The Tribune

By RUPERT MISSICK Jr

THE use of religious symbolism to bolster the legitimacy of a monarch, a tyrant or even a democratically elected leader is not a new concept, in fact it pre-dates recorded history.

The warming light of the enlightenment was to end all that and the French Revolution was to signal to all that the divine right of kings, and by extension the aristocracy, had no place in society. Well that’s what was supposed to happen anyway.

History is replete with examples of leaders of every race, of every political philosophy, on every continent who have wrapped themselves in some spiritual myth to gain or maintain power.

Some exploited churches, forced the capitulation of their leaders or encouraged them to turn a blind eye to dubious moral practices while others reached into the past and adopted the symbols of their pagan ancestors.

While sitting in the drawing-room of Majority Rule era parliamentarian, Ed Moxey, he tells us of how the PLP, in 1967, used religion to become the first black government of The Bahamas.

To understand how this happened one only has to know a bit of the old testament.

The PLP had lost the general election before 1967 so it was up to the UBP to set the date for the 1967 poll and the date they chose was January 10 of that year.

There is a passage in the Bible, Exodus 12: 1-3 in which God tells the Israelites the date they will be delivered from bondage in Egypt. It reads: “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ‘This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.”

Mr Moxey said that a pastor from South Andros by the name of Utell Rodgers connected the dots for then opposition leader Lynden Pindling and showed him the parallels between the Exodus story and the significance a PLP victory would mean in light of it.

Sir Lynden was to be Moses and every effort was made to draw a correlation between Moses the prophet and Lynden Pindling the PLP leader and the January 10, 1967 general election to the biblical Passover.

“When we came to power, yes, we used God. Anyone who was around in 1967 would have to admit that. Our victory became a spiritual victory. We used God, Moses, the Bible, Exodus, all of that. We went in with a plan and that plan was to let the people know that God was in this.

“We went in with the authority of God. Moses in the minds of the people was already God’s chief representative on Earth so Pindling became God’s anointed representative on Earth,” Mr Moxey said.

He won’t commit to any suggestion that the whole process of constructing a Moses-type mythology around Pindling was an entirely cynical exercise, but admits that after a while even those who didn’t really believe it, fell victim to their own propaganda.

“They really believed it. Why do you think the people let Pindling treat them so bad for so long?” he asked.

The myth making powers of the PLP were so strong that Mr Moxey believes it is the real reason why it took so long for the country to establish Majority Rule Day a holiday.

The 14th verse of that same chapter of Exodus reads: “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.

“There are some people who don’t want it to be about that PLP mythology and there are others who want it to live on beyond the grave,” Mr Moxey said.

There is a tinge of pity in his voice when he refers to Sir Lynden’s own perception of the myth that was created around him and said that the country’s first prime minister almost had no choice but to become a god in his own mind.

“There is only so long a normal person can take that much adulation,” he says nodding. “And the Constitution of the Bahamas doesn’t help. It makes a dictator of our prime ministers in that it has invested full power in the prime minister to hire and fire at will.”

He then leans back on his couch, smiles and asks us, “Do you know, what song we used back then for the election? The theme from (the movie) Exodus.”

The movie he is referring to was not a Biblical one but the controversial 1960 war epic produced and directed by the legendary Otto Preminger.

The film is based on the events that happened on the ship Exodus in 1947 as well as events dealing with the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.

Mr Moxey smiles, leans his head back and sings the first verse”

“This land is mine; God gave this land to me

This brave and ancient land to me.

“And when the morning sun reveals her hills and plain

Then I see a land where children can run free.

“We were on an emotional high and the people were even higher. But Pindling took it higher than that, he took it personal and believed that it was his, that this land was his,” Mr Moxey said.

Soon after the victory, Mr Moxey said he watched as many of his colleagues abandoned the philosophy of “the revolution” and revelled in pomp and circumstance and the officious trappings of their past colonial masters.

“I don’t know whether or not the leadership of the PLP was really convinced, that they believed in the deep philosophy of our forefathers. I don’t think they ever had it. In some cases, they envied the people of that nationalistic mindset who wanted to put country first,” Mr Moxey said.

He believes that what he and his colleagues did in elevating Sir Lynden helped create what he described as “political cults” in The Bahamas which raised party leaders to a position of demi-godhood.

“We helped the leader under the revolution set up a patronage system, we developed that, I include myself in that, when we took control of the country in 1967.

“We adopted a policy that if you were not with me you are against me. If you are not with me you are my enemy and to the victor goes the spoils. That is the philosophy we embedded in the people of this country,” he said.