Lynden Pindling

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Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling, KCMG, OM, JP (22 March 1930 - 26 August 2000) served as the first black Premier of the Colony of the Bahama Islands, 1967-1973 and as Prime Minister of the Bahamas, 1973-1992, as leader of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP). He was also a Privy Councilor and knighted by the Queen in 1983.

A lawyer by profession, he held a law degree from the University of London (1952). In 1953 he was both a Barrister of the Middle Temple and an attorney of the Bahamas Bar.

Pindling led the Bahamas to black majority rule in 1967 and Independence in 1973. Called the 'Black Moses', his later years were marked by controversy and accusations of corruption and involvement in drug trafficking. He died on 26 August 2000 after a prolonged battle with prostate cancer.

He was the longest elected leader in the Western Hemisphere in 1992 when the PLP lost its first election in 25 years. Pindling conceded defeat with the words "the people of this great little democracy have spoken in a most dignified and eloquent manner, and 'the voice of the people, is the voice of God".

[edit] Life

Lynden Pindling was born on 22 March 1930 to Arnold and Viola Pindling in his grandfather's home in Mason's Addition, Nassau, Bahamas. Pindling grew up in East Street in Nassau.

Pindling attended Government High School (GHS), in downtown Nassau from 1943-1946. After completing high school, Pindling took a job as a junior clerk in the Post Office Savings Bank. He was 16. Pindling worked at the bank until 1948 when he traveled to London to study law.

Pindling received a Bachelor of Law (LLB) from King's College, University of London in 1952. Pindling was called to the English bar at the Middle Temple in February 1953 and the Bahamas Bar in June 1953.

At his call to the Bahamas Bar, Pindling dedicated himself to the service of the Bahamas and the Bahamian people 'within and without the realm of pure law', demonstrating his eloquence but also revealing his political agenda.

By the end of 1953, Pindling joined the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) as its legal advisor and later became Treasurer of the Party in 1954 and Chairman in 1963.

On 5 May 1956, Pindling married Marguerite McKenzie (of Long Bay Cays in southern Andros) at St Ann's Parish in Fox Hill Road in Nassau. The following month, Pindling successfully contested Nassau's Southern District constituency in the 1956 General Election.

The PLP party chairman, Henry Taylor, was defeated in the 1956 General Election. His defeat resulted in Pindling's election as the party's parliamentary leader over the dynamic and popular labour leader Randol Fawkes. Pindling led the PLP from 1956 until his retirement in 1997. He led the PLP to election victories in 1967, 1968, 1972, 1977, 1982 and 1987 and was elected to the House of Assembly on ten consecutive occasions.

On 27 April 1965 (a day known in Bahamian history as "Black Tuesday") Pindling delivered a speech in the House of Assembly accusing the government of the day of gerrymandering. In a calculated move to drum up popular support and shock the establishment, he took the Speaker's Mace and threw it out of a window onto the streets (where PLP supporters had gathered) exclaiming, "[t]his is the symbol of authority, and authority in this island belongs to the people... Yes, the people are outside, and the mace belongs outside, too!"

Pindling successfully led the PLP to victory in the 1967 General Election, becoming the Bahamas' first black Prime Minister. Under Pindling's leadership, majority rule was attained in 1967. The nation had previously been by an oligarchy of white merchant's known as ' The Bay Street Boys' as they owned the main businesses on Bay street. They had supressed the Black Majority under a system of segregation that has been compared to the southern United States and South Africa. Interestingly, Pindling was strongly vocal about the South African Regime in the 1980's. Pindling led the Bahamas to independence from Britain on 10 July 1973 and is considered the architect of the modern Bahamas, through initiatives such as basic social security, and housing projects as well as negotiating major tourist developments.

Pindling was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1983.

In 1982, a report by investigative television journalist Brian Ross was aired on NBC in the United States. The report was entitled "The Bahamas: A Nation For Sale" and in it, claims were made that Pindling and his government had taken bribes from Colombian drug smugglers, most notably the notorious and eccentric Carlos "Joe" Lehder, in exchange for allowing the smugglers to use the islands of The Bahamas as a transhipment point for the illicit transport of Colombian cocaine into the US. It now seems to be accepted fact that Lehder had set up a substantial base of operations on Norman's Cay in the Exumas (a chain of tiny islands in the central and southern Bahamas) from which he operated a very successful business as a smuggling "sub-contractor" to the then-mighty Medellin cocaine cartel.

Pindling vigorously denied the claims made in the NBC report, and made a testy appearance on NBC to rebut them. However, the public outcry in The Bahamas over the report led to the creation in 1984 of a Commission of Enquiry to look into the matter. Pindling briefly retained the famous trial lawyer F. Lee Bailey to represent him before the Commission. In the Commission's final report, several members of Pindling's cabinet were severely criticized but none were ever actually charged with crimes as a result. Of Pindling, the Commission's report stated that in the years leading up to the Commission, he had spent sums vastly in excess of his income without incurring any debt or providing any satisfactory explanation of where the extra money had come from. However, the Commissioners did not feel able to say that Pindling had taken bribes from anyone or to recommend that he be charged with any crime.

It is an indication of the level of Pindling's popularity in The Bahamas at the time that, despite the embarassment of the claims made against him in the US media, the fact that he never sought redress for defamation against NBC or Brian Ross, and the damning report of the 1984 Commission of Enquiry, he never felt the need to resign his office or call an early election to seek a fresh mandate from the electorate. In fact, he led his party to another election vistory in 1987 when the report of the Commission was still fresh in voters' minds.

However, in the 1992 General Election, the Free National Movement (FNM) beat the PLP and Pindling also lost his electoral seat, after serious allegations of nepotistic abuse of the state-owned companies and involvement in drug-trafficking. Nevertheless, a nationwide personality cult still reveres him as "the Father of the Nation."

Pindling retired from active politics and leadership of the PLP in July 1997 and was succeeded by Perry Christie. Three years later, on 25 August 2000, Pindling passed away after a prolonged battle with prostate cancer. He was laid to rest on 4 September 2000.

Pindling continues to be revered by many as the most dominant figure in Bahamian politics.

In 2006, Nassau International Airport was renamed in his honour.