The Tribune

DEPUTY leader of the Free National Movement Loretta Butler-Turner praised the founding fathers of the party at a service commemorating the 20th anniversary of the FNM’s first electoral victory on August 19, 1992.

Speaking at Tabernacle Independent Baptist Church in Freeport, Grand Bahama on Sunday, Mrs Butler-Turner told a large group of FNM supporters that the election victory “was the beginning of an era of transformative, progressive governance. But the day on which we first won office, was also the culmination of 25 years of struggle by so many, including those who sacrificed so much for our cause.

“We remember then on this 20th anniversary our founding fathers and the many freedom fighters who endured through the storm. Even before we won office in 1992, the Free National Movement laboured to save democracy in this land,”said Mrs Butler-Turner who is the FNM MP for Long Island and Ragged Island.

She said: “It was FNMs like our founding fathers Sir Cecil Wallace- Whitfield, Maurice Moore, Warren Levarity and valiant FNM leaders like Garnet Levarity, CA Smith, JM Pinder, Neko Grant, Rev Lindsey Russell and David Thompson, among many others here in Grand Bahama, who helped saved democracy in the Bahamas.

“Our democracy was saved from the tyranny of mass victimisation and intimidation.It was saved from those who abused our democratic heritage to enrich themselves.

“It was saved from those who engaged in dictatorial practices because they thought that they alone had a right to rule” she said.

Mrs Butler-Turner also recognised the contribution of former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, who led the FNM to its first victory.

“We remember also on this anniversary, our former Leader Hubert Alexander Ingraham. I noted in my tribute to him in the House of Assembly that history will record him as the great reformer and moderniser,” she said.

Mrs Butler-Turner added: “On August 19, 1992, we rescued the country and restored the great promise of our Bahamaland. During three terms in office we have forever transformed our Bahamas for the better. Indeed it is the FNM which fulfilled many of the promises of majority rule which were abandoned by the PLP.”

Mrs Turner paid tribute to the late FNM national chairman Charles Maynard, who passed away suddenly only days before the 20th anniversary of the FNM’s first election to office.