by Pierre V.L. Dupuch

The policy for the Award of National Hero is that all Prime Ministers are awarded it. So why not Sir Roland?

If the truth were told, Sir Roland was the first Premier/Prime Minister of The Bahamas. It was in 1964 when The Bahamas got, for the first time, Internal Self Government. Sir Roland became Premier of The Bahamas. Sir Roland held that position and was called Premier until January 10, 1967 when the PLP, headed by Sir Lynden Pindling, won the 1967 general election.

Sir Lynden was then called Premier until 1968 when he changed the name of the office to Prime Minister. Note that there was only a name change, not a job description change. From here on it becomes a play on words.

Between 1968 and 1973 Sir Lynden was called Prime Minister but was doing the same job and had the same authority that Sir Roland had when he was called Premier.

In 1973, The Bahamas became fully Independent and Sir Lynden became the first Prime Minister of an Independent Nation. In fact, he should be called, whether we like it or not, the Father of the Independent Nation.

It was in 1973 that the name Prime Minister stayed the same and the job description changed, unless, of course, some people believe that The Bahamas first got onto this planet in 1973.

So why all the fuss about Sir Roland being called a National Hero?

Is it because some people feel that he was a "racist"?

I looked up the word "racist" in the dictionary and here is what I found: "one who shows animosity to peoples of a different race". Wow, so white people don't have a monopoly on being racists? We have black racists too? Wow, that's interesting! We seem to have a lot of them around … and being called National Heroes too!!!

It is true that in January of 1956, Sir Roland voted against my father's Anti-Discrimination Resolution, but it is also true that in the election of 1956 he supported Sammy Isaacs, the PLP candidate! In those days there were two candidates for each Constituency.

One of Sir Roland's drivers recently told me that he was told by Sir Roland to tell all voters they took to the polls to vote for R.T. Symonette and Sammy Isaacs!!!!

So in that election, Sir Etienne Dupuch was defeated by the PLP who was supported by R.T. Symonette. Interesting, what!!!!

Discrimination in The Bahamas was more of a social/economic thing than a race thing. My friend Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield and I discussed this for many hours. He told me that when he was coming home from Law School, a number of them were offered positions in Sir Stafford Sands' law chamber. They refused. I asked him why and his explanation was simple, they did not want to be called Uncle Toms. It was peer pressure, a social thing.

Another friend of mine who was a very powerful UBP was desperately in love with and wanted to marry a mulatto girl. One New Year's Eve he took her to the Yacht Club and was pulled aside and told to "get that N out of here or we will throw you out of the Club and never speak to you again." He left the club that night and stayed in love with that girl up to the time he died. Again peer pressure, a social thing.

That's the way it was. Were they wrong in doing what they did at the time they did it? It is probably wise to walk a mile in another man's shoes before you judge him!!!

This whole discourse in the last several weeks reminds me of what Marc Antony said at Caesar's funeral … "the evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones".

It is true that Sir Roland may have gone too far with several things in his life, but did he also do good? I've walked the streets in Nassau and all the Islands, and the word of Sir Roland's generosity is heard everywhere! I've heard stories of him writing off large mortgages, paying for children's schooling, paying for people's doctor bills, and the list goes on.

Someone said the other day that the only white man he could think of that deserved the National Hero honour was Sir Durward Knowles!! Sir Durward was a great Bahamian and deserves praise, but the only difference between him and Sir Roland regarding race was that Sir Durward died when he was 101 and Sir Roland died when he was 81!!

What do I mean by that? Had Sir Roland lived to be 101 his attitude towards race would have become the same as Sir Durward's. After all, when Sir Durward was Sir Roland's age and Commodore of the Yacht Club it is said that he cut the swimming pool in half so that a swimming club, many of whom were black, could not practice there!! But age changed his attitude and he was lucky enough to live long enough to apologize for his actions. I am sure that had Sir Roland lived long enough he too would have changed his attitude!!

So why not Sir Roland? I looked at the names of those who got the various honors recently. There were former drug facilitators, one whose ex-wife was last seen eating the garbage out of the dump at the Princess Margaret Hospital, another a land grabber, a thief, a black racist, and, of course, many decent deserving people.

So why not Sir Roland? He had his faults but he was a good man who, believe it or not, loved the people.

Less than a week before he died my brother and I went to see him. He never talked about his physical pain, but only said, "when I get up, I'll have to see this one, and help that one, and how's so and so making out". Never once did he mention or feel sorry for himself and his pending death.

And then I joined the FNM and as I sat around the table with them I smiled because there were people, now my colleagues, who were members of the UBP and Bay Street Boys who had tried to take bread out of my family's mouths, ex PLPs who dropped goon squads off at the meetings to rain bottles and rocks at us as we spoke. There were also some there who had threatened to have me killed when I was stationed in Freeport.

But that was then; we sat as colleagues now. I have learned over the years that people change and if you spend your life looking back you're bound to stumble.

Look back only to make sure that the bad does not happen again and the good continues to grow.

I suggest that we all move on for our children's sake. We must at this time build our country to make it strong, safe and an example to the world!!

So why not Sir Roland!!!!