THE DEATH of Sir Lynden Pindling this past week has removed from the scene the man who can properly be described as the architect of the modern Bahamas.
The victory of Pindling's Progressive Liberal Party in 1967 was to change fundamentally not only the nature but also the face of Bahamian politics.
It ushered in a new era of majority rule and brought to an end the influence of the United Bahamian Party, the white power elite, dubbed the 'Bay Street Boys', who had dominated the economic and political life of the then British colony for generations. Pindling was hailed as a 'Black Moses', and he himself described the social and economic transformation that he spearheaded in the Bahamas as a 'Quiet Revolution'.
Pindling led his country to Independence from Britain in 1973 and against all the predictions of the naysayers set his country on a course of prosperity based principally on tourism earnings which continues to the present.
He had strong Jamaican connections: his father was a Mico graduate who had gone to the Bahamas to answer a call for teachers and left the teaching profession to become a member of the Bahamas police force.
While geography dictated that the Bahamas had stronger links to the North American mainland than it did to the islands of the Caribbean, Sir Lynden identified with Caribbean aspirations. Bahamas joined and supported regional institutions, including the University of the West Indies, and first a Centre for Hotel and Tourism Management and later a Law School all part of the UWI system were established there.
After being a member of the House of Assembly for 41 years and leading his country for 25 years, first as Premier and later as Prime Minister, Sir Lynden's administration was plagued by a series of scandals and allegations which contributed to his defeat in the elections of 1992.
Friends and critics are at one in acknowledging his outstanding role in the birth and development of the modern Bahamas.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner.
