The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I GOT home from the FNM Tsunami Rally about 11 last night.  I hurriedly tuned into ZNS TV13 to see what the PLP rally looked like.  

Interestingly, Perry Christie was coming to the end of his speech. I recoiled as he belted out in a hoarse voice that the rights and privileges we as Black Bahamians enjoy today were given to us by the PLP.

Certainly I could see the desperation in the face of a tired aged man who, to his dismay, can see power slipping away from him. The enlightened among us would know that in 1956 the PLP was still in opposition.

 Sir Etienne Dupuch a member of the UBP, moved a resolution in the HOA to end discrimination in public places in The Bahamas. Where were Perry Christie and this crew of PLP gangsters? In the 1967 general election, the UBP and the PLP were tied 18-18. It was Sir Alvin Braynen, a white Bahamian, and Sir Randol Fawkes, both independent candidates who won their seats, sided with the PLP to bring about majority rule. Where were these PLP gangsters then?  

Certainly Perry and his gang are using scare tactics to hold on to power and privileges to enrich themselves more and more. They can never get enough. It’s obvious that they cannot run on their current record of failures, so they resort to the past, of which they had no part. Bahamians are not stupid. Let us vote them out!  It’s the Peoples’s Time!

VELLY WILMORE

Nassau,

April 21, 2017.

(In 1956 when Sir Etienne Dupuch moved his anti-discrimnation resolution in the House, Sir Henry Tayor, one of the founders of the PLP in 1953, was the only PLP House member. Sir Etienne, contrary to what this letter writer says, was never a member of the UBP, which was founded in 1958.

(Although Sir Etienne’s Resolution was sent to committee where it was meant to die a natural death, his mission was accomplished that night. When he was ordered to sit down by Speaker Asa Pritchard, he refused and was threatened with arrest. The House was suspended in confusion as an angry crowd chased House members down Bay Street to their parked cars.

(As Sir Etienne wrote at the time: “The next day hotels and other public places that had barred coloured people from participating in their facilities sent notices to The Tribune announcing that the barriers were down. In future their places would be open to everyone who conformed to recognised standards of dress and behaviour. The battle had been won.”

(Elsewhere it has been said that Sir Henry Taylor was the first to attempt to get an anti-discrimination committee in the House. This is not true. This apparently was his intention, but he was beaten to it by Bert Cambridge, who some years earlier, had asked for a committee to consider discrimination in the colony. What was then referred to as “the Old Guard” in the House — made no comment, but appointed a committee, which never met. That was the end of the first attempt to abolish discrimination. Learning from Mr Cambridge’s mistake of asking for a committee, Sir Etienne instead moved a resolution.— Ed).