I Say What I Mean and I Mean What I Say: HUBERT A. INGRAHAM In His Own Word

By HUBERT A. INGRAHAM and Patricia Glinton-Meicholas

Three times Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, Hubert Alexander Ingraham was the man who shattered the power of a 25-year political dynasty. I Say What I Mean and I Mean What I Say: Hubert A. Ingraham in His Own Words Vol. 1 is the first of a three-volume collection of significant speeches and statements by the Rt. Hon. Hubert A. Ingraham, given over the 35 years of his career in frontline politics. This first volume encapsulates Ingraham's remarks on the primary subjects that coloured and energized his political life: Politics, Democracy and Good Government, Public Sector Reform, Local Government, Human Rights, Labour, and International Affairs.

Historians and politicians will be afforded a novel and tantalizing insight into the inner workings of a small but dynamic nation and, perhaps, gain a greater appreciation for The Bahamas' evolution, without bloodshed, from more than three hundred years as a colony of Britain to an independent and politically stable nation. Then, too, there is much awaiting those who simply enjoy a good read. The books gives a fascinating account of the means by which Hubert Ingraham, a man of humblest beginnings rose above an entrenched political hierarchy to impact Bahamian life and international events and relations.

Evident early on in its pages is Ingraham's sense of a national destiny and his love and respect for the people of the North Abaco constituency he served from 1977 to 2012. As visible is his relish of politics, government and a good gloves-off fight. His remarks centre on the institutions of government—parliament, cabinet, the public service and struggles to win key general elections, which changed the course of The Bahamas' history and international standing.

A firm believer in transparency and accountability in government and a strong supporter of a free press, Ingraham was committed throughout his public life to accounting for his actions in office to the people whom he represented and led. As a result, he spoke often, not only in Parliament but also at a myriad of public events and meetings and engaged with the media regularly. He did it all while gaining global respect for his mastery in a highly contested arena.

Ingraham's remarks demonstrate not only the consistency of his message over the years but his understanding of the importance of language, spoken and written, in shaping political debate and national dialogue on matters important to the development of public policy.

Subsequent volumes will compile Mr. Ingraham' s remarks on national fiscal and economic affairs and on national social development.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9781667878003

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Hubert Alexander Ingraham

P.O. Box CB 11233

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Guanima Press Ltd

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Collection copyright © Hubert Alexander Ingraham 30 June 2021

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this book.

Introduction and Commentaries copyright © Maria Teresa Butler 30 June 2021

First published 1 November 2021

Publisher’s Cataloguing-in-Publication data

Ingraham, Hubert A.

I say what I mean and mean what I say Hubert A. Ingraham in his own words: Volume 1 / Hubert A. Ingraham with an introduction by M. Teresa Butler.

Description: Nassau, BS: Guanima Press Ltd., 2021.

p. cm.

eBook ISBN: 978-1-66787-800-3

1. Bahamas—Politics and government. 2. Ingraham—Hubert—Speeches and writings. 3. Politics—Bahamas. 4. Opposition Leader—Bahamas.

F1656 .I54 2021

972.96—dc 22

Cover photograph by Peter Ramsey, Bahamas Information Services.

Cover designed by Neko Meicholas, Guanima Press Ltd.

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1 Politics

Commentary

Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Membership

Swimming against the Political Tide: Taking a Stand for Integrity

Reply to PLP Council’s Bend or Break Disciplinary Decision

Report to Coopers Town Constituency: Seeking the Will of His People

Response to Sir Lynden’s Comments at the Holy Cross Meeting of 19 January 1989

Hubert Alexander Ingraham Address to Closing Session

Leader of the Opposition in the House Assembly Communication to Parliament 25 April 1990

Public Affirmation of FNM Leadership & Party’s Deliverance Pledge

Towards the Critical 1992 Election

Road to the 1997 General Election & Second Term

Report on Accomplishments and Future Goals

Paid Party Political Broadcast

Road to a Third Term as Party Leader & Prime Minister

Chapter 2 Democracy and Good Governance

Commentary

Promoting Respect for Democracy & Good Governance

Commonwealth Day Address

Government Accountability

BahamasairIntransigent Problems of Accountability

Strategizing to Emerge from the Global Recession and the Previous Administration’s Fiscal Mismanagement

Modernizing the Judicial Process

Communication on the Report of the Judicial Review Commission, 2000

Opening Ceremony of Witness Care Conference

Conduct of Elections On Constituencies Commission Report and Draft Order 12 December 2001

Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) Act, 2011

Continuation of House Debate

Chapter 3 Public Sector Reform

Commentary

Amendments to the Pension Act

Public Service and Recognition of Retirees Week

Official Launch of the Service Improvement Programme

First Annual Customer Service Conference

Launch of Government’s e-Portal

Chapter 4 Local Government

Commentary

Opening Ceremony of Family Island Administrators & Commissioners Conference

Address to the Nation on Local Government

First Induction Training Programme for Local Government Elected Officials

Local Government Conference

Launch of the Secretariat

Chapter 5 Human Rights

Commentary

Contribution to Parliamentary Debate of the Budget

Contribution to Parliamentary Debate of the Budget On Nationality and Immigration

Statement on Government Immigration Policy

Statement on Gay Cruises

First Reading of BillsReforming and Modernizing the Laws of Wills, Inheritance and Administration of Estates

Discussion with Representatives of the Church

Contribution to Parliamentary Debate

Proposed Constitutional Amendment

National Town Meeting on the Constitutional Amendment to Remove Discrimination Against Women

40th Anniversary of Majority Rule

FNM Women’s Association Luncheon

30th Anniversary of the Bureau of Women’s Affairs

Chapter 6 Labour

Commentary

13th Convention of the Bahamas Communication and Public Officers Union

21 July 1986

Address to Trade Union Congress Retreat

Job Creation in The Bahamas Economy

Amendment to the Industrial Relations Act

Parliamentary Budget Debate

TRIFOR Inaugural Forum

Introduction of Labour Bills

A Bill for an Employment Act

Introduction of Unemployment Benefits under the National Insurance Scheme

Expenditure and Supplementary Appropriations Bills

Chapter 7 International Affairs

Commentary

Address to the American Men’s Club

14th Meeting of Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community

Consultation Meetings on Haiti in Washington, D.C.

Report on the Summit of the Americas

50th Anniversary of the United Nations

18th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community

Dinner for Pacific Forum Leaders

Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly On Narcotic Drugs

First Summit of Heads of State and of Government

Opening of the 29th Session of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) – European Union (EU) Joint Assembly Meeting

UN/World Bank CaribbeanMeeting on HIV/AIDS

Conference to Launch a Caribbean Movement of Parliamentarians for Population Development

26th Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on HIV/AIDS

St Lucia Labour Party 2000 Conference of Delegates

22nd Meeting of Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community

Growing Unrest in Haiti Op Ed published in The Tribune

63rd Session of United Nations General Assembly

66th Session of the United Nations General Assembly

2nd Caribbean-United States Security Cooperation Dialogue

Chapter 8 A Farewell to Arms

Departure from Frontline Politics

Press Statement

Chronology

Bibliography

Glossary of Terms

Acknowledgements

About the Editor

Foreword

By Sir Arthur Foulkes

It has been my great privilege to have served in public life over several decades with the Rt Hon. Hubert A. Ingraham, a friend and a colleague. I am happy to have been asked to write the foreword for the first of three volumes of his collected speeches and writings.

I first worked with him when he joined the Free National Movement and, soon thereafter, became the party’s Leader. This volume begins with remarks covering his break with his former political party and becoming Leader of the FNM.

The 1992 general election ushered in a new period in our national life, an era of considerable accomplishments, reform and modernization under his leadership as Prime Minister. He has left an indelible mark in numerous areas from economic development to social policy to the nation’s physical infrastructure and governmental reform.

This first volume includes speeches, important statements, communications and contributions to debates in the House of Assembly. They are accompanied by commentaries which provide a historical context.

The volume is topical, containing material in the areas of: Politics, Democracy and Good Government, Public Sector Reform, Local Government, Human Rights, Labour, and International Affairs.

The breadth of issues detailed in this volume are impressive, covering numerous areas of domestic and foreign policy and the burning issues of the times in which they were written. In a number of areas, Mr Ingraham was ahead of his time.

In addition to his dedication to politics as a means of improving the lives of the Bahamian people, Hubert Ingraham proved to be the proverbial policy wonk, who revelled in the details of government.

Early in his professional and political life, Mr Ingraham demonstrated his keen interest in the use of language, especially by politicians and journalists. He was acutely aware of the importance of the written and spoken word in shaping political debate, national dialogue on critical issues and the formation of public policy.

He has long been an avid consumer of news and information, voraciously reading about current affairs for many decades. His capacity of recall is tremendous. Throughout his political career Mr Ingraham effectively utilized speeches and communications as a means to hone his thinking, political philosophy and ideas, and to work through a myriad of complex issues of policy and governance.

The material in this volume showcases a number of the core themes of Mr Ingraham’s political career: reform and modernization; good governance, transparency and accountability; fiscal responsibility; social progress and human development; equality and tolerance and respect for cabinet government and parliamentary democracy and its conventions.

The detailed writings show the depth of thought and seriousness with which Mr Ingraham took the process of the development of his public communications, as well as the creation and implementation of public policy. These volumes are a welcome development in chronicling major speeches by a Bahamian prime minister, which is standard in other parliamentary democracies.

The material included in this collection will be useful for a new generation of political leaders, as well as civil servants, academics, students and others who wish to better understand a particular period in our history and to appreciate the art and craft of political communication.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the considerable role played by Ms Teresa Butler in assisting in drafting the commentaries in this volume and in providing loyal, dedicated and exemplary service to the country and to Mr Ingraham over many years. Her contribution has been invaluable.

I commend these writings to current and future generations who will find in them a treasury of ideas and policies, most of which will stand the test of time, and some of which are fresh still, waiting to be discovered and implemented by a new generation of leaders.

Introduction

EARLY YEARS

Hubert Alexander Ingraham was born in Pine Ridge, Grand Bahama Island on 4 August 1947, the son of a single mother, Isabella Cornish. He was raised in the small settlement of Coopers’ Town, Abaco by his maternal grandparents, Prince and Elizabeth (née Cooper) Cornish. At age 11, while on summer vacation in Nassau with his mother, he met his biological father, Jerome Ingraham for the first time.

Ingraham received his early education in a small government-operated primary school in Coopers’ Town. Later, he studied at night institutes at Southern Senior School and the Government High School in Nassau, and was an articled student at the law firm of McKinney, Bancroft and Hughes. He was called to The Bahamas Bar in 1972.

Ingraham, in many respects, is a self-educated man. He is an avid reader of history, political biographies, and current economic and business news. Among his standard consumption are the two leading Bahamian newspapers, The Tribune and the Nassau Guardian daily and regular reading of the Economist Magazine, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times of London. Ingraham says that he enjoyed opportunities to read regional newspapers whenever in the Caribbean. With the advent of the internet, he became a more frequent peruser of e-editions of major Caribbean newspapers, including the Gleaner and the Observer of Jamaica, the Advocate of Barbados and the Express and the Guardian of Trinidad and Tobago.

As with many autodidacts, his quest for knowledge and information is insatiable. His phenomenal ability to retain and analyse information and to command it in support of his views and agenda, made a great impression on Dame Ivy Dumont. A Minister in his first two Governments and, eventually, the first female Governor-General of The Bahamas, Dame Ivy was led once to describe his mind as a computer so complete is his recall and so great is his command of an extraordinary range of subjects.

Ingraham was appointed a Member of Her Majesty’s Privy Council in July, 1993.

He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Buckingham University in the United Kingdom in March 2000. In October 2018 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) by the University of the West Indies.

In 2001 he was awarded the Gold Paul Harris Award by the Rotary Club of Lucaya, Freeport, Grand Bahama.

CHARACTER AND PERSONALITY

Ingraham’s language is laced with the expressions and sayings his grandmother repeated to him as a child. His familiarity with the Scriptures is no doubt the result of his reading passages from the Bible to his illiterate grandparents from an early age. His belief in fairness, justice and equity and strong values of service were also formed early on. He credits his grandmother, whom he called ‘Mama’, as the inspiration for these attitudes. Eulogizing her at her funeral in 1995 he said:

Mama prepared me for life and living. She imbued in me a sense of fairness and love of truth. She instilled in me a powerful commitment to serve and to succeed. She taught me how to love family, neighbour and community; how to respect one’s elders and to show compassion. She instructed me to stand up for what I believed in, not to be jealous of others or of their possessions. She taught me to be satisfied with whatever I had, however little or much. Her instructions direct me each day of my life.

Hubert Ingraham was aptly profiled by a guest commentator in The Tribune on the 18 August 1992, the day before the historic first FNM general election victory:

"…His jaunty gait, the twinkle in his eyes, the spontaneous smile and unrestrained laughter – all suggest a man in love with people and in love with life.

…One side is mirthful, ebullient; the other side is tough as nails, no nonsense, intimidating, even… He tests each individual’s limits, sometimes none too gently. But he is always ready to hit the trenches, he is a hands-on leader.

Despite the occasional brusqueness, Hubert Ingraham is a man of genuine compassion, and a rare passion to right the wrongs of his society.

Even then, he is walking faster than most people can run. His cellular phone stuck to his ear, while conducting several meetings concurrently.

On the road with Hubert Ingraham, you see a man who belongs to the people.

He speaks often, and with conviction, about his intention to ensure social and economic justice for all in The Bahamas, and stresses delivery, accountability and fairness as key imperatives in an FNM administration."

POLITICAL JOURNEY

Hubert Ingraham first entered frontline politics in 1975 as a member of the Progressive Liberal Party. Quickly recognized as a young Turk of significant ability and strength of conviction, his advancement through the ranks was rapid.

In the same year, he was elected to the National General Council of the then governing Progressive Liberal Party (PLP). By the next November, he received the body’s nod as National Party Chairman of the PLP. While eight members of the PLP were denied nominations to contest the 1977 elections, Ingraham became the Party’s nominee for the Cooper’s Town, North Abaco Constituency. He continued to receive his constituents’ favour and would hold the seat for 35 years until his resignation from Parliament and departure from frontline politics.

During his career, he would prove that he was no one’s pocket politician. Nor did the PLP government’s policies sit well with his ethics not long after he joined them. As early as 1979, he began openly questioning the PLP’s handling of the country’s affairs, accusing Prime Minister Pindling’s government of mismanaging the national budget and neglecting the Family Islands. Nevertheless, he ran on the PLP ticket and was reelected to Parliament representing North Abaco. He would serve as a Minister of Government under Lynden Pindling between 1982 and 1984.

In 1983, in the midst of an almost unrestrained trafficking of illegal drugs through the Bahamas archipelago and concomitant international censure, a commission of enquiry was established to examine allegations that top public officials, including Cabinet Ministers, were complicit in the trade. Emerging testimonies implicated at least two Cabinet Ministers. Ingraham’s consequent scathing indictment against the Party’s failure to censure these members was the beginning of the end of his tenure with the PLP.

Ingraham was charged before the National General Council (NGC) of the PLP for acting against the general best interest of the Party, specifically in relation to his speech during the 1984 Parliamentary Debate of the Budget (December 1984) and his May 1985 speech in support of an Opposition Resolution of Condemnation of Members of Parliament commented upon unfavourably by the Commission of Enquiry. His sentence included loss of a nomination to stand for North Abaco.

He was sacked from the National Cabinet in 1984. When he took delivery of the Governor General’s official letter of dismissal from a young policeman, Ingraham commented to the officer that he, Ingraham, intended to fire Pindling. He was finally expelled from the PLP in November 1985. The Beacon, a newspaper he established that year, was to become an important organ of his protest and continued political activity. Notwithstanding the upheaval, Ingraham won re-election for North Abaco as an Independent candidate in the 1987 elections.

April of 1990 saw Ingraham join the Free National Movement, which party was then the Official Opposition in Parliament. He rose quickly to the forefront of the party and was elected leader in May following upon the death of Cecil Wallace-Whitfield.

ROAD TO THE OFFICE OF PRIME MINISTER

Prime Minister Lynden Pindling and the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) machinery dubbed him Delivery Boy during the 1990 bye-election campaign in Grand Bahama to fill the Marco City seat left vacant by the death of Free National Movement (FNM) Party leader Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield. In so doing, Sir Lynden had sought to make light of Ingraham’s promises to rescue Bahamians from 23 years of PLP domination.

Ingraham took the moniker on as a badge of honour during the Marco City contest and, later, during the 1992 general election campaign. It became the custom during that period for individuals managing the telephones at their Party Headquarters to greet callers with a cheerful Deliverance Centre. He would revisit the theme of delivery throughout his three terms in office, proud of his and his Government’s record of delivering on campaign promises and commitments. In 2012, the tagline for his last general election drive as Leader of the FNM was We Deliver.

Proud of his heritage and the goals he had set for his leadership of the Free National Movement and The Bahamas, Ingraham used his fierce intellect and forceful personality for the benefit of all. ‘Hubbigity’, the nickname given him by a cartoonist in the media in the mid-1980s, played into a favourite Bahamian description for an individual full of bravado or hubris— ‘biggity’. Ingraham was also labelled a ‘rude boy’ by some political opponents. Throughout his terms in office, too bad, too sad was often enough his retort, when told that he was being less than diplomatic.

Still, true to his grandmother’s lesson of respect for one’s elders and a commitment to service, Ingraham was by nature a straight-forward, simple man. As if by reflex, he greeted adult women, including those serving in his Cabinet or on his staff, as Ma’am. And prime minister or not, he naturally addressed his male seniors and other men in positions of responsibility as Sir.

In reality, Ingraham’s bark was much worse than his bite. An irritated demeanour easily melted to gentleness at the sight of a small child, or of a woman in distress. His megawatt smile came easily and his laugh was perhaps best described as full bellied. Heated discussion with colleagues or staff left no rift on his part. Indeed, on many policy matters he seemed to argue most heatedly with those whom he respected best, often telling them, Don’t stop, carry on, thus forcing them to provide the case that would convince him of their point of view. Tommy Turnquest and Zhivargo Laing, each of whom served at one time or other as Parliamentary Secretary and Cabinet Minister during Ingraham’s terms in office, were recurring participants in such exchanges but so were most, if not all, of his Cabinet colleagues from whom he demanded reasoned defences and justifications for proposed projects and programmes.

RECORD AS PRIME MINISTER

True to his word, Ingraham succeeded in ousting Pindling in the 1992 General election.

By the time of the FNM’s accession to office in that year, many in the country had come to see the PLP as a Party of privilege that had, in too many instances, become callous in its response to the needs and complaints of ordinary citizens and spiteful in its dealing with political opponents.

Political commentators have credited the election of Hubert Ingraham and the Free National Movement with freeing Bahamians from self-censorship, a reference to the fear that many ordinary citizens held in relation to the pre-1992 PLP Government.

With remarkable political instincts, Ingraham was relatively young when he first became Prime Minister of The Bahamas fifteen days after his 45th birthday. A man with vision and a deep love of country, he was a champion of the poor, quick thinking and analytical, he was always eager to expeditiously resolve the problem at hand and move on to the next.

In his Preliminary Assessment of Hubert Ingraham’s Legacy, Larry Smith noted in his Bahama Pundit blog on 24 July 2012 …Ingraham’s reputation as a bulldozer, with the steel to get things done in our often-shambolic system, is well-earned.

Tommy Turnquest commenting on Ingraham’s record in office noted: He had strong views, and he knew how to get things done…and he always tried to achieve the best for the vast majority of Bahamians…Before any decision was taken affecting the country, he would hear all the views of his colleagues and would frequently take on board the ideas and opinions of his colleagues and then defend them in public as if they were his own. He was far from being a dictator, and he understood fully, and abided by our system of collective responsibility.¹

His manner won him the love, admiration and respect of thousands of supporters within and outside of the FNM. At the same time, he attracted the resentment of thousands of others who, even today, express bitter animosity toward him.

A firm believer in democracy and collective responsibility, Ingraham, once satisfied of the merits of a particular policy, took ownership of the policies of his Government without exception—successful or not. Challenges to Government policy and action thrived under each FNM administration, especially following the early implementation in 1993 of the FNM’s campaign promise to end Government monopoly of the airwaves. Nevertheless, the resultant proliferation of private broadcast media ensured that openness continued through subsequent governments led by both the FNM and the PLP.

Ingraham would laugh at the irony that broadcast media and access to the internet, which he caused to be liberalised and widely accessible around the country and which created jobs for hundreds of journalists and media personalities after August 1992, became favourite vehicles of attack by his political opponents. Nevertheless, he remained an advocate for freedom of the press and the right of all individuals to express their points of view. He considered the end of government monopoly of the airwaves one of the more significant of his achievements in office.

Unlike his predecessor and successor in office, Ingraham never sued a journalist or media house for any accusation made against him in the media, although he did use the floor of the House of Assembly, from time to time, to call out what he considered baseless allegations and untruths, much to the chagrin of some journalists.

In office he sought to amend the libel laws of the country to reduce the self-censorship widely practised in the Bahamian media. He believed that the reserve in the media reflected not only fear of political retribution but also of civil litigation. Both Prime Ministers Sir Lynden Pindling and Perry Christie sued the media as a result of stories carried in their publications and both received handsome awards from the Nassau Guardian.

Ingraham said he was disappointed to discover indifference toward amending libel laws by some in his Party, strong opposition from PLP members of Parliament and a baffling disinterest among media houses. As a result, the initiative was shelved.

During his last term in office, a Freedom of Information Bill was passed and was scheduled to be brought into effect early in the next term. The FNM lost that election contest and the new PLP Government, declined to bring the law into force, citing the need for numerous amendments to certain provisions of the legislation. Notably, the PLP, while in Opposition, did not propose amendments to the Bill and, in fact, voted in support of its adoption.

It is fair to say that after the election of the FNM led by Hubert Ingraham, no Government could ignore public criticism with the impunity enjoyed by the PLP prior to 1992.

Ingraham’s record in office shows that his innate intelligence and homegrown smarts sufficed to make him a formidable political opponent, as the leaders of the PLP learned. He was fond of drawing a distinction between his Party in Government and those of his predecessors in office. We are different, distinctly different became an oft heard refrain. A very visible distinction that he sought to highlight between the two administrations was his commitment to accountability and transparency in Government, which evolved into his routine practice of Reporting to the People.

Ingraham said that he took seriously his responsibility to lead a Government that was of and for the benefit of the people. Part and parcel of that responsibility, he believed, required that he keep the people informed concerning actions taken by the Government in their name and on their behalf. He spoke often and at length in the House, during annual Budget exercises and debates on new legislation or amendments of existing laws.

His Government’s introduction of ‘gavel to gavel’ radio and television coverage of the Debates in the House of Assembly meant that interested members of the public were able to hear not only contributions to Parliamentary debate by the Prime Minister, but also those of all MPs, a practice that became the norm.

Ingraham’s commitment to Government in the Sunshine meant that he frequently made himself available to the working press for questioning, requiring his Cabinet colleagues to do the same. Senior public servants were instructed to respond to questions from the media and to provide information that ought to rightly be in the public domain.

Ingraham introduced comprehensive and regular reports to the nation in what became known as his annual New Year’s Report to the People. He addressed the nation on radio and television to report on developments of national importance as circumstances dictated, typically addressing sectoral issues – tourism, financial services, and the environment. On other occasions, Ingraham delivered national addresses dealing with disaster preparedness and relief and public infrastructure development. He delivered three nationally televised addresses dedicated to the fight against crime, a two-part presentation in 1995 and another in 2011. In Parliament in 1996, he delivered a comprehensive Communication on Crime.

Amendments to criminal laws and the enactment of new anti-crime laws to meet new challenges presented by sophisticated crime cartels operating in or through The Bahamas presented opportunities for Ingraham to report to the nation on his Government’s anti-crime measures. Of note are his communications to Parliament at the time of the appointment of a Blue Ribbon National Crime Commission in 1998, the receipt of its Report and, later, his contribution to the debate of an Opposition Motion for a Resolution to appoint a Select Committee on crime in 2011.

In his dedication to meeting the people, Ingraham was a frequent keynote speaker at private sector conferences and conventions, at public service workshops, and at school graduation ceremonies. He typically used those occasions to comment upon Government policies, the condition of the economy, and what challenges or benefits the future might bring. During his first term in office (1992-1997), he conducted Meet the People sessions at his political party headquarters where he listened to, noted and responded to complaints of ordinary citizens ‘Ombudsman style. His home telephone number was and remains listed in the telephone directory and his mobile telephone number is perhaps only slightly less well known by the Bahamian public. In office, he regularly returned telephone calls to citizens personally. Many were the times that he could be heard saying to a startled citizen: Hello, this is Hubert Ingraham. I’m returning your call."

Ingraham sought in each of his terms in office to raise a positive profile of The Bahamas on the international stage. His goal was not only to replace the images of A Nation for Sale that plagued the country during the late 1980s, but also to broaden The Bahamas’ international profile beyond drugs and drug corruption.

He attended and addressed major international meetings of heads of state and government. Among them were a number of special sessions of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and meetings of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM) and of CARICOM Conference of Heads of Government. He participated also in Summit of the Americas Conferences, various special summits of Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean and Latin America with leaders of major European Union states, the annual Meetings of the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Meetings.

As Cabinet minister responsible for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), Ingraham led a number of joint public-private sector investment promotion missions during his first two terms as prime minister (1992-1997, 1997-2002). During these campaigns that took him to North and South America, Western Europe and to Hong Kong and Japan in Asia, he addressed gatherings of bankers, business and financial investment analysts and attorneys, tourism, hotel and travel groups, property developers, and shipping interests. In the course of his (2007-2012 term, he focused on potential investors and their advisors in Canada, the People’s Republic of China and the United States of America.

Ingraham’s statements and speeches provide an excellent insight into the political, social and economic mind of a poor Family Island boy who rose to the highest elected office in the land and never lost sight of his humble origins or his singular ambition, which was to make life better for as many Bahamians as possible.

This is the first volume of what is intended to be a series of selected papers of Hubert Ingraham contributions including addresses at political rallies, local and international business gatherings, and international forums, as well as contributions to debates in the House of Assembly.

---

1 Turnquest, O.A.T. Tommy (2012, September 6). A man of compassion and understanding. Supplement, The Ingraham Years. The Tribune , .X8

Chapter 1

Politics

Commentary

Hubert Ingraham developed an interest in national affairs and politics at an early age, although, as he said, an aspiration to become a Member of Parliament and, eventually Prime Minister, was beyond his young imagination.

He was a student of politics who studied the history of the PLP, its foundation and practice. He credited that Party’s Founders for having created an institutional discipline that has never been duplicated in any other political party in the country. He was not certain of how he was first brought to the attention of the leadership of the PLP, but it is likely that the then Member of Parliament for Coopers’ Town, Sherlin Bootle had identified him as a young man with political acumen.

Asking to meet Lynden Pindling while he was still an articled law student, Ingraham was surprised that the Prime Minister readily agreed to see him. He used the meeting to plant a seed, indicating that in the future, should a vacancy arise in his home constituency where the incumbent Sherlin Bootle was ailing, he had an interest in filling the spot. He explained to Pindling that he was not in a position to act upon his interest at that time, as he was only recently married and had not yet been called to the Bar. He hoped to make some money before entering frontline politics.

Pindling told the young aspirant that timing was everything in politics, and that time waits for no one; hence whenever an opportunity arose he should seize it. The opportunity presented at the time of the 1972 general election, when Pindling, no doubt remembering his earlier conversation with Ingraham, sent for him to manage Mr Bootle’s re-election campaign. This was the contest preceding Independence and secessionist views had become popular in Abaco. Ingraham accepted the challenge and Bootle won re-election. He recalled his surprise, following the election, at Pindling’s lack of interest in receiving an accounting of how monies made available to him for the campaign had been expended.

Four years later, at the 1976 PLP Convention, Ingraham, then 29 years old, would learn that he was Pindling’s handpicked choice to become Chairman of the PLP. In that capacity, he presided over the contentious 1977 PLP General National Council Meeting, popularly referred to as the Night of the Long Knives, which would deny Party incumbent MPs: Carlton Francis, Arlington Butler, Oscar Johnson, Lionel Davis, Earl Thompson, Cadwell Armbrister, Simeon Bowe and Franklyn Wilson nominations.² Fred Mitchell’s application for a nomination was also considered at that time and denied. Instead, the Party nominated Perry Christie as its standard bearer for the Centreville Constituency and Christie won the seat.

The 1977 general election saw Ingraham elected as successor to Bootle as the Member of Parliament for Coopers’ Town.

Ingraham used his year as Chairman of the PLP to get to know the entire Bahamas. Eventually, by his account, there was only one populated island or cay that he had not visited—Water Cay, Grand Bahama. He lamented early in his public life that residents in the Family Islands were, for far too long, taken for granted by politicians who lived comfortably in the nation’s capital, while neglecting to meet even some of the most basic needs of Family Island constituencies. He once laughed recalling the time he took Perry Christie, then Minister of Health, to remote Grand Cay, in the far north of the Coopers’ Town Constituency, during Christie’s first term in Cabinet (1977-1982). Christie was greeted with great fanfare; Asa Cooper, an elderly resident raised the Bahamian flag in his honour. It was the first time in memory, outside of an election campaign, that the Cay had been visited by a serving Minister of Government.

Prior to his election to Parliament, Ingraham was active in the Nassau Jaycees, a member of the Air Transport Licensing Authority and Chairman of the Real Property Tax Tribunal. He recounts that he was offered the Chairmanship of The Bahamas Agricultural Industrial Corporation upon his election in 1977 but turned it down.

As a backbencher during his first term in elected office, he chaired the Standing Committee on Privilege and was a member of the Public Accounts Committee and the Select Committee on Influence Peddling and Political Contributions. In keeping with his character, Ingraham quickly proved highly vocal in these roles. In a speech to the PLP Youth Expo in early 1978, he challenged his Party’s commitment to its own social agenda and encouraged his audience to challenge their leaders to be accountable.

Ingraham incurred the ire of some in the PLP’s hierarchy when, during the debate of the 1979 Budget Estimates, he attacked the Government’s …Indifference, irresponsibility and neglect of the Family Islands…, focusing on what he called the gross neglect of roads, general infrastructure and the environment. He objected also to what he saw as needless harassing of his fishermen constituents by the Defence Force and protested the inaction by the Government regarding unacceptably high levels of unemployment, drug abuse and deplorable housing conditions.³

Despite his outspokenness, he maintained a good relationship with Pindling. He claimed that he had never been an ordinary backbencher and was as well, or perhaps better informed on Pindling’s political plans than were some members of Cabinet. He remembered Pindling’s advice on the need for flexibility in politics to achieve desired ends—If you can’t get in through the door, the window will do. Among his recollections, too, was Pindling’s advising him that he could not continue to criticise and highlight the Government’s shortcomings as a backbencher, while refusing to enter Cabinet and assist in redressing the problems.

Ingraham was invited to enter Cabinet soon after his re-election to the House of Assembly in 1982 and was appointed Minister of Housing and National Insurance within days of the election. Journalists and political cartoonists of the day questioned whether his Cabinet appointment would soften his vocal criticism of what he had portrayed as ‘failing government policies’ in remarks both in and outside of Parliament since his 1977 election. They did not need to wait long for answers.

He believed Pindling’s invitation to him to become a part of the solution to the country’s ailments was sincere. And so, as a Cabinet Minister, he continued to identify and promote areas of national life that he believed deserved more focused Government attention. In his public utterances he often referred to public commitments of his Party and Government to improve conditions for the least fortunate in the community.

He proved an aggressive Minister. He completed the first survey of the housing stock of the Bahamas ever undertaken, accelerated the Government’s low and medium income housing development programme and oversaw the creation of The Bahamas Mortgage Corporation.

Ingraham soon ran further afoul of his Party’s leadership over his forthright criticism of corruption in high places, however. His outspokenness would result in his being fired from Cabinet in October 1984. He said that, in the initial public debate surrounding allegations of drug corruption in Government circles, he was a defender of his Cabinet colleagues. Clearly, he believed to be unfounded the allegations of official complicity in the drug trade, as asserted by witnesses before US Congressional Committees investigating drug trafficking in and through The Bahamas, and as reported by NBC investigative newscaster Brian Ross in a September 1983 television special story.

A Minister for barely a year, Ingraham recounted to a session of the PLP Joint Constituencies Conference that one of the most, if not the most pleasant functions performed by me as a Minister, was to participate in the bold and timely decision to hold a Royal Commission of Enquiry into the Illegal Use of The Bahamas for the Transhipment of Dangerous Drugs Destined for the United States of America.⁴

At a public meetings and on the floor of the House of Assembly, Ingraham famously asserted in relation to the NBC report and to the appointment of the Commission:

"Let the chips fall where they may and let the land and the deeds go together. The Progressive Liberal Party Government has absolutely no interest in protecting anyone who is or may be engaged in drug trafficking or corrupt activities.

"…We do not care where or who the investigation leads the Commission to in arriving at a determination. We have absolutely no interest in protecting, aiding or giving comfort or assistance to anyone, be he cabinet minister, Member of Parliament, senator, policeman, defence force, customs or immigration officer or anyone else…

…If any such persons are involved, we want to flush them out, expose them and punish them to the maximum extent possible for bringing shame and disgrace upon the good name of our Government, our country and our people.⁵

Not surprisingly, as revelations of the failures of the Government to respond adequately to the drug threat were made public in testimony before the Commission of Enquiry, Ingraham found himself unable to maintain solidarity with those of his colleagues implicated by the evidence. He found it even more unacceptable when the Government, having accepted the Report of the Commission of Enquiry, dismissed the evidence. His criticism of the Government’s failure, in his estimation, to respond to evidence of wrongdoings by some of its Members and associates further isolated him from his Party’s hierarchy.

By mid-1984, it was widely believed that a Cabinet shuffle was in the cards. Few believed that all Cabinet Ministers could survive the exercise. Public speculation was high that both the Deputy Prime Minister (Arthur Hanna) and the Attorney General and Minister of Foreign Affairs (Paul Adderley) were contemplating resigning and that they would be joined by Ingraham and Christie. Hanna reportedly bristled at the suggestion of his losing the powerful Finance portfolio. Adderley’s public utterances later revealed his inner conflict between what he saw as his duty as Attorney General and what was politically required of him, if he were to retain his Cabinet post.⁶

On more than one occasion during 1984, Ingraham denied public speculation that he had resigned or was about to resign from the Cabinet. He said that, notwithstanding his vocal censure of Government policy, when he arrived in Chub Cay in the Berry Islands for the special September PLP Conclave, he believed himself to be a member of Pindling’s inner circle still.

At Chub Cay, while other members of Cabinet received letters from Sir Lynden advising of changes to their portfolio responsibilities, Ingraham’s letter indicated that his responsibilities could be increased to include the Ministry of Health. Several ministers objected to proposed changes. Notably A.D. Hanna, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, objected to the proposed removal of the Ministry of Finance from his portfolio. As a result, the Prime Minister requested that the letters be returned to him for his further consideration.

As it came to be, rather than additional responsibilities, Ingraham would learn that he and his law partner Perry Christie, who had become publicly aligned with Ingraham’s criticism of the Government, were to be fired from Cabinet. Recalling the delivery of his letter of dismissal from Cabinet by a police officer, Ingraham still bristled long after. He thought and continued to believe that the Prime Minister ought to have called him into a meeting to inform him of the removal, much as he had called him into a meeting to invite him to join Cabinet two years earlier.

Ingraham said that he was not clear on what forced Pindling’s hand in dealing with him and Christie. He was especially surprised that the latter had suffered a similar fate, as Christie had not been publicly vocal in his disapproval of the Government. He says it is possible that his own continued criticism of the Government’s response to allegations of corruption in high places had narrowed the latitude Pindling was prepared to give him.

He believed that Pindling had become convinced that he and Christie were preparing to resign their Cabinet posts themselves and this would cause his Government even greater embarrassment. The firings, then, were pre-emptive.

The Deputy Prime Minister, A.D. Hanna, whose record and reputation were unscathed by testimonies before the Commission of Enquiry, had resigned from his Cabinet posts days ahead of the firings of Ingraham and Christie on 8 October 1984. The two Cabinet Ministers most seriously compromised by testimony before the Commission, George Smith and Kendal Nottage, resigned their Cabinet posts also with effect from 8 October 1984. The Attorney General, Paul Adderley, accepting that his political future was tied to Pindling, remained in place. All, including Ingraham and Christie, continued as PLP Members of Parliament.

When the National General Council of the PLP moved to discipline Ingraham in mid-1985, the charges against him centred on his critical December 1984 contributions to the 1985 Budget Debate and to the debate of the May 1985 Opposition Resolution of Condemnation of Parliamentarians Implicated in the Report of the Commission of Enquiry. Still a member of the PLP Party at the time, Ingraham had the following to say on the floor of the House of Assembly:

Persons who have embarrassed our Government, our Party and brought it into contempt and ridicule ought not be taken into our bosom and treated as though they did no wrong, for that is suicide. We must not prostitute our conscience, our sense and appreciation of right and wrong, neither ought we cloak and condone the most glaring, the most blatant cases of wrongdoing without causing irreparable political harm and damage to ourselves and the Society in which we live. We must do what is right because it is right. Might is not right and out of the mouth of babes come words of wisdom from time to time.⁷

It is clear that his remarks in Parliament sealed his fate in the PLP. The PLP held three disciplinary hearings during mid-1985 to deal with his public criticism of the Government and very particularly his censure of Cabinet colleagues implicated by the Commission of Inquiry. But Ingraham was not without support from within the PLP. The former Deputy Prime Minister, A.D. Hanna, while confessing that he was not prepared to abandon the PLP ship himself, defended Ingraham’s right to criticize. George Mackey, the Member of Parliament for Fox Hill and Sinclair Outten the Member for St Barnabas were also sympathetic, as was Brenville Hanna, a former Chairman of the PLP. Franklyn Butler, the son of first Governor General of an Independent Bahamas, Sir Milo Butler, held a one-man demonstration on Bay Street, in support of an individual’s right to expose corruption and to defend right.⁸

A Committee of the Party’s Council was unmoved and recommended that Ingraham suffer a two-year suspension from the Party. No action was taken on the recommendation. Subsequently, on an amendment proposed by the Party Leader, Ingraham was given an option of making a public apology to be submitted in writing, failing which, he was told that he would lose the Party’s nomination to stand in the next general election.

Ingraham said that he consulted widely on the matter. Among those whose views he sought were political and community leaders in New Providence, Abaco and Grand Bahama, whom he had grown to respect, as well as those of his Constituency Association, his wider constituents and his family. His grandmother told him Hubert you only apologize if you did wrong. The consensus was that he would refuse to apologise and, hence, accept that he would lose the nomination as the PLP standard bearer for the Coopers’ Town Constituency in the 1987 General Election.

In 1986, Prime Minister Pindling travelled to the Coopers’ Town Constituency to hold a meeting with selected PLPs, with a view to the identification of the PLP candidate for Coopers’ Town for the 1987 parliamentary contest. Pindling was accompanied by a large delegation of the Party’s National Officers, expecting, no doubt, that the Constituency would encourage their MP to abide by the National Party’s decisions and apologise or, failing that, would endorse Wesley Campbell as the Party’s candidate for the Coopers’ Town Constituency.

The meeting was a spectacular failure for the Prime Minister. Pindling’s arrival in the Constituency was greeted by a crowd of loud PLP supporters demanding that Ingraham receive the Party’s nomination. Efforts to bar Ingraham’s supporters from entering the Constituency Association meeting failed miserably. Ingraham, accompanied to Coopers’ Town by former Deputy Prime Minister, A. D. Hanna, and the MP for Centreville, Perry Christie, had been invited to attend the meeting. But on discovering that delegates chosen by Pindling excluded his supporters, Ingraham advised that, if they were blocked from attending the meeting, then he would not take part.⁹

The decision of the majority of the PLP Coopers’ Town Generals¹⁰ to defend their MP against the charges of the National Party surprised and embarrassed Pindling. At the Party’s National Convention in Nassau the following week Party faithfuls noisily booed the Coopers’ Town MP, preventing him from addressing the Convention and ultimately voted 341 to 44 to expel him from the Party.

At a press conference held shortly following his expulsion from the PLP, Ingraham said that Prime Minister Pindling, his wife Marguerite and the former Minister of Youth Sports and Culture Kendal Nottage had …together orchestrated my expulsion and that they, together, ensured that they persuaded PLP delegates attending the Convention that I was an unfit and improper person to be a member of the PLP. Ingraham noted further that, in expelling him, the Party had determined that there was only one member of the PLP who had done wrong and had done sufficiently wrong to be unworthy and unfit to be a member of the PLP. In a newspaper story, the author wrote: Mr Ingraham was referring to himself. His name, however, was never brought into question by the Commission and his reputation stands untarnished.¹¹

In a 1989 editorial the Tribune’s editor queried whether …Sir Lynden’s hasty move (in firing Hubert Ingraham in 1984) had not been his first step towards his own political demise. The editorial writer recalled that a decade earlier, when a 29-year old Ingraham had been selected by Pindling to serve as Chairman of the Ruling Party, the PLP had labelled him the best thing that’s happened to the PLP in over a generation. Now, he was being told that he was no longer fit to be a party member.¹²

Perry Christie, who had made common cause with Ingraham against drug corruption in Government circles and who, like Ingraham had been fired from Cabinet in 1984, was also denied a PLP nomination to stand in the 1987 General Election. Less vociferous in his criticism, Christie was not expelled from the Party.

Christie, having won re-election to Parliament as an Independent in 1987, when the Free National Movement opposed neither his nor Ingraham’s re-election bids, returned to the PLP fold in early 1990, accepting a new Cabinet appointment as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. Responding to criticism that compared his return as that of a dog returning to his vomit, Christie said that for the love and support these people gave me I will swim in the vomit.¹³

Attorney General Paul Adderley, who had made his peace with the PLP leadership, received a PLP nomination for the 1987 General election; something Ingraham said he found puzzling given a speech Adderley made in October 1984, in which he said words to the effect I have seen enough from Commission of Enquiry evidence that if I do my job, I would not get a PLP nomination anywhere in The Bahamas and, if I get a nomination, I will not get elected anywhere.¹⁴

In fact, criminal charges were brought against a number of individuals implicated by the Commission of Enquiry but none resulted in convictions.¹⁵ Adderley got the PLP nomination and won re-election in 1987.

In the same polling, Ingraham easily won re-election as the Member of Parliament for his hometown seat of Coopers’ Town. He and Christie were the first Bahamian politicians to break with the ruling Progressive Liberal Party and win re-election to Parliament as Independents in the election following the breach.

After his expulsion from the Party, Ingraham sat in the House of Assembly as an Independent until mid-April 1990, when he joined the Opposition Free National Movement.

During the mid-1980s, Ingraham used his years in political exile from the PLP to hone his political skills. Together with Perry Christie, he associated with what was termed a Third Force, which garnered support from a cross-section of the Bahamas business community, but never sufficient to qualify as an effective third national political party.

Following his 2 May 1985 critique in Parliament of compromised Government members, Ingraham began to make ripples among FNM supporters. At a September 1985 FNM rally, he was referred to as one of the greatest Bahamians ever by an enthusiastic Dion Foulkes who would later serve in Ingraham’s Cabinets. Another future Cabinet Minister, James Knowles, lauded Ingraham’s contribution to the May Parliamentary Debate, calling it a …brave, factual, timely and, indeed, extremely necessary… speech.¹⁶

In 1990 Ingraham finally accepted the invitation of the Free National Movement to join its ranks. The subject of his leading that party was first publicly broached in January 1989, when the then FNM Member of Parliament for Marathon, Algernon Allen, raised the matter in a speech that created difficulties for him, including suggestions that Allen be put out of the FNM. Allen’s detractors did not prevail. Instead, the party’s leadership, including Cecil Wallace-Whitfield and Kendal Isaacs, came to share Allen’s views and to convince Ingraham to overcome his own misgivings and to join them in Opposition to the governing PLP. Ingraham’s name was entered into nomination as FNM Party Leader on 17 May 1990 by the then Deputy Leader Orville Turnquest and received the unanimous support of the Party’s Central Council.

Ingraham recalled that, sometime in 1989, before he had made a decision to join the FNM, Pindling told him that he believed Ingraham would join the opposition party and lead them against his Government in 1992.¹⁷ He was greatly bruised by the treatment meted out to him by the PLP. Nevertheless, he did not permit his injured feelings to impact his personal relationship with even some of his most ardent critics, including Sir Lynden, whose political skill he admired. He said that when he visited the former prime minister on his death bed in 2000, he told Pindling that all was forgiven. Without blurring what he believed to be Pindling’s faults, Ingraham acknowledged that gentleman’s pivotal role in the development of an Independent Bahamas on the occasion of Pindling’s retirement from the House of Assembly in 1997. Later, at Sir Lynden’s passing in August 2000, Ingraham again credited him as the Father of the Modern Bahamas.

He held a similar position of openness toward Neville Adderley, a former PLP Senator who moved the motion for his expulsion from the PLP. During his third term in office, Ingraham supported Adderley’s appointment to the Supreme Court Bench in 2007 and then approved the extension of the appointment up to the constitutional age limit.

Between 1985 and 1987, Ingraham dabbled with journalism, publishing fortnightly a political newspaper, The Beacon. Aaron ‘Kiki’ Knowles, the son of a PLP stalwart but one of Ingraham’s earliest political supporters, served as the paper’s editor.

Several of his former colleagues in the PLP and other PLP Party members and sympathizers contributed articles for the paper that became the forum for Ingraham’s evolving political, social and economic policy positions and for his unrelenting criticism and denunciation of corrupt practices and mismanagement of Government assets under the PLP led by Sir Lynden Pindling.

He expressed particular gratitude for the people of his hometown of Coopers Town, the wider population of his constituency in North Abaco and, very particularly, to his political generals. These were the men and women who followed him into the FNM and who, after his advancement to leadership in national office, assumed full responsibility for the management of his political operations in his home constituency. They were many and he believed that he owed his political survival to each and every one.

Having abandoned the province of Pindling’s influence, Ingraham found a new political home in the FNM, a move, he said, that was encouraged by his personal friend, Alphonso Boogaloo Elliot, whose help and support in 1987 were crucial and met with deep gratitude. He remained thankful for the welcome he received in the Free National Movement, which chose to make him Leader in 1990 ahead of other long-time Party Members who, perhaps, believed themselves more qualified. He was always mindful that, while thousands of his supporters and political independents followed him into the FNM, making election victory for the FNM possible, he was never blind to the reality that some only supported his leadership tenuously. His 19 years as Leader of the Party was testament to his political acumen.

Ingraham believed that it was Cecil Wallace-Whitfield who, in many ways, propelled him to leadership of the FNM. When, seriously ill, Wallace-Whitfield urged his party leadership to not only embrace Ingraham, but also to choose him to lead the Party. Ingraham led the FNM to a bye-election win in the Marco City Constituency in 1990. Then, in the 1992 general election, he became the first FNM Prime Minister in the 21-year history of the party. Under Ingraham’s leadership, the FNM was returned as the Government following the 1997 poll and again in 2007.

Ingraham valued FNM Party members like Ivy Dumont with whom he had become acquainted while engaged in the Third Force. He would orchestrate her election as Secretary General of the FNM in 1990, engaging her organizational skills to bring the increased order and discipline he believed the Party required.

He especially appreciated the organizational skills of the women he met in the Party – Dr Liz Darville, Claire Hepburn, Ruth Bowe-Darville, Sandra Knowles and Elma Campbell, who worked on a volunteer basis to strengthen constituency organizations and to begin election education among FNMs and the wider population. They, in turn, relayed stories of his political organizational skills, revamping FNM campaign strategies at the constituency level, block by block and then house by house. Claire Hepburn recalled that, under Ingraham’s Leadership, the FNM became so embedded in constituencies that the Party was able to accurately predict the election outcome well ahead of the official count in August 1992.

Ingraham often reflected upon the critical importance of the Party’s Finance Committee under the Chairmanship of Sir Geoffrey Johnstone and Sir Durward Knowles and later, Godfrey Kelly, not only in raising funds, beginning with their own generous donations, but also in facilitating his and his Party team’s movement around the country. He noted the contributions of other senior FNMs like John Bethell, Peter Graham, Carl Treco, Emmanuel Mosko, Ray Pyfrom and Robert D’Albenas. His praise for the volunteers and staff of the Party’s Headquarters and his 1992 Campaign Command was fulsome. Here, too, he had some of the highest praise for women of the Party. In New Providence, the National Swimming Complex extols the generosity of Betty Kelly-Kenning, a noted philanthropist and supporter of the FNM.

At every Party Convention during his years of leadership, Ingraham paid tribute to the founding fathers of the Party, the Dissident Eight, together with others who had languished in Opposition to the PLP for as many as 21 years. They were men and women who had parted company with Pindling and the PLP even before Ingraham came to serve as National Chairman of that Party in 1976.

Several founding members of the FNM would serve as appointed Senators and others as Chairmen of Statutory Boards during Ingraham’s terms as Party Leader and Prime Minister. He made it possible for an already ailing former FNM Party Leader, Sir Kendal Isaacs, to be appointed Deputy to the Governor General and, in that capacity, deliver the FNM Government’s first Speech from the Throne in the sunshine of Rawson Square in September 1992. Isaacs was honoured in the naming of Nassau’s Kendal G. L. Isaacs Gymnasium, which was gifted to the Bahamian people by the Republic of China (Taiwan). At Sir Kendal’s passing in 1996, Ingraham recorded in his tribute in the House of Assembly that he had intended to name Sir Kendal as Governor-General following the FNM electoral win in 1992. Sir Kendal had demurred, believing that he was not well enough to assume the post.

Later, Ingraham was visibly moved when, following Sir Kendal’s passing, his widow, Lady Patricia Isaacs, presented him with her husband’s gold pocket watch in what, she told him, was the fulfilment of her late husband’s expressed desire.

Among the founding and earliest members of the FNM to serve in Ingraham’s first cabinet were Orville Turnquest, Frank Watson, Arlington Butler, C.A. Smith, Maurice Moore, Janet Bostwick, Algernon Allen, Theresa Moxey-Ingraham and Tennyson Wells. So also did Brent Symonette, son of the late Sir Roland T. Symonette, who, under the UBP government, was named the first Premier when The Bahamas achieved internal self-government as a British colony. Jimmy Knowles and Pierre Dupuch would also later receive Cabinet appointments.

At Ingraham’s recommendation, fidelity to the FNM cause was acknowledged with the award of knighthoods for several, including Orville Turnquest and Arlington Butler, Arthur Foulkes, Ivy Dumont and FNM Meritorious Counsellors Geoffrey Johnstone, Durward Knowles and Albert Miller.

Butler, Moore, C.A. Smith and Foulkes were also appointed to important diplomatic posts during Ingraham’s administrations. Turnquest and Foulkes would complete their public service as Governors-General, as would Ivy Dumont who served as Minister of Health and Minister of Education during Ingraham’s first two administrations.

Ingraham used public nomenclature generously to honour others: The Judicial Centre in Grand Bahama was named for FNM icon Garnet Levarity and the road between Freeport and Eight Mile Rock honours FNM founding member Warren Levarity. A primary school in Grand Bahama bears the name of Maurice Moore, while the former FNM Deputy Prime Minister Frank Watson was paid tribute having his name affixed to a boulevard in his former constituency in southwest New Providence.

Further, a Government Administrative Complex in Grand Bahama pays tribute to C.A. Smith and the Office of the Prime Minister in Freeport was established in a building honouring former Independent MP from