Former Governor General Sir Arthur Foulkes Sunday called for a return to principles that led to the country achieving Majority Rule back in 1967 as he addressed a special church service commemorating the holiday.

“We have come to give thanks and also to renew our commitment to the highest ideals of the struggle which led to the 10th of January 1967,” he said at the service held at the Mount Pleasant Green Baptist Church. ‘So let me briefly mention again those ideals, that legacy, those gifts of freedom and equality, and the wide open doors of opportunity and promise.

“Please reflect with me how well we have protected and built upon that place for which our fathers sighed, or to what extent we have allowed the wine of the world to lead us astray.

The struggle that led to that day was to remove the last psychological shackles from the minds of many; to shatter false notions of superiority or inferiority; to guarantee equality for all our citizens; to fulfil of the promise of universal access to education; to create a society with opportunity for all; to unleash the suppressed but powerful entrepreneurial instincts of a people; to free Bahamians from the fear of one another based on differences of colour or ethnic origin; to nationalise and share our rich and diverse cultural heritage; and to establish a new kind of political culture in which no Bahamian would ever again be made to suffer for exercising his or her right to free association.”

Sir Arthur said he did not believe it was too late for Bahamians to remove the lantern of history from the stern of their national ship and place it at the bow, so that it can illuminate their course into the future, so that it will constantly shine on those high ideals which gave birth to this day.

“We owe as much to those who make great sacrifices and then fall asleep like the soldier in Flanders,” the former governor general said.

“But more importantly, we owe it to future generations of Bahamians who will, in their time, look back and see what kind of history, what kind of example, what kind of ideals we will have left for them.”