The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie was one of several persons to pay his last respects yesterday to former Cabinet Minister and parliamentarian Warren J Levarity, who died last week.

At the funeral at Christ Church Cathedral, Mr Christie, Opposition Leader Dr Hubert Minnis, and former Governor General Sir

Arthur Foulkes all paid tribute to a man they recognised as being “one of the founding fathers of the Free National Movement.”

Mr Christie, in his tribute, said Mr Levarity’s involvement in the “Dissident Eight” was “another contribution of major significance to national development” that helped “ensure the survival of the two-party system that lies at the very heart of our constitutional democracy.”

“Warren was no ordinary politician,” Mr Christie said. “He was a master political strategist and tactician, especially when it came to Family Island politics. He understood people, and he understood the collective consciousness of Family Island communities in a way that set him apart. He was a deep thinker who took great delight in following the moves – and then developing counter-moves – on the political chessboard. He was a man of wise counsel, and he imparted that counsel to his leaders, initially in the PLP and later in the FNM – in a way that was always forthright, always clear, and always compelling in its simplicity, its honesty, and its logic.”

During his tribute, Dr Minnis said: “While our hearts are deeply saddened by his passing, we are grateful for the significant role (Mr Levarity) played in helping to shape the political landscape of our modern Bahamas. It was his sacrifice and the maintenance of democracy, for me, a boy from Bain Town, to be able to address you.

“(To the family), indeed, your sacrifice, suffering, shared belief in Warren’s vision helped him impact in the conjoin of his life, to write our story, the story of our political movement, the FNM story. To us in the FNM, he was and remains a part of our inspiration, and we are eternally grateful for the legacy of his service to communities, our people, and our nation.”

Hundreds of people gathered at Mr Levarity’s funeral, including members of Parliament, former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, former Governors General Arthur D Hanna and Sir Orville Turnquest, Supreme Court justices, other dignitaries, family and friends.

“He shared an intense commitment to conviction politics, going against the prevailing winds if necessary,” Sir Arthur said yesterday. “He shared the belief that leaders should work to change negative opinions, however popular, not pander to them. He also believed that leaders should be prepared to pay the price of their convictions, and not to seek the side on which the bread is buttered.

“If heroism is to be measured by service to noble ideals, by the performance of great deeds, by the exercise of extraordinary courage, and by the willingness to make great sacrifices, then Warren James Levarity fully qualified as a national hero of the first order.”

Mr Levarity was born on June 25, 1932 in West End, Grand Bahama. He joined the Progressive Liberal Party during its infancy, and as a PLP candidate contested a bye-election in Grand Bahama in 1960.

He was a founding member and chief strategist in the National Committee for Positive Action, where, together with Sir Arthur, A Loftus Roker and Jeffrey Thompson, he co-founded the Bahamian Times, the flagship newspaper of the PLP.

He successfully contested and won the West End and Bimini constituency in the pivotal general elections of 1967, which ushered in Majority Rule, and was appointed by then Premier Lynden Pindling to the Cabinet as minister for Out Island affairs.

In 1970, he joined with seven other PLP MPs, led by Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield, in expressing philosophical differences with the PLP, a group which would later become known as the “Dissident Eight.” They called themselves the Free PLP, and after they were suspended from the party went on to form a new opposition party, the Free National Movement.

He retired from public life in the late 1970s, but was recalled for service in the Senate between 1982 and 1987.

In March 2002, the government named the (then) newly constructed roadway connecting the City of Freeport to Eight Mile Rock the Warren J Levarity Highway. In December 2010 he was honoured by Queen Elizabeth with elevation to the rank of Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. The investiture was performed by his friend and comrade Sir Arthur Foulkes.

Nearly four years later on November 9, at the age of 82, he passed away at the Princess Margaret Hospital. He was buried at Lakeview Cemetery.

Mr Christie said yesterday that with Mr Levarity’s passing, former Governor General Arthur Dion Hanna has now become the “last man standing” of the very first Cabinet to be “entrusted with the dreams and aspirations of the sons and daughters of Africa who in 1967, finally came into their own, having elected their own, to lead them to the promised land.”