WE AGREE WITH FR. CAMPBELL: DISGRACEFUL
The British honours for this country should have been abolished. They should not have been issued. Yet the FNM did. They recently lined up all their FNM friends with these British honours. Rev Canon Sebastian Campbell has answered in the language which we like so we repeat what he said to the Nassau Guardian on 3rd January 2019 as told to Tavis Cartwright.
It is “disgraceful” that The Bahamas continues to recognize the queen’s honours after creating a national honours system, Father Sebastian Campbell said yesterday.
Campbell has been a vocal critic of the queen’s honours for years.
“It’s a blatant insult to the Bahamian people and to our own national honours system that was just implemented on National Heroes Day 2018,” Campbell said when called for comment.
“When the national honours were passed into law, it was hoped that the colonial honours would have been done away.
“That was the hope of the committee at that time.
“Unfortunately, the then government didn’t see the need to take it off the books.
“The national honours, as we have them, is the supreme honour that the country can offer its citizens. So, it means that those who receive the colonial honours are receiving an inferior honour to the highest honour that this country has to offer.
“So, that in and of itself is an insult to those persons who are receiving that honour.”
Campbell also took issue that two clergymen were awarded in the honours.
“What is also surprising is that there are church leaders who are within that group of persons,” he said.
“On behalf of the National Heroes Committee, I call upon them to withdraw their names from receiving this honour and thus allow the church to lead rather than to get in the way of our national development.”
Monsignor Alfred Culmer and Apostle Leon Wallace were awarded the Order of the British Empire. Culmer is being honoured for service to religion and Wallace for service to religion and to the community.
Thirty-eight Bahamians received the first Bahamian honours last year.
The Queen’s New Year’s Honours were announced last month.
Janet Bostwick was named Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of The British Empire for service to politics.
Former Commissioner of Police Reginald Ferguson was awarded the Order of the British Empire for service to the civil service.
Secretary to the Cabinet Camille Johnson is receiving the honour of Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (CMG), for her “outstanding services to education and to public service”.
Jason Harrison Hanna has been awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for service to business and the community.
Former President of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union Nicole Martin has been awarded a BEM for service to industry, and Alfred Kenneth Russell has been awarded a BEM for service to politics and to business.