Dear Editor,
After the victory that ushered in majority rule, a concerted plan was set in motion to place one person at center stage and push all others off. That might have caused the early fracture in the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) after majority rule. That fracture has caused a distortion of the nation history; but if history is our guide, where do we go for guidance?
Let us go back to January 10, 1967. Now let us see where we are. We are at a juncture where the action of two outstanding patriots would change the course of history for this nation. In that election, with a 38-seat assembly, the two major political organizations were locked in an 18-seat tie. The others were won by the member for Saint Barnabas Randol F. Fawkes and the member for Saint John's Alvin R. Braynen. Those two members, one a former member of the United Bahamian Party (UBP) and the other a former member of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), were at a crossroad in their political journeys. Fawkes could have walked into the sunset a wealthy man. He was offered millions, but refused to compromise. His faith has moved the mountain, he made this nation proud. But soon the system that he helped bring into being would have him ostracized.
Every Bahamian old enough to understand what was going on was wondering, what if? What would have happened if Braynen had returned to the UBP and Fawkes to the PLP? It would have changed to a 19-seat tie; and if they had remained true to their causes, it would have remained a standoff and an eventual return to the polls.
To go back to the polls would have posed a challenge for the under-funded PLP against the well-funded UBP who had seen the handwriting on the wall and was in a position to launch an all-out blitz against the under-funded PLP. With its war chest to capitalize on the vulnerability of a segment of the majority who were not yet convinced that we were ready to govern ourselves, the UBP could have won.
Now 45 years later, Fawkes and Braynen, whose actions prevented the preceding narrative from happening, have gone on into eternity without receiving their just rewards. We do not tell our story. But who will tell it if we do not tell it ourselves? It will be told. And when it is, Fawkes will be at center stage. A famous historian, Marcus Garvey, who was inspired by a great Bahamian, Dr. Robert Love, said that, "A people without knowledge of their history, is like a tree without roots".
A tree without roots will surely wither and die; so will a people without a connection deep into their past. Because so much of our history is hidden, our culture is slowly dying.
When we fail to teach our history we rob our people of the past and the knowledge of what was. For example, if a question is asked as to who was the first medical doctor to represent the constituency of Killarney, a majority might say Dr. Hubert Minis; but that answer would be incorrect. Killarney was represented by Dr. Elwood Donaldson in 1967. That was the year of majority rule.
- Prince G. Smith

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