Arise Sir Hartman - Queen’s Birthday honour for Chief Justice

As of Friday, June 12, 2015

Sir Hartman Longley

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

HARTMAN Longley, the Chief Justice of the Bahamas, has been knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Sir Hartman has been appointed a Knight Bachelor in recognition of his contributions to the legal and judicial system of The Bahamas.

He has served as Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice of the Court of Appeal, Senior Justice and, in February, succeeded Sir Michael Barnett as Chief Justice, the nation’s highest judicial office.

Sir Hartman was called to the Bahamas Bar on October 6,1976. He served as assistant counsel in the Attorney General’s chambers from 1976-1978. He also served as a magistrate in Nassau and Freeport from September 1993 to July 1995 and held the position of chief magistrate.

Appointed to the Supreme Court in July, 1995, he served until 2005, when he was appointed to the Court of Appeal, and returned to the Supreme Court in 2010.

Bahamianpride 9 years, 6 months ago

We are an independent nation and we do honor our own. Much respect and honor to the man, but we need to stop treating England like our colonial masters in the way we acknoledge and hold to standard their legal decisions and recognitions. Slavery is over, time to move on and establish our own identity.

Well_mudda_take_sic 9 years, 6 months ago

As far as the Crown in the UK is concerned, we have established our own identity and it ain't a pretty one. In case you have been comatose for the last three decades or so, we are now identified globally as a society loaded with corrupt politicians and hard core criminals! No joke!!

EasternGate 9 years, 6 months ago

Spot on mudda take sic!

Bahamianpride 9 years, 6 months ago

Well_mudda_take_sic, I agree we have evolved into something I'm not proud off. But we took the worse characteristics of our colonial masters and instituted them. If u study world history for hundreds of years countries like England colonialized, enslaved, and murdered millions to build their empire so their hands are covered in blood. We have always behaved like slaves selling our souls to the highest bidder, prostituting ourselves, and turning our backs on our own people for personal gain or to benefit the few. Look around, we are slaves in our own country, we don't have a ownership society. We rely even on the privy council to make our most difficult legal decision in the 21st century. It is this slave mentality that has ruin this country. The country as a whole did not benefit from foreign investors, nor did we use our natural resources to better the country. That includes its educational system, or the diversity of economic opportunities. All our leaders did was kiss the masters ass, and sell out the rest of us just like uncle Toms do. That is why this place is infested with criminals. We destroyed ourselve, with self hate. So when I see us enamered by honours by our once colonial masters I get annoyed because deep down I know physical slavery may be over but our minds are still trapped on the plantation.

duppyVAT 9 years, 6 months ago

Didn't Perry Christie passed an Act in Parliament instituting Bahamian honours ten years ago?????? So why is our CJ still accepting a British knighthood??????? Les we forget

Honestman 9 years, 6 months ago

Bahamapride - colonialism is always wrong and slavery is an affront to human dignity. You are right however that, mentally, many Bahamians are still "trapped on the plantation", none more so than our greedy politicians. After 40 years of independence it is surely time for the country to move on. We cannot keep looking back at previous injustice as an excuse for today's total mismanagement of our situation. To suggest that "England has its hands covered in blood" implies to me that you are suggesting she should in some way bear responsibility today for the slavery of yesterday. If you want to go down that road you have to take into account that African leaders were complicit in the operation of the slave trade. Furthermore, it was England's own William Wilberforce who was instrumental in bringing an end to the slave trade. Using your logic, should England be blaming Italy for being occupied for centuries by the Romans? It is time to move on and for The Bahamas to take responsibility for the problems it faces today. First up we need to begin with a zero tolerance to corruption and insist on nothing less than full transparency from every one of our elected officials. Continuing to attach ourselves to the Privy Council and the UK honours system is something that we as a country need to look at, I agree; however, let's first get rid of the parasites sucking the life blood out of our country. This is much more important in my view.

Bahamianpride 9 years, 6 months ago

Honestman, I dont blame anyone for our trouble, I just suggest that there is nothing fascinating or virtues about our past colonial masters or the U.S. They have there issues as well. What I battle with is in the 21st century we as a people are still holding to these traditions that have no meaning and produce no national pride. It is the mentality of the slave still looking for validation from the master. When the American revolution was fought American established its own identity, it may have taking ideas and technological developments from other nations but it created its own ideals. U dont see American people kissing the ass of any queen, emperor or aristocracy. Infact most American's find it offensive to have any such thing or the unearned. Look at the way we treat each other and honor foreign accolades, that is what i object to, it is a slaves mentality. Everything has a foundation, our failure to evolved and develope our own people is what has screwed us over. Our politicians were more interested in drug money and kissing imperials ass than the education and development of our youth in the early eighties. what u see happening in the streets today are the results of decisions made over 30 years ago. Selfishness, ignorance, greed, self hatred is what's destroying us. Until we become a innovative self empowering people and stop behaving like uncle toms and savages i dont see any change.

Honestman 9 years, 6 months ago

Bahamapride; For the most part, I think we are pretty much in agreement.

watcher 9 years, 6 months ago

I have no problem with our Chief Justices becoming "Sirs" - listen up.

It is a perk of the position, nothing more, nothing less. They get no monetary reward, it does not elevate them in the eyes of us normal Bahamians, and they only impress other toadies of the Imperial era. We are no longer impressed by the gongs and traditions of the Mother country and these "Sirs:" become part of the problem in our nation, and not the solution. They continue to live in the past and are not concerned with moving us forward. If I hear in the press of "Sirsuchandsuch" I suck teeth and immediately dismiss him as a lackey of the system, and a person of little moral character. I would be much more impressed if once, just once, a Bahamian man (or woman) would refuse the award offered to them, and insist on being decorated ONLY with our national awards.

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