Re-naming
Nassau International Airport
the
Lynden Pindling International Airport

July 6th, 2006

The Rt. Hon. Prime Minister and Mrs. Christie; The Honourable Deputy Prime Minister and Mr. Pratt; other members of Cabinet and their spouses; Honourable Chief Justice; Mr. Leader of the Opposition; Madam President of the Senate; Mr. Speaker of the Honourable House of Assembly; Madam President of the Court of Appeal; The President of The Bahamas Christian Council; My lord Archbishops; Former Governors-General; Members of the diplomatic corps; Justices of the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court; Honourable Senators; Members of the Honourable House of Assembly; Lady Pindling and other members of the Pindling family; Distinguished guests; Ladies and gentlemen:

It is fitting that we pay homage to our national heroes.  We should do so proudly and without apology.  Indeed, it is imperative that we do so because in paying homage to the builders of the Bahamian nation we tell the story of how our nation came to be and the men and women who made it possible for us to become a free and sovereign people.  This has nothing to do with politics but everything to do with history.

The importance of this to our national development cannot be overstated.

The level of ignorance in our country about our history is distressing.  This is especially true for younger generations of Bahamians.

Too many of our youth take it for granted that the freedoms and liberties and opportunities they enjoy in such abundance today were always so.

But if we are to be truthful to ourselves we must not be ashamed to admit that the land of freedom and social justice we live in today was not always so.

Once upon a time, The Bahamas was a very different place and that time was not very long ago.  It is important that our young understand this.  It is important that they understand the Distance from which we have come.  It is important that they know that it was a long and difficult journey.

It is important that our young be taught these things because it is the only way they will ever understand how important and precious our freedoms really are.  Without an understanding and appreciation of how our freedoms were fought for and won, the survival of those freedoms will always be in jeopardy.

That is why occasions such as this are so important.  They remind us that the modern Bahamas did not happen by chance, but rather by struggle.  They also remind us that it was only through the heroic exploits of great men and women that the freedoms we love and cherish today were gained and won.

Of the many heroic patriots of whom I speak, there was none greater than Lynden Pindling.

Years ago Lynden Pindling and his brave and patriotic warriors started an unending quest to eliminate ignorance, poverty and suffering from our land and to meet the needs of our people everywhere so that they may go about the world with confidence and in dignity.

To what extent these were achieved, we in this generation may not be able to properly and accurately judge for we are too close to them.  Another generation will be the judge.  But we in this generation do know that the important and fundamental achievements that were necessary for the noble journey was the achievement of the rule of the majority and the creation of the free and sovereign state of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas – achievements which are reserved for this generation alone and no other.  With these the gates of the world were opened and our people now go about the world, as someone put it, “not as interlopers but as equals in the common quest”.

The re-naming of the airport as the Lynden Pindling International Airport is our nation’s way of consolidating Lynden Pindling in our collective consciousness as a symbol of national aspiration and struggle for a better Bahamas, not only sovereign and free, but a Bahamas where social justice and equal opportunity continue to be the highest ideals of nationhood - things for which he fought.

I would do a wrong thing if I were to attempt to distort history by leaving the impression that Lynden Pindling alone did or directed the achievements of his government.  He acted as and carried on his government as the chief among equals, did not attempt to interfere with ministerial discretions and accepted the consensus of cabinet even though he may have preferred otherwise.  He understood the system and the unwritten conventions that made it work.  But he did lead those brave warriors and some of them are still with us today, including, Mr. Loftus Roker, Sir Arthur Foulkes, Messrs. George Smith, Maurice Moore, Warren Levarity, Jeffrey Thompson, Sir Clifford Darling, Dr. Curtis McMillan, Sir Clement Maynard and many others who will forgive me for not naming them because of the constraints of time.  Many of them parted political company with their leader with the resulting deepening, however, of the democratic process.

I also cannot forget the many thousands of unsung heroes in all walks of life who were an integral part of the struggle for freedom and social justice for all.  I salute them all including those who have gone on before us, for they, with their leader, have conquered in the fight.

It must, therefore, be for them great pride and nostalgic pleasure that the gateway to the world is named ‘Lynden Pindling International Airport’ as fitting memorial to the man whose solitary figure occupies the very first rank in the assembly of all our national heroes.

Lynden Pindling was not the ugly creature that may be conjured up in the minds of those who wish him ill; he was The Bahamas’ finest son who gave all his adult life in the service of his country and her people.

Whatever political mistakes he may have made, I and others share and I do not in dishonour deny my own involvement.  I know he tried his best.

Let this therefore not be an occasion for division in our country.  Instead let it be an occasion for celebration of the life of a man rightly hailed as ‘Father of our Nation’ and let this airport be a constant reminder to all of us of how the modern Bahamas came to be and the role that Lynden Pindling played in making the dream of freedom come true, not just for some, but for all Bahamians.  It will also let the rest of the world know of the high honour and esteem in which our people hold the father of our nation and a tribute to him whose memory ought to continue forever in the land he loved.