The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I WOULD appreciate it if you would publish this open letter to former Prime Minister Ingraham.

Dear Mr Ingraham,

May 7th, 2012, has come and gone, perhaps painfully and disappointingly so for you and for many Bahamians, but be assured that the legacy of national pride, success and upliftment you have inculcated in the psyche of Bahamians of every walk of life, whether acknowledged or not, will be indelibly etched in our memories and in our hearts.

For you see, sir, in the words of Rudyard Kipling, not only have you "walked with Kings and kept the common touch" but you have never forgotten your humble beginnings nor wavered in your tireless efforts to better the living conditions of your fellow Bahamians regardless of political persuasion. Indeed, in this regard I have observed that in all your endeavours, you have always made it your aim to "level the playing field" for the less fortunate among us, often incurring the ire and criticism of your own supporters.

The purpose of this letter now is to thank you publicly for all the good that you have done for our country, for Bahamians everywhere, as well as for myself and family. I am privileged to be able to do so having now retired from public office for the second and perhaps the final time and can now enjoy the freedom of expression to which every Bahamian citizen is entitled. While there is much that I can say about you as a dedicated leader par excellence, I wish also to use this opportunity to highlight your incredibly humane personal attributes which, perhaps for political reasons, are never mentioned.

It is on this note that I wish to record my sincere thanks and appreciation as well as respect and admiration which date back to September, 1983, when I, as a novice in the Public Service (despite having spent some 20 years prior in the Teaching Service), and you as a first time Minister (Housing, Social Services and National Insurance), met consequent upon my being transferred to your Ministry as First Assistant Secretary. In reflecting on this period, I shall never forget your support and kindness in allowing me to sit in your office during your absences as not even a desk was made available for me during the initial weeks in that Ministry. This period is etched in my mind as my "baptism of fire" into the Public Service.

Neither shall I forget the great confidence you reposed in me during this period in allowing me to inter alia: edit for publication, the first Supplement to celebrate the ninth anniversary of the establishment of the National Insurance Scheme; to write your speeches, record minutes of your meetings as well as those of the National Insurance Board; prepare Cabinet Papers and yes, even to accept my humble advice on occasion. Nor shall I forget your tenacity in ensuring that proper accounting was brought to the finances of the National Insurance Board by engaging an Actuary to assess its accounts.

Perhaps what stands out most vividly in my memory during this period, was your agonizing over how best to utilise for the benefit of all Bahamians, the over-accumulation of substantial amounts of funds that the Actuary had discovered in the National Insurance Board's Long and Short Term Benefits Accounts. One of the major solutions resulted in the concept for a National Health Insurance Scheme, in preparation for which, it was necessary to have in place, appropriate and modern physical health infrastructure. Thus began the construction of polyclinics in New Providence and in the Family Islands, the first of which was the Elizabeth Estates Clinic. Today, with the incremental implementation of the concept of the National Health Insurance Scheme that was recently launched under your administration, we are still reaping the results of your vision and care for the well-being of Bahamians.

Even though I was a novice in the Public Service system during this time, I was able to discern your honesty and integrity in holding fast to your principles. In this regard, I reflect on the fact that the then Prime Minister could not bribe you to accept responsibility for two large Ministries (ostensibly to boost your ego) and in the process, muffle your conscience to that government's corrupt practices, victimization and "dumbing down" of our society under the guise of its Social Revolution Agenda. For this, you incurred that Government's greatest victimization of not only being fired as a Minister in 1984, but also of being kicked out of the Progressive Liberal Party itself. Perhaps not so well known was the fact that for years afterwards, that Government in its petty and vindictive modus operandi (which incidentally seems not to have abated over the years, despite change of leaders), ensured that no significant business was to come to your law firm.

As with you, the then Government's victimisation machinery was extended to my family as well as to hundreds of other Bahamians, particularly women who dared to marry non-Bahamians, or to non-Bahamian men who did not pay the respective authorities for immigration favours. Many families were literally destroyed or had to leave this country.

Like you, however, I did not leave my country but lived through the challenges of having to seek approval for some 15 years for my husband to visit his wife and child (my husband having been deported from this country in December, 1985 for fabricated reasons per records on file); of having no electricity supply to my home for some 13 consecutive days despite my having paid the bills, etc. I therefore take this opportunity to thank you once again for your humaneness and kind intervention on my behalf in these matters.

On a lighter note, I was delighted to have been promoted to the high office of Permanent Secretary in 1993 during your first term as Prime Minister as I benefitted greatly from exposure to working in an administration that was free from the corrupt practices of the vindictive and petty regime of victimisation of innocent Bahamians. I was more than encouraged and energised to give unstintingly of my best to my country in emulation of a Prime Minister whose integrity, work ethics, humaneness and dedication resulted in the uplifting of the Bahamas and Bahamians from the slavery mentality of dependency to a state of self-pride and social independence.

Indeed, Bahamians learnt to lift their heads high between 1992 and 2002, especially after having to live through the ignominy of having been classified internationally as a "country for sale." Thanks to you and your administration, Mr. Ingraham, we became proud, free and respected Bahamians once again.

Though memories seem to be short when it comes to acknowledging some of the good that Caesars do for their countries, we as Bahamians owe you a debt of gratitude for giving us real freedom of expression and a deepened democracy when, under your administration, the airwaves were opened to all and sundry. Further, you did not attempt either to suppress or victimise the beneficiaries of such freedoms when they turned around and relentlessly attacked you, and your administration. In this regard, I again thank you for demonstrating strength of character, focused leadership and support for true democracy in our land. There is no question that the smooth management of the recent General elections was a clear reflection of these characteristics of your administration.

Finally, notwithstanding the results of the 2012 General Elections, our country also owes you and your administration a debt of gratitude for safely charting us through and cushioning the effects of the ongoing economic recession to this point. Ironically, however, it would appear that in so doing, Bahamians became too comfortable and perhaps lost sight of the harsh realities of the world's economic recession, hence the recent senseless and greedy demands by several ill-advised Unions who were pressing the Government for increased overtime pay. There is no doubt that in time, the Bahamas will awaken to the full realisation of your vision and the social safety net that your administration sought to establish by opening up opportunities and providing our young people with training and the requisite skills with which to "fish" and support themselves rather than rely on hand-outs.

Thank you again and again, Mr Ingraham, for affording me the privilege of serving in the highest echelons of our Public Service, first as a Permanent Secretary for some 13 years and more recently as Secretary to Cabinet for the past three and a half years.

Like you and because of the confidence you reposed in me, I can hold my head high with pride in knowing that wherever I have been privileged to serve, I have left my mark for the better on the Public Service. In this regard, I count among my significant initiatives, the raising of the bar on, and setting the footprint for Public Service training in 1983 and again in 1995; the development of the Performance Appraisal Instrument currently in use throughout the Service since 1995 to replace the purely subjective one that had been in use since Colonial times; the launch of Public Service Week and Recognition of Retirees Programme in 2000 which continues to date; and more recently, the uplifting of the standard of the Independence celebrations as well as the fostering of a networking system among Permanent Secretaries through regular meetings.

As I now retire after a full 50 years of public service, I do so with a sense of personal fulfillment in the knowledge that my Public Service career has now come full circle with you as the first and last Cabinet Minister with whom I had closely worked and who in your wisdom and humaneness, had given this "green" civil servant the confidence, encouragement and opportunity to rise to the top of the Civil Service. I say thanks - and thanks again, Mr Ingraham! I could not have asked for a more fitting end to my Public Service career.

In closing, sir, I pray that Almighty God will continue to grant you and your family his choicest blessings of great good health, long life and happiness. You have indeed excelled and left our country a rich and inimitable legacy for years to come.

ANITA D BERNARD, CMG

Nassau,

May 15, 2012.