, for the first time in history, the country had achieved full democratic status. I have spoken to many younger Bahamians who were unaware that, prior to 1962, there were four categories of Bahamian citizens. First, there were those who qualified to vote ordinarily, which applied to men with property only. Then there were those who owned properties in multiple constituencies, who could vote wherever they owned property, giving a single individual the opportunity to vote multiple times in the same election. Thirdly, there were those who owned or represented companies, who could vote “for the company”. Finally, women and men without property could not vote at all, basically a voiceless category of citizens. In other words, prior to 1962, national elections were anything but fair. The Bahamas was legally and constitutionally not a democratic country.

However, following changes to those laws, women voted for the first time in 1962 and by 1964 both the land vote and the company vote had been rescinded. By 1964, then, The Bahamas had finally become legally and constitutionally a democratic country. So, it is quite true that the 1967 election was the first election held as a true democracy (the results determined by one man, one vote). Regardless of who won that election, the day would have been the first Majority Rule Day. The meaning of the day was determined by its history, not its participants.

*It is therefore wrong to continue to vilify those who actually passed the laws we now celebrate. The PLP was not the government when the laws providing the franchise for women and those eliminating the preferential positions for land and company ownership were passed, and therefore could not have been responsible for them. Regardless of their role as promoters or agitators, they cannot accept responsibility for the legislation passed by a previous government. In the courts, for example, the judge holds the perpetrator of the crime responsible, not the person who convinced him to commit it. This is a matter of historical record, not opinion or preference. Our children deserve the truth, not our prejudice. If we are to celebrate, let us celebrate history, not partisan rhetoric and half-truths.*

Majority Rule and the economy

Those of us over 65 (that is, old enough to remember pre-Majority Rule conditions) have a view of the 1960s that is very different from the world we hear about when current politicians speak. We recall a world in which there was considerable participation in the economy by ordinary black and white Bahamians. In tourism, the anchor of the economy, almost all of the entertainment business, the primary wealth creator in the tourism business, was owned locally, over 90 percent by black Bahamians. All of the transportation business was owned by Bahamians, also mostly black Bahamians. Except for the heritage sites, almost every tourist attraction was owned and operated by Bahamians, again mostly black. Throughout the real City of Nassau (over the hill) just about every consumer business was owned and operated by black Bahamians: grocers, meat markets, dry cleaners, dry goods stores, shoe sales and repair stores, barbers and beauticians. Everyone seemed to be an entrepreneur, from bicycle repair to raising rabbits to operating joinery shops to teaching music. Even on Bay Street, almost every business was owned and operated by Bahamians. While the majority of them may have been white, they were Bahamians (unlike today) and their participation in the tourism economy was significant. We recall a productive, confident, self-sufficient, self-assured, future-oriented communities. This is the starting point for measuring our economic progress.

The fact that, after 52 years we find ourselves standing outside foreign-owned resorts begging for participation in a business we had shaped for decades before, speaks volumes about our lack of attention to our own business. Rather than patting ourselves on our backs because we now drive expensive cars and live in gated communities, we should be asking why we have become a nation of dependent, frightened observers begging for a job. If the political establishments would claim credit for our new middle-class, they must also accept credit for the high reliance on a pay check and fear of risk.

Majority Rule and human development

That said, I agree whole-heartedly with concerns expressed about the growth of the gap between the government and its people, and the urgent need to complete the Westminster system by establishing a true system of local government. Parliamentarians are today too busy to know what their constituents need. That must be a sign that something is wrong. There appears to be little or no concern for involving citizens in their own affairs, which has led to a strong sense of “us and them” throughout the country.

I am proud of many of the advances made over these 52 years, but cannot avoid the apparent complete lack of a concern for human development by successive governments. The simple fact that the people of the de facto City of Nassau have not yet been recognized as such in law, after 50 years of independence is shocking. The fact that successive governments still find excuses not to spend on the infrastructure for the reinforcement of our identity through cultural activity is shocking. The fact that when a draft of the National Development Plan, published three years ago, stated that at graduation, 50 percent of students in public schools did not qualify to graduate, it was not considered a national emergency, is shocking. Self-Image and identity are the bedrock of social behavior. Meanwhile the same governments seem mystified by our children’s antisocial behavior. Majority Rule officially made us all equally responsible for the future of The Bahamas. I am not sure we have lived up to that responsibility.

What is the significance of Majority Rule Day? It marks the day The Bahamas became a democracy. That, I believe, is by far more important than seeking partisan credit for a public holiday.

Pat Rahming is an architect, writer and songwriter who is passionate about the importance of the built environment and its importance to the social development of The Bahamas. He can be reached at prahming@gmail.com or via his blog “From the Black Book” at prahming.wordpress.com. He welcomes other points of view.

What is Bahamianisation?

What does Bahamianisation really mean?

tribune242 editorial




IN THE Senate this week Senator Dion Foulkes, leader of government business in the Senate, asked the question: What is Bahamianisation?

And answered: "Bahamianisation is a policy that promotes the economic, educational, cultural and social advancement of all Bahamians -- black Bahamians and white Bahamians."

That is what it was intended to be, but under the PLP -- the Pindling administration that is -- it was the most effective instrument of torture. It was effective because it quietly got results behind the scenes and out of the public eye.

In the early days Bahamianisation was concentrated on employment -- the promotion of Bahamians to jobs that were not open to them before. The concept was admirable. However, its application did great damage to the country because many Bahamians were appointed to positions for which they were not qualified. Their only qualification was having a friend in high places, and being committed to cast their vote for the right party -- the PLP.

"Who started Bahamianisation?" Senator Foulkes asked.

"In my view," he said, "Bahamianisation was promulgated and introduced in the House of Assembly in 1956 by the late Sir Etienne Dupuch.

"Prior to this," he said, "several black Bahamians like, but not limited to, L Walton Young, Dr C R Walker, Leon McKinney, A F Adderley, Sir Clifford Darling, Sir Randol Fawkes and Sir Milo Butler were also pioneers in the Bahamianisation movement even though at the time it was not called Bahamianisation."

"Later in the mid-1950's and 60's," he said, "many other Bahamians would join the fight for the economic, educational and social advancement of black Bahamians.

"Men like Sir Lynden Pindling, Sir Cecil Wallace Whitfield, Sir Arthur Foulkes, Arthur Hanna, Sir Clement Maynard, Sir Kendal Isaacs, Paul Adderley and Sir Orville Turnquest continued the Bahamianisation movement up to 1967 and beyond.

"Our Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Hubert Ingraham and former Prime Minister Perry Christie are both advocates of Bahamianisation," he said.

The concept that Bahamians should be first in their own country was always advocated by The Tribune, going back almost to its founding.

During the premiership of the late Sir Roland Symonette there was a lose form of screening before a foreigner could be employed by a local firm.

There were no foreigners on the staff of The Tribune in the early days. However, as The Tribune developed it outgrew the abilities of its local staff and a foreigner had to be brought in for advanced training, especially when new printing equipment came on the market. We recall during Sir Roland's administration having to get clearance from Mr Stuart Hall, who headed Immigration at the time. We were required to justify the need for our request.

And then came the PLP under Lynden Pindling and the idea of Bahamianisation became institutionalised with strict rules, and many prejudices.

It was still a good concept, but being administered by the wrong hands.

There only had to be a suspicion that you did not vote for the right party to lose your job -- civil servants suffered most in this category. We recall several sad cases involving teachers. And if you happened to work for a foreign company, pressure was brought to bear on that company to get rid of you. The company did not dare balk if it valued its own work permits.

There are many sad tales to be told in Inagua of how families were destroyed when foreign husbands were forced out of their jobs and had to leave town, or in Nassau where Bahamian women, who belonged to the wrong party, could not bring their spouse to the Bahamas because they would not be granted work permits. The Ingraham government introduced the spousal permit to end this iniquity.

As for The Tribune we could write a book about what we had to go through. It seemed a cruel game was being played in which the two top men in the PLP government at the time took great delight.

For many of us "Bahamianisation" was an ugly word, but when administered as intended it saw the advancement of many qualified Bahamians. The advent of the Ingraham government in 1992 opened opportunities to women. During this period women were appointed for the first time to the posts of Chief Justice, Speaker of the House, Attorney General, Governor General and the Appeals Court.

As Senator Foulkes pointed out, the FNM in its first and second and now third term made "significant progress in Bahamianising many institutions and private sector companies. Many banks, hotels and industrial companies were headed by Bahamians for the first time under the FNM."

The implementation, in the words of Senator Foulkes, means that "qualified Bahamians are afforded the first option for employment. A work permit would not be issued to a non-Bahamian where there is a qualified Bahamian who is able and willing to work."

Today party affiliation and friendships should have no place in considering favourably an application for a work permit where there is no qualified Bahamian "who is able and willing to work."

Thursday, March 31, 2011

tribune242 editorial

Bahamas Blog International

We are Bahamians first whether we're black or white

Mrs. Nicki Kelly on the "dilemma for PLP's racist faction
Rick Lowe



Mrs. Kelly had a very thought provoking piece in her column for The Punch, Between The Lines, yesterday as usual.

She raised the valid point that the PLP now have two "white" candidates in Ryan Pinder and Clay Sweeting as well as Dr. Andre Rollins who has a white mother and a black father and this might be upsetting for the PLP's racist faction.

I wonder if the political class believe the Bahamian people think no further than race when they are voting?

Surely the population thinks about public policy, and whether it is good or bad for the country, more now than ever before?

If the "PLP's racist faction" can upset their parties apple cart because they have two white candidates and one half white standard bearer, the party does not deserve to win the government until its leadership casts them out or at least has the guts to face them down and explain they now live in 2011 and there is no room for that in their organisation.

We are Bahamians first whether we're black or white.

February 22, 2011

weblogbahamas

Bahamas Blog International

Racism in The Bahamas

The spectre of racism
By ADRIAN GIBSON
ajbahama@hotmail.com


I pledge my allegiance to The Flag and to The Commonwealth of The Bahamas for which it stands, one people united in love and service.

- Bahamas' National Pledge of Allegiance


THE spectre of racism continues to linger in the Bahamas today, complemented by the emergence of a new, black oligarchy and an observable classism that further stratifies the nation along economic/class lines.

These days, there remain persons who, however subtly, continue to have an epidermal obsession, judging people on the hue of their skin (whether black or white) rather than adhering to Martin Luther King's magnanimous urging to assess a person based on the content of their character.

Undoubtedly, due to people imprudently judging others based on their skin tone, Bahamians across the spectrum of colours may have not had fair chances at jobs or bank loans.

Over time, our race relations have been shaped by issues such as slavery, minority rule and the fight for majority rule, mass illegal immigration (particularly from Haiti) and so on.

Although there is a maturing air of racial harmony in the Bahamas, there are occasions where antipathy and racism surfaces, particularly when self-seeking, narrow-minded politicians exploit the psychological effects of slavery and the racist injustices of the past.

In the years since the UBP's dismantlement, black Bahamians have become apprehensive about white Bahamians ascending to political power, mainly due to the angst that these Bahamians could have a stranglehold on both the economic and political structure, turn the country into some kind of racist backwater where the masses are oppressed and/or accrue more wealth in the process (something that several rapacious black politicians have also done).

According to former Director of Culture and College of the Bahamas (COB) lecturer Nicolette Bethel, the appointment of a "self-identified white Bahamian as Deputy Prime Minister has raised the fear that the oppressive force that was fractured in 1967 will return and change the Bahamas back to what it was before Majority Rule."

Nicolette Bethel asserts that the appointment of a "self-identified white Bahamian as Deputy Prime Minister has given white Bahamians a chance to feel as though they belong in The Bahamas again." (In the wake of US President Barack Obama's ascendancy to the Presidency in 2008--the first time for an African-American--I've decided to comprehensively explore the prospect of a white Bahamian such as Brent Symonette, or any other, ascending to the Prime Minister's post and, to an extent, the place of white Bahamians in local politics in next week's column).

Racism--a terminal disease--and classism has deepened the social divide and has led to the imposition of Judeo-Christian values that have caused the denigration of some indigenous culture and contributed to the ghettoisation and residential segregation of countless Bahamians in what historically are, in some cases, African heritage sites that have today evolved into crime-riddled, dirty war zones with sub-standard housing.

Indeed, while Judeo-Christian values have its merits, it could be because of such outside influences and historical ties to slavery, that some black Bahamians are mentally enslaved and in some instances become virtually fixated with bleaching their skin and/or, among themselves, comparing who has a lighter skin tone, with the lighter coloured persons being viewed as more beautiful or, as is proven sometimes, more likely to be presented with opportunities.

Does the rhetoric of racial propaganda echo the real social values inherent to Bahamian society as is seen during political rallies? Outside of politics, to what extent is race really an issue in the Bahamas today?

In the Bahamas, race issues and classism go beyond the sphere of political discourse, but also influence attitudes, social interaction and settlement patterns.

In New Providence, in some cases, there is little interaction for some people outside of a certain class/race of friends. Nicolette Bethel asserts that there is an unspoken air of separation along racial lines as "there are still churches and clubs and parks and professions and schools that are avoided by whites (and) blacks."

Having been raised on Long Island, while I can presume that some small-minded people possibly harbour restrained racial prejudices/thoughts, for the most part the island (particularly young people) is a melting pot with white and black Bahamians sprinkled in the various settlements and both black and "Conchy Joe" Bahamians rush with junkanoo groups, work together, inter-marry, patronise the same restaurants/clubs, etc.

While I have a diverse background and a heterogeneous group of friends, I've found that for some Nassauvians, there's an air of suspicion and a lack of interaction outside of established race/class groupings.

According to Alan Gary LaFlamme's 1972 study of the bi-racial community of Green Turtle Cay, he discovered that various forces, ranging from the relative physical isolation, residential segregation, segregated work schedules, recreational segregation to social distance, have kept the two ethnic groups apart.

LaFlamme asserts that, socially, there was a preference for socialising within one's own ethnic group and consequently concluded that as a result of this, cultural differences are maintained or even created and derived from differences in resources, personal association and shared ideas.

Christopher Curry, my former college lecturer and a white Bahamian historian who has recently returned from university where he pursued his doctoral studies, claims that on Green Turtle Cay, "even the Loyalist Memorial Garden erected by the whites in 1983 symbolises the community's racial segregation with its central icon a heroic Loyalist woman waving the union flag and a loyal female slave 'a suitable' step or two behind."

In a 2005 interview with another daily, when addressing his heritage and culture, even DPM Brent Symonette appeared to assert his disconnect and apparent cultural demarcation, stating: "My heritage is France, hence the name "Symonette.' France to England and possibly to Bermuda and then here. When Alfred Sears stood up and talked about Clifton, he painted this very emotional picture of the black slave captured in Africa (sic) and landing into freedom in The Bahamas. I didn't come that route. So my cultural history isn't based in the navel string of Mother Africa, so how can you ask me to celebrate that heritage?"

According to Mr Curry:

"Within New Providence, residential segregation is evident although racial lines in many instances have been obscured or even subsumed by class values. As such, professionally-trained and educated blacks were able to achieve upward mobility after majority rule, many moving out of the Over the Hill areas to more lavish housing in the eastern district or newly-developed sub-divisions in the southeast and western ends of the island.

"While it is true that there has been some integration by blacks into traditionally white communities, the degree of social interaction between the races is questionable.

"A recent survey in 2003 suggests that many Bahamians still prefer to live in ethnically homogenous communities. Accordingly, only 58 per cent of respondents lived in a residential area with persons of another race and only 50 per cent of persons living in an all white or all black community would consider living in a mixed residential area," he said.

Throughout several Family Island communities, a common thread of residential segregation and racial attitudes is entrenched, although young Bahamians are rapidly breaking the cycle. Michael Craton and Gail Saunders note in their historical work 'Islanders in the Stream' vol.II, that Spanish Wells was known as the most prejudiced of all the white communities, forbidding blacks from remaining on the island overnight.

Chris Curry, who also conducted a survey/research on that island, states:

"Today, except for a handful of government officials the entire population of the original settlement remains 'Conchy Joe' white, the majority are blood relations and more than one quarter rejoice in the single surname Pinder. Similar configurations, (albeit with a higher 'sprinkling' of blacks) are also found on the offshore cays in the Abacos, including Guana Cay, Elbow Cay, Man o' War Cay and the mainland settlement of Cherokee. While the obvious and explicit forms of racism may have subsided in these communities, their values and preference for living apart from others encourages social distancing and latent forms of racism."

Two years ago, I watched a two-part CNN report that, while feeding into some stereotypes, delved into the topic of being "Black in America" and attempted to examine interracial relationships, AIDs statistics, educational gaps, successful black Americans, unemployment and the inability of educated black women to find an educated or employed mate of equal footing. Even more recent, I watched the sequel to that earlier report as well as another CNN special report that purported to address the issue of debt among black families.

While racism/classism may exist in both the US and here, by contrast, it appears that black Bahamians have a greater sense of self-worth and equality unlike some black Americans who appear to have an inferiority complex and a mental enslavement that has been overwhelmingly poisoned by hundreds of years in slavery and a vicious civil rights struggle.

Nevertheless, America's race relations appears to be improving, and the presidency of Barack Obama, in this industrialized nation where the majority of its population is Caucasian, is indicative of this.

Frankly, when looking at the racial tensions in the US, persons such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and the late, white US Senators Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond, have contributed to racial divisions.

During President Obama's campaign, Jackson engaged in an uncensored tirade against the then Democratic-nominee's urging of blacks to plan families instead of bearing bastard children with multiple partners out of wedlock.

Indeed, it is because of opportunistic, monied so-called black leaders such as these purveyors of disharmony that some black Americans have adopted a racially contemptuous psyche and, in some cases, an outlook that isn't appreciative of hard work and blames the white man for everything (and this does not excuse injustices or racism by whites).

Locally, although the unambiguous and overt forms of racism may have receded since Majority Rule and constitutional changes, the continuance of residential segregation and what appears to be a general lack of interaction between the ethnic and class groupings is noteworthy.

In 2006, Helen Klonaris, a Greek Bahamian, noted that race is "a conversation that white Bahamians by and large, either want to dismiss, with common phrases such as 'I don't think about race,' 'race doesn't come into it,' or 'we're over that', or, become defensive and speak of 'reverse racism', that 'the tables have turned' and white people are now the victims of Black oppression."

Sir Durward Knowles' One Bahamas campaign is a noble idea, but it cannot be made a reality unless, as Christopher Curry suggests, "further discussion on the historical antecedents of racism in The Bahamas would provide a meaningful understanding of the present race issues that divide our great nation."

November 05, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International