Sir Lynden Pindling
Himself as Prime Minister of the Bahama Islands
Himself as Premier of the Bahamas
Himself as Prime Minister of the Bahama Islands
Himself as Prime Minister of the Bahama Islands
26 August 2000 (aged 70)
Nassau, Bahamas
King's College London
He served as the first black premier of the Colony of the Bahama Islands from 1967 to 1969 and as Prime Minister of the Bahamas from 1969 to 1992.
He was leader of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) from 1956 to 1997 when he resigned from public life under scandal. Pindling won an unbroken string of general elections until 1992, when the PLP lost to the Free National Movement (FNM) led by Hubert Alexander Ingraham. He conceded defeat with the words: "the people of this great little democracy have spoken in a most dignified and eloquent manner and the voice of the people, is the voice of God".
Early life and family[edit]
Pindling was born on 22 March 1930 to Arnold and Viola (née Bain) Pindling in his grandfather's home in Mason's Addition, Nassau.
Pindling's father was a native of Jamaica who had immigrated to the Bahamas to join the Royal Bahamas Police Force as a constable. His father was also a shopkeeper, occasional farmer, raiser of racehorses and a businessman.[1] Pindling's mother hailed from the island of Acklins, which she left as a child. Sir Lynden Pindling was their only child.[1][2]
As a young boy, Pindling worked for his father's small grocery store which was attached to their home in East Street.He became chief delivery boy using the handlebars of his bike to make drop-offs in neighbouring areas. Earlier, this post had belonged to his then neighbour Sidney Poitier.[1]
Education[edit]
Pindling's parents wanted the best possible education available to him that they could afford, which led to Pindling transferring schools frequently in his earlier years.
His first attended Eastern Primary School, then located on School Lane between Shirley and Dowdeswell Street. He also spent some time at a Seventh-day Adventist primary school at his mother behest.
Between the ages seven and nine, Pindling attended all three of the government's junior schools. He spent approximately one year each at Eastern Junior on Bay Street, Southern Junior on Wulff Road and Western Junior on the corner of Meeting Street and Hospital Lane.[1]
He then spent three years at Western Senior School from 1940 to 1943, where the head teacher was musician (and composer of the Bahamian National anthem), Timothy Gibson from whom Pindling also later took piano lessons. Pindling also participated in sports like track and field and softball.[1]
In the summer of 1943, Pindling along with hundreds of children from all over The Bahamas took examinations for enrolment in the selective Government High School (GHS). He was one of twenty who won a place. He graduated from GHS in 1946.[1]
Pindling went on to study at King's College, University of London (1948–52), from which he received a law degree.[2] He was admitted to the Middle Temple on 12 October 1948 and was Called to the Bar on 10 February 1953.[3]
Controversy[edit]
Early corruption claims[edit]
In 1966–67, the British government sent a Royal Commission of Inquiry to Nassau to investigate charges of widespread corruption in the Bahamian political system. The four-man commission was headed by Sir Ranulph Bacon, who had recently retired as deputy commander of Scotland Yard.
The commission reported that the United Bahamian Party, which had previously been in government, had been a front for mob-affiliated American casino interests, and that the former Premier, Sir Roland Symonette, and the influential Tourism Minister, Sir Stafford Sands, and some others, all received large payments from the casino and resort businesses they had permitted to operate.
The commission also found, however, that Pindling, during his campaign, had been funded and aided by U.S. casino operator Michael McLaney in the expectation that Pindling would permit McLaney to operate in the islands. Because of the report, Pindling broke his link with McLaney but was not himself prosecuted. Certain prominent mob figures, including Dino Cellini, were exiled from Bahamas but casino operations continued.[7] Pindling told the commission that U.S. interests had first approached him with evidence to implicate the UBP in corruption, which led to the royal commission.
In 1973, during a U.S. Senate subcommittee investigation of corrupt offshore finances, mob elements accused Mike McLaney and his associate Elliott Roosevelt of having offered a contract to kill Pindling for reneging on the deal. This plot was discredited, but new elements of the control of the Miami Beach-based, Meyer Lansky-led syndicate over Bahamian business and politics emerged, as well as details of McLaney's dealings with Pindling, which included cash, aircraft, boats, and a campaign headquarters on Bay Street.[8]
Later claims[edit]
In 1983, a report entitled The Bahamas: A Nation For Sale by investigative television journalist Brian Ross was aired on NBC in the United States. The report claimed Pindling and his government accepted bribes from Colombian drug smugglers, particularly the notorious Carlos Lehder, co-founder of the Medellín Cartel, in exchange for allowing the smugglers to use the Bahamas as a transshipment point to smuggle Colombian cocaine into the US.
Through murder and extortion, Lehder had gained complete control over the Norman's Cay in Exuma, which became the chief base for smuggling cocaine into the United States.
Lehder boasted to the Colombian media about his involvement in drug trafficking at Norman's Cay and about giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in payoffs to the ruling Progressive Liberal Party, but Pindling vigorously denied the accusations, and made a testy appearance on NBC to rebut them.
Personal life[edit]
On 5 May 1956, Pindling married Marguerite McKenzie (later Lady Pindling and, in her own right, Dame Marguerite Pindling), of Long Bay Cays in Andros, at St Ann's Parish on Fox Hill Road in Nassau.
The Pindlings were married from 1956 until Sir Lynden's death in 2000.
They had four children.[11]
Honours, awards, and recognition[edit]
Pindling was sworn in as a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council (PC) in 1976, and he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (KCMG) in 1982.[12]
In 2018, he was posthumously awarded the Bahamian Order of National Hero (NH).[13]
Illness and Death[edit]
Cancer diagnosis[edit]
In early 1996, Pindling began showing signs of tiredness and was diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer. He underwent a ten-week course of radiation treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital's Oncology Center in Baltimore and was given a clean bill of health, after which he returned to his post-Prime Minister work as lawyer.
In early July 2000, the cancer was found to have spread to his bones and Pindling was prescribed palliative care.
Death[edit]
Pindling died on Saturday, 26 August 2000 at his home on Skyline Drive, New Providence, surrounded by family.[14] He was 70.
Following his death, 10 days of official mourning was declared nationwide. On 29 August, Parliament met, and then Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and others paid public tribute. Two days later, all members of the Bahamas Bar did the same in a special session of the Supreme Court.[1]
Lying in state and state funeral[edit]
Pindling's body was displayed in the House of Assembly on Rawson Square, for public viewing for four days, beginning early in the morning on Thursday, 31 August.[1]
On 4 September, a full state funeral was held at the Church of God of Prophecy in New Providence, led by a long procession, with the Royal Bahamas Police Force Band at its front and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force Band at its rear.
His body was laid to rest at St Agnes Cemetery on Nassau Street in a mausoleum.[1]
Legacy[edit]
In 2006, Nassau International Airport was renamed Lynden Pindling International Airport in his honour.
He is also depicted on the current one dollar Bahamian bank note.[15]