It is with profound sadness that I received the news of the passing on Saturday, 26 August 2000 of the Rt. Hon. Sir Lynden Pindling, KCMG, former Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. He was one of the longest serving and most influential Head of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
Sir Lynden belonged to that generation of Third World Leaders who fought, successfully, to free their people from the bondage of colonialism and to bring their country to political independence. But, he was much more. In his almost 30 years as political leader, he transformed and welded the 700-island archipelago into an economically independent and socially cohesive member of the world community of nations. In his address to the United Nations on the accession of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas to that august body, he prophetically and correctly stated that The Bahamas can make a contribution in human relations, in affecting change without disorder, revolution without bloodshed, and in developing a stable economic and social order.
A committed regionalist, Sir Lynden was pivotal to The Bahamas’ accession to full membership of the Caribbean Community in 1983. He held the view and, in 1984 challenged his fellow CARICOM leaders to commit to an ideology of CARICOM regionalism which recognises that the interests that bind the Region together are infinitely stronger than those that force it asunder. It was the recognition of that philosophy and commitment which earned Sir Lynden and The Bahamas a place at the table in all of CARICOM Heads of Government meetings long before The Bahamas became an official member of the Community.
It is not without significance that only one year after its accession to CARICOM, The Bahamas was chosen to host, and Prime Minister Pindling to preside over, the Fifth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government. In July 1984, barely nine months after the events of October 1983, political relations in the Community were strained even as the regional economy reeled from the second international economic crisis in ten years, and intraregional trade plummetted and various national economies were pressured to introduce individual structural adjustment programmes. Few could have managed the situation, and even fewer hoped for positive results. Yet, Sir Lynden made it clear to his colleagues at the very start of the Conference that he could contemplate no outcome but completion of the process of healing the bruises and the restoration of the fullness of mutual understanding which was the bedrock on which CARICOM had its genesis.
The Fifth Meeting of the Conference produced The Nassau Understanding on Structural Adjustment and Closer Integration for Accelerated Development in the Caribbean Community giving substance to Sir Lynden’s vision in his opening statement that as a result of this Conference the purveyors of doubt and the perpetrators of discord who ask will CARICOM survive? will receive a resounding answer: CARICOM shall not only survive, it shall triumph.
Sir Lynden was a strong advocate of the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of small states; issues which have pre-occupied the Caribbean Community from its inception. Sir Lynden’s clear vision, calmness and precision in the use of language have enabled the Community to gain international acceptance for its position on many of these thorny issues.
Sir Lynden had a generosity of spirit towards the integration movement and the circumstances of the other Members which has come to characterise Bahamian involvement in the integration process. The Secretariat has drawn on that generosity on many occasions.
The integration process has lost a friend and a true champion; The Bahamas, its founder, moulder and inspiration.
The Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat joins me in sharing with his family, the Government and the People of The Bahamas and the wider Caribbean Community the profound grief and sense of loss occasioned by his passing.
