PLP Leader Philip 'Brave' Davis.
By AVA TURNQUEST
Tribune Chief Reporter
aturnquest@tribunemedia.net
OFFICIAL Opposition Leader Philip Davis yesterday vowed to uphold the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) legacy of majority rule as inextricable from the country’s history.
Mr Davis underscored the present government was indebted to the progress forged by the PLP’s 1967 general election win, during remarks at a Majority Rule Day service at Agape International.
However, he acknowledged the day did not belong to just one party, but to all Bahamians.
“These memories seem all far and distant but with many around us today who are trying to turn back the tide we have an obligation to remind the young that what we have today did not always exist in the way it does today,” Mr Davis said.
“These stories must be told and embraced by a new generation so that they become their own.”
“The PLP has been too tentative about telling its story,” he continued.
“Under my leadership, I do not intend for this to continue. I intend to tell who we are and how we came to be where we are. Let us never forget. They tell us that those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it.”
“I remind today’s government that they are where they are because of January 10, 1967.”
He continued: “The names of the victorious PLP candidates of the general of election of 1967 were: Lynden Pindling, leader, Preston Albury, Clarence Bain, Milo Bulter, Clifford Darling, Elwood Donaldson, Arthur Foulkes, Carlton Francis, Arthur Hanna, Warren Levarity, Curtis MacMillan, Uriah McPhee, Maurice Moore, Edmund Moxey, Jimmy Shepherd, George Thompson, Jeffrey Thompson and Cecil Wallace Whitfield.
“I look forward to the day when this holiday and these celebrations will be embraced and accepted for what they truly are by all Bahamians. This day belongs not to one party but to all Bahamians,” he added.
The government has announced that a Majority Rule Day church service will be held 10am Wednesday at St Francis Xavier Cathedral on West Street. Majority Rule Day became a national holiday in 2014. It commemorates the Bahamas gaining majority rule for the first time on January 10, 1967.
On that day both the PLP and the United Bahamian Party (UBP) won 18 parliamentary seats during the general election, with the remaining two going to Randol Fawkes, of the Labour Party, and Alvin Braynen, an Independent.
Mr Fawkes sided with the PLP, helping the party to form the first black-led government. Mr Braynen became speaker of the House.
Comments
sheeprunner12 6 years, 10 months ago
Brave should be ashamed of promoting Majority Rule Day and PLPism ....... It seems that the country has a Majority Rule experience everytime the PLP is VOTED OUT!!!!!!!!
BahamasForBahamians 6 years, 10 months ago
You should ask The dAlbenas,Symonettes, D'aguilars, Holowesko's and MOSKO'S if that is so.
They threw a huge party when the PLP was voted out. Not sure if you were able to see it from outside of Lyford Cay.
However, these were the same guys that vehemently opposed majority rule, woman's suffrage and racial equality in economics.
Let that sink in.
sheeprunner12 6 years, 10 months ago
85% of the economy is still controlled by the same "Bay Street" names ....... So has the "majority" been delivered by the PLP???????? Except for more public debt, cookie cutter education, civil service nepotism and legal slackness?????? ............ Are the majority "better off" in 2018 than 1967??
Dawes 6 years, 10 months ago
Where did you pull that 85% figure from? Seeing as Atlantis is the biggest employer and not a "bay Street" name i doubt this can be correct. Yes the Bay Street boys are still here, but they are no longer as powerful as they were. We now have all these foreign companies, plus Frankie, Sebas, Cooper and a host of other non-Bay street business people.
truetruebahamian 6 years, 10 months ago
truetruebahamian 6 years, 10 months ago
What a load of rubbish!
SP 6 years, 10 months ago
Exactly what does the "majority rule"? Poverty?
hrysippus 6 years, 10 months ago
amasForBahamians obviously does not know his Bahamian history. women gained the right to vote under the UBP not under the PLP. In fact, I was told by someone who was in the house of assembly when the vote was taken that the PLP members of parliament voted against the notion. The UBP won the next election because of the vote of a grateful female electorate. Of course the PLP rewrote history as taught in the schools. Pindling, Hanna, Bethel and the other PLP crooked cabinet ministers had about as much integrity as a drunken bumble bee.
1 hour, 30 minutes ago
sheeprunner12 6 years, 10 months ago
Soooooo, what accounts for the relatively well-travelled, fairly educated, globally exposed, socially conscious, upwardly mobile black Bahamian ...... that rivals the Bajan "gold standard" ?????????? ......... Can we really say it has to do with easy access to US currency?????? ......... from blockade-running til now????????
OldFort2012 6 years, 10 months ago
I always ask myself why we bother to tell ourselves lies, when we know the real truth. The real truth is that we did not "win" independence or majority rule. The truth is that the Brits could not wait to rid themselves of what they considered a bunch of worthless islands with no resources and no prospects. Anyone who reads the transcripts of the 1972 Marlborough House Conference cannot fail to come to that conclusion. They said it in so many words: "we are off, you do what you like."
sheeprunner12 6 years, 10 months ago
Typical white colonialist crybaby mentality........ holding on to QE2 gowntail ...... You cannot have your cake (Union Jack) and eat it too (Bahamas). Why do so many "white Bahamians" feel that they live in a racial enclave - when Ole Eddie showed them the model of HOW to survive and thrive in a black country???????? ........... Edison Key aka Creole Bossman
BahamasForBahamians 6 years, 10 months ago
@sheeprunner we are no longer restricted to shoe shinning and the westerly side of collins wall.
Things already better!
@hrysippus
Carry ya big C%nny bey. Stoopid fooking ass. you'll already rob us of our history Pre-abolition.. no you want to come rewrite 20th century history. Go push your head up the UBP ass. Majority Rule was ushered in by the PLP and Black Bahamians. If Stafford Sands, Roland Symonette and the UBP had their way we would still all be picking cotton and sneaking on Bay Street.
Idiots like you must've died when that Union Jack flag was brought down and ALL of us blackies didnt have to kiss the white a$$es anymore. Some of us still do but progress was never a swift process.
hrysippus 6 years, 10 months ago
BananasForBahamians, Thank you for taking the time and trouble to respond to my comment. Leaving aside your ignorant and racist insults, it would seem that you have not understood what I said. I am not addressing who brought about majority rule in the Bahamas, I did not mention this at all, but I did challenge your incorrect assertion that women gained equality under a PLP or black majority government. This is a lie, pure and simple, women gained the right to vote under the UBP government, which consisted of a mix of black and white Bahamian members of the house of Assembly. Unfortunately, truth is not as important to bigots like you as the comforting lies which support your narrow racist views..
BahamasForBahamians 6 years, 10 months ago
Wait.. What the hell are you on about? Did your slave masters not teach you how to read?
I said.... Please ask your masters current generation that still exist to help you to read and understand what I'm saying.
THE RACIST UBP CABINET / GOVERNMENT VEHEMENTLY OPPOSED MAJORITY RULE, WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE AND ANYTHING THAT ENCOURAGED PROGRESSION FOR NEGROS. THEY'VE GONE ON RECORD TO OPPOSE IT. INFACT, SINCE THEN UBP REPRESENTATIONS LIKE SIR DURWARD KNOWLES HAVE GONE ON RECORD TO APOLOGIZE FOR THE HATE AND RAPE THEY'VE PILED ON BLACK PEOPLE.
ASK YOUR SLAVE MASTERS TO HELP YOU TO FIND THE SOURCE OF THIS STATEMENT:
. Sir Stafford Sands was not one of them. He had said that women would get the right to vote "over his dead body", and he wielded great influence over the decisions of the UBP.
BYE NOW UNCLE TOM @HIPPO / @hrysippus
sealice 6 years, 10 months ago
He's so proud of driving this country into the dirt... WTF is he thinking peeps still hi on the PLP kool aid and erryting still rosy???
hrysippus 6 years, 10 months ago
BananasForbahamians. You are getting mix up between negos (sic) and women. There is a difference nut I suspect you are someone who has difficulties with your own sense of identity. The only job you ever got was given to you because you voted for the corrupt PLP, You have never created employment opportunities for others, you have never served in a civic or community organization but you think you are entitled to spew your venom and insult others. I feel sorry for you, please sit small.I
TalRussell 6 years, 10 months ago
Comrades, the red shirts have no heart to be celebrating Majority Rule Day (MRD), and the PLP, falsely feel entitled to a certain degree of primacy to the ownership MRD. They're both full crap. Both parties need rise above playing petty politics to start taking ownership for all the governing screw-ups the people have suffered under their respective administrations... with both "Brave" and Minnis,.is there really anything new under the 2018 sun for any one the two man's to shine at?
sheeprunner12 6 years, 10 months ago
That is why this forced-ripe holiday is a dud ....... Just an extra cost to the private sector employers (mostly white Bahamians) ....... KARMA
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