Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling, KCMG, PC, NH, JP (22 March 1930 – 26 August 2000) was a Bahamian politician who is regarded by some as the "Father of the Nation", having led the Bahamas to majority rule and independence.
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.
[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.
On 10 January 1967, the PLP and the governing United Bahamian Party (led by Sir Roland Symonette) each won 18 seats in the Assembly.
Randol Fawkes, the lone Labour MP, and Alvin Braynen, lent their votes to PLP allowing Pindling to form the first black government in Bahamian history.
[citation needed] The four-man commission was headed by Sir Ranulph Bacon, who had recently retired as deputy commander of Scotland Yard.
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.
[citation needed] 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] 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.
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.
[citation needed] 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.
At the 1987 trial of Lehder, prosecutors charged that he and other drug traffickers had paid at least $5 million to Pindling for permission to use the Bahamas as a shipment point for cocaine and marijuana bound for the United States.
[11]It is an indication of the level of Pindling's popularity in the Bahamas at the time that, despite the scandalous claims made against him in the US media, he never felt the need to resign or call an early election.
After Pindling's defeat, new prime minister Hubert Ingraham "strongly rejected the idea that Sir Lynden or any member of his Government should be extradited to the United States to face possible charges.
[13] 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.
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.
[1] 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.