“…Recognizing Pindling…”

Alas/fate was not so kind.

And now, there remains some more of this alas stuff!

Alas, Lynden O. Pindling has been dead, lo these past nine years.

Even now, I clearly remember the pleasant surprise I got when I found out that not only was this great man an Adventist, but that he had a close relationship with its enunciated principles for all of his life.

Tellingly, as sunset approached, Pindling returned to the bosom of his Church family. As the record attests, "Sir Lynden re-joined the Adventist Church in 1996. He was baptized at the Centreville church on December 10 of that year…

"…At the age of eighteen he went to England to begin his law studies. When he returned home years later, his relationship with the church diminished. However, he was always fond of Adventism, and kept the principles in his heart…"

And crucially, "Following his baptism he became very active in church. He sang in the Hillview Adventist Men’s Choir, occasionally taught Sabbath lesson, and was always willing to help and share the gospel…" 

As his brethren put it, "A great Bahamian hero and Adventist brother is dead.  We await the glorious resurrection…"  

And the Church says, Amen!

I too thank God for the life and witness of this great Bahamian.

Even in death, Lynden O. Pindling’s mystique lives on.

Pindling’s stature is such that – even now – the two old men who are still chewing on their juicy scraps of power owe their good fortune on the fact that –for whatever reason – they were two of Pindling’s boys.

Such is the power that comes packaged with being Father of the Nation.

And such is the power inherent in a people who revel in backwardness, that this power complex created by Pindling seems impervious to time itself.

So, while Pindling in the flesh might be gone, what he signifies and what he represents to so very many Bahamians remains.

In life, he was this nation’s one great Colossus.

As he did in life, so it turns out for Pindling now that he has taken his place among this tribe’s immortal ancestors.

He looms large in that large pantheon of achievers.

Evidently, mortal man that he was, Pindling was not perfect.

And for sure, he could and did make his fair share of mistakes.

And just perhaps, one of these mistakes might have been the one he made when – in what was clearly one of his last years – he went all out to have Perry Christie recognized as his anointed successor.

He got what he wished.

As the record of the PLP in power from 2002 to 2007 suggests, it is not clear [at least to me] that the Bahamian people got what they needed.

Today I need only quote from my own scrappy archive [ the 2007 scribblings] to make the point.

As I then wrote, "…In this moment this once-great ship is clearly in need of another captain, another crew and a challenging voyage of discovery; or better still a challenging voyage of re-discovery.

"Today I can also tell you that this voyage of re-discovery will have a lot to do with race, class, caste, color, ethnicity, identity and national development…"

And I did also unburden myself of a conclusion to the effect that, "…In a color-caste-class conscious kind of way we have always been aware that The Bahamas is that kind of place where color, caste and class do matter…"

For all that I know or could care to know, Pindling may have ‘liked’ Christie because he [Christie] was not too dark…

But yet again, he also had some very powerful respect for Ingraham, his favorite son.

That’s just the way things have gone in this topsy-turvy place.

But no matter, God has been good to his servant, Felix Bethel.

Indeed, the Almighty has been good enough to this sinner-man, that he has lived long enough and well enough to know that his enemies have been scattered, some of them routed and some others have been left wallowing in the dust.

That this is a blessed day goes without saying. And for sure, it is worth saying that this day – as days go – marks the anniversary of any number of events that took place on this date sometime or the other in the past.

So today, Bethel remembers that time nine years ago, when Lynden O. Pindling decided that the time had come for him to lay down sword and shield, and study war no more.

So said, so done.

And so it was that – on this date – nine years ago, Lynden O. Pindling’s mortal remains were returned to the earth, of which they had been so fearfully fashioned.

But ever the political magician, Pindling – to his credit – was man enough and hero enough and beloved enough to help Perry Gladstone Christie as he sought to become Prime Minister of this Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

Whether Christie cares to accept it or not, the fact remains that he owes his birth, emergence and ascendancy to the support he got from Lynden O. Pindling/ and just as true/ most of us will get to know [perhaps on the Judgment Day] just why Pindling was so sold on this brother from the Valley.

From one perspective, this is currently irrelevant.

Pindling is dead. And while he is gone, he still looms large in the consciousness of all who had the chance either to know him or meet him [as I did on any number of occasions].

And clearly, Pindling looms large in the consciousness of both Christie and Ingraham, two of his boys.

Here I suspect that Pindling also looms large in the consciousness of a Bernard Nottage who was not one of his boys.

And so it goes, there is a difference to be had between those who are boys and those who are said to be men.

In passing, let it be known that I do not have a clue as to whether Brave Davis ever did qualify as one of Pindling’s boys.

But if he did, I would have a clearer idea as to why he is being set up as someone who is new, good and visionary/ and as someone who could make a good deputy to YuNoh-Hu.

If this happens, [and then clearly] we would have a massive blast from the past in the House and Senate – as both would be dominated by Christie, Davis, Ingraham and their company.

Now bear in mind that I told you that I never did get an opportunity to know Pindling except from the safe distance where I lived and worked [both of which were quite distant from where he lived and worked] and so, all I can say – with some smattering of confidence- is that I suspect that Pindling would have approved of these maneuvers.

What I’m trying to suggest – albeit feebly, now that I am old and increasingly feeble – is that if Brave became what he wishes to become, the nation would be witness to the kind of play that would have pleased the maestro himself, Lynden O. Pindling.

And since I still do not know as much as I would like to know, I would guess that the steps that are currently being made will end with one Bernard Nottage being frozen out of the mix- yet again and yet again.

I am hoping and praying that I am wrong.

I am doing so because I remain adamant in my oft-stated suggestion that Bernard Nottage does have what it takes to become a great leader in this nation that is ours.