AT STATE-RECOGNIZED FUNERAL SERVICES FOR MR. JEFFREY THOMPSON CMG

28th MARCH, 2008,
CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL
NASSAU, BAHAMAS
 

I rather doubt that any of us here present could have imagined that we would be gathered again in grief so soon after the state-recognized funeral services for the late Dr. Curtis McMillan who, like the man we mourn today, was himself a member of that very first cabinet that ushered in Majority Rule government in our country 41 years ago.

Sadly, there are now only three members of that history-making cabinet who are still alive : His Excellency the Governor-General, the Honourable Arthur D. Hanna; Sir Clement Maynard; and Mr. Warren Levarity.  They are now the only ones left.  All the others in that mighty band of brothers who together comprised the first black government in our history have gone on to glory.

Yes, time marches on.  And it does so relentlessly.  Like the tide, it waits on no man.  In the end, it catches us up and overtakes us all, each and every one us.  That is the common destiny we all share, and all roads, we are reminded, lead only to the grave.

Jeff Thompson was a remarkable man whose life was distinguished by a great many things but none more telling than the great sacrifices he made so that the Great Struggle to which he was so passionately committed might be brought to a full flowering.

Jeff always wanted to be a lawyer but it would not be until he attained the comparatively late age of 45 that he would at last achieve that personal ambition he had set for himself so many years before.

It was, as Langston Hughes would have written, “a dream deferred”.

And it was a dream deferred because Jeff, although nominally an articled clerk in the chambers of Lynden Pindling in the 1960’s, had to put his personal ambitions “on hold” so that he could devote all of his talents and energies to the great struggle of his time.

Like a true soldier who reports for duty because he is needed, Jeff Thompson stepped forward and left his personal ambitions behind.  The liberation of his people from poverty and from social injustice, the emancipation of his people from the shackles of political marginalization had to come first.  And come first, it did in Jeff Thompson’s life.  The pursuit of a career as a lawyer with all its material rewards would simply have to wait.  And wait it would because the urgency of the struggle demanded that such sacrifices be made.

Jeff’s commitment to the struggle and the sacrifices he made, more than 40 years later still shine their radiant light upon those who can remember.  In this age we live in, where personal gratification and self-aggrandizement have become the dominant motives of all too many who enter politics, the example of Jeff Thompson serves as a much needed counterweight, a reminder that service above self and the service of ideals over men guided a whole generation of political activists in the most formative phase of our modern development.

Jeff Thompson was in the first rank of that generation of activists of the 1960’s – activists for whom no sacrifice was too great if it would advance the cause.

We would do well to remember, in particular, the leading role Jeff played in the National Committee for Positive Action – the NCPA - the organization which more than anyone or anything else would set a new course, a new direction, and, yes, a radical new mission for the Progressive Liberal Party.  I know of which I speak because although only a lad of tender years at the time, I, too, was a member of the NCPA in the era of which I speak.

Where others might have been content with modest, incremental reforms pursued at a glacial pace, the NCPA was determined to press the fight and to do so boldly, unapologetically, and without compromise.

Spurred on by that new spirit and fortified by the call for a more just and egalitarian society, the NCPA re-directed the PLP onto an urgent, fast-moving track that would hurtle it forward into history as the instrument of liberation for the masses.
Jeff Thompson was front-and-centre in that historic new thrust in Bahamian politics that would finally bear fruit with the great victory of 1967.

But Jeff’s involvement in the NCPA tells only a part of the story because his commitment to the struggle was manifested in so many other important forms.

He was also deeply involved, for example, in raising public consciousness on the political trail throughout the country and through the Party’s newspaper, the “Bahamian Times” along with Sir Arthur Foulkes and others.   He would also become the Party’s Secretary-General at a critical juncture.

These were positions that Jeff filled with great ability and with enthusiastic commitment but with no prospect of material reward – again, at great sacrifice, to himself and his family.

But beyond all those things, Jeff’s advice and counsel to the PLP in the critical years preceding Majority Rule was to prove of even greater value.

The purity of Jeff’s motives, his absolute commitment to the cause, his intelligence, his incisive grasp of strategic options, and his calm, cool, level-headed manner were qualities that endeared me to the leadership and councils of the Party.

Jeff always exerted a mature and moderating influence.  He had exactly the right kind of personality to temper the tendencies to extremism that played no small part in the political dynamics of the turbulent 60’s.

He was a conciliator, a healer, a man without malice or guile.  As such, he was perfectly suited to intercede in quarrels between discordant factions and to bring them back into harmony as best he could.

And let us be clear that Jeff Thompson was an individual of very great influence, especially in the period preceding Majority Rule, for of all the mighty men gathered round the throne there was none closer to the Man Who Would Be King than Jeff Thompson himself.  He was the Chief’s chief lieutenant and a man whose wise counsel not only to the Leader but to the Party as a whole helped ensure the success of the Peaceful Revolution that gave birth to Majority Rule on January 10th, 1967.

It is, as we all know, a matter of historical record that Jeff Thompson served in the first Majority Rule cabinet as an important minister – initially as Minister of Internal Affairs (in what would today be called the Ministry of National Security) and later as Minister of Development.

Jeff served as a minister of the government ably and honourably.  He served with vision and energy.  And he served with an exemplary patriotism and devotion to duty.

These same qualities would be manifested in his service in the House of Assembly and, in later years, the Senate.  Jeff’s decency, his absolute abhorrence of personal insults and name-calling in debate, and the consistently high standard of his own oratory made him a true role model in Parliament.  He was a gentleman in every good sense of the term.  Although always effective in debate, he was never uncivil to his opponents.

Following his retirement from politics, Jeff would go on to distinguish himself as a practitioner of the law and as a jurist, first on the Industrial Relations Tribunal and then as a Justice of our Supreme Court.  He was an able and conscientious judge whose quick grasp of the issues and impartiality won him high praise.  He was a good judge – wise and fair.

And so today we take the measure of Jeffrey Thompson’s life and, in so doing, we give thanks for the life of one who served us so well in so many different ways.

Jeff will be rightly remembered as one of the great heroes of the struggle for Majority Rule and as one of the important statesmen in the early years that followed the attainment of that milestone.  He fought the good fight for a better Bahamas.
He was a patriot par excellence. He believed in his country and he had an abiding faith in the ability of Bahamians - especially Black Bahamians of humble origins - to master their own destiny.

He was a devoted public servant and our country is a better place because of his having served and because of the countless sacrifices he made along the way.
 
On behalf of the Progressive Liberal Party, my wife, Bernadette, and on my own behalf, I extend deepest condolences to Jeff’s daughters, Tracey, Camilla and Crystal and to all the other members of the bereaved family.  Be assured that you are in our thoughts and prayers.

Another great Bahamian, a true champion of the Peaceful Revolution, has now passed on.

May we remember him always and give thanks for the many sacrifices he made and the great good he did in his life to make The Bahamas a better place for all of us.

May he rest in peace.