By Doon McKinney

On April 27, 1969 the loss at sea of Donald Bruce McKinney CBE was a tragic event for our family, and for our nation. Our mother lost her devoted husband, my sisters and I lost our beloved father, friends, colleagues and family lost a loyal friend, and our country lost a man who was willing to fight so that all Bahamians - women, men, black, white - every adult could vote in this country. He was a man of strong courage and conviction who was deeply committed to serving the people he represented - the Bahamian people.

I’m so proud that my father took a stand and fought for equal rights. Against massive criticism and opposition, he took a stand in the House of Assembly in 1956, along with Sir Etienne Dupuch, and said with deep conviction: “It is wrong that a man who is willing to die for his country should be discriminated in the very country for which he is prepared to die. It is wrong, Mr. Speaker. It is wrong.”

Donald was a founding partner of McKinney Bancroft & Hughes, was the MP for the Exumas and founded, along with Bobby Symonnette, the Out Island Regatta in 1954. He later became an independent senator.

Apart from his work for human rights which earned him a CBE, he also was a supporter, like his father Herbert McKinney before him who was a founding member, of the Bahamas National Trust. He recognised how essential it was that we protect this fragile ecosystem of ocean and land on which we live.

Every year on the anniversary of my father’s death I contemplate what he gave to this country and I ask myself whether I, and my children and grandchildren are continuing to help grow this nation in an ethical way. Ethics is not just about how we treat our fellow brothers and sisters: it is also about how we treat the planet and ocean on which we live and are the stewards of - Mother Earth.

I am so proud and grateful for the immense dedication and tireless work that my daughter Casuarina has put into sustaining our oceans as the director of BREEF (Bahamas Reef Environment Educational Foundation). My youngest daughter Taja has worked for many years fighting against human trafficking, sending support personnel to disaster areas, and teaching.

Despite Donald‘s commitment to empowering Bahamians and conserving our environment, now 50 years on, there is such a feeling of helplessness and despair about not being heard and not being able to make a difference to better our country.

How is it that, despite there being over 34,000 signatures to protect Lighthouse Point, Eleuthera from development by Disney, that, instead of taking the concerns of the people to parliament as it’s done when there are over 10,000 signatures in many other countries such as the UK, the petition was instead ignored?

How can it be that the politicians who we elected to serve the people are not willing to listen or talk to the people? Where is the oft-spoken of ‘transparency’?

The environmental impact assessment study for Lighthouse Point absolutely MUST be carried out by an internationally recognized non-biased third-party and held to the very highest standards of research, public consultation and transparency.

How can a massive private cruise port that proposes bringing up to 20,000 people/week to an extremely fragile sacred site not impact it in a negative way?

What will the people in South Eleuthera eat when all the surrounding reefs have been destroyed? How is it that Disney has been given permission to lease the seabed around Lighthouse Point for $1000 per acre/year for 50 years?

Considering there is a viable alternative with more year-round jobs and less destruction of the environment from the Bahamian consortium of the One Eleuthera Foundation, BNT, The Leon Levy Foundation and The Island School, all of whom have an excellent track record in doing beneficial, sustainable projects for Eleuthera, makes the Disney plan even more horrifying.

I know that my father, and many other of our nation’s forefathers, are turning in their graves in horror at what we Bahamians are allowing to take place under “our watch”.

Today my personal grief of losing my father is magnified tenfold when I realise our government and elected politicians are not following a due process that respects the rights of all for a sustainable future. We can do better.

It’s time for all of us Bahamians to demand real transparency and true protection of our fragile environment to sustain it for current and future generations.