This coming Sunday will be a very special day for Arthur Alexander Foulkes. God has a way of showering blessings on persons He favors because their lives have exemplified the virtues of goodness and decency, and in the case of Sir Arthur, his blessing continues to be a long and fruitful life.

You would not know it by looking at him, but on Sunday, May 11, Sir Arthur celebrates his 80th birthday, adding credence to the suspicion of some of his friends that he long ago discovered the location of the mythical Fountain of Youth.

To mark the occasion, members of his family and some close friends and acquaintances will help him celebrate at a party tonight at the home of his son, Minister of Labor and Maritime Affairs Dion Foulkes.

Virtually everyone who has had more than a casual acquaintance over the years with Sir Arthur - who has had a long and distinguished career as a journalist, politician and diplomat - will agree that his sojourn in life has been a template for civility and decency, virtues that he has demonstrated throughout his many years of involvement in Bahamian politics, even when faced with situations that dictated a course of action more in keeping with the dirty aspects of the political game.

Actually, if truth be told, had Sir Arthur developed some of the ruthless and conniving skills that are generally associated with successful politicians, the political history of this country, as we know it, may very well have unfolded differently.

Given my admiration and respect for Sir Arthur and the fact that he is my journalistic mentor, I am sure that there are those who consider my viewpoint in this regard to be biased. But surely, there are many people who were actively involved in the progressive struggle in this country during the 1960s who would concur with this premise.

One fact that is indisputable is that Sir Arthur was supremely committed to the progressive struggle; indeed, a point that I often make when discussing this issue is that in my opinion, no one individual in this country made a greater sacrifice to the struggle that led to the Progressive Liberal Party's victory in the historic 1967 general election than Arthur Alexander Foulkes.

To be sure, major contributions were made by a number of persons in terms of time, money and professional expertise, but no one individual put as much on the line as Sir Arthur did in 1962 when he agreed to accept the PLP's nomination to be a candidate in the general election held that year.

Several of those who in later years basked in the glory of the PLP's eventual victory in 1967, and became very wealthy because of their involvement in the PLP government, flatly declined to run in 1962 when they were approached by the party because they did not want to jeopardize their comfortable jobs.

Not so with Sir Arthur. At the time, he had a very financially rewarding job as news editor at The Nassau Daily Tribune, where I first met him when I joined the staff as a "cub" reporter in May of 1960. He also had a huge family to support, including six or seven children at the time, but he nonetheless made a decision that very few people in his position would have had the courage to make, especially considering the area where the PLP had chosen for him to run.

Foulkes and Arthur Hanna, the current governor general, were the two PLP candidates in the Far Eastern District of New Providence. Their United Bahamian Party (UBP) opponents were Geoffrey Johnstone and Pierre Dupuch, the son of Sir Etienne Dupuch, the editor and publisher of The Tribune. Surely, Foulkes must have considered the likelihood that his future employment at The Tribune would be jeopardized by his decision to run against the son of hisboss. Unquestionably, it took a special brand of courage for a young man with six or seven children to put his job on the line for a cause in which he believed.

In examining the pros and cons of making such a decision, he obviously had to think of how it would affect his family, but the PLP had made tremendous strides politically and, with women voting for the first time, the party appeared to be on the brink of defeating the UBP at the polls, if it could field a good slate of candidates.

As it turned out, the PLP did not win the election, and Foulkes lost his bid for a seat in the House of Assembly. The results may have been different for him, however, if supporters of the PLP in the area where he ran had not been hoodwinked into thinking that both of the PLP candidates would win their seats, but that it was important for Arthur Hanna to be elected as the senior representative.

The voting process at the time allowed for the election of a senior and junior representative in some districts. Under this system, voters in areas where two candidates were running for a party could give each candidate a vote, or vote for just one candidate - a strategy referred to as a "plumper" vote.

Arthur Hanna tallied the highest number of votes, including more than 100 plumper votes, to be elected as the senior member, while Johnstone finished second to be elected as the junior member. But his margin of victory over Foulkes was only 54 votes, which meant that if 55 of those who gave Hanna a plumper had also voted for Foulkes, he would have been the junior member. It was no secret among PLP insiders at the time who those supporters were that urged voters to plumper Hanna, yet Foulkes showed no rancor or bitterness towards them.

After he failed in his bid for a House seat in 1962, Foulkes resigned from The Tribune to become the founding editor of The Bahamian Times, the official organ of the PLP. No one who was involved in the progressive struggle at the time would dispute the fact that The Times played a key role in the PLP's victory in 1967.

But beyond the journalistic contributions he made in promoting the PLP and its message, Foulkes was one of the most sought-after speakers in the party because of his dynamic oratorical style. And within the party itself, he and individuals like Warren Levarity, Jeffrey Thompson, Bazel Nichols, Eugene Newry, I.G. Stubbs, and Roosevelt Godet, among others, were core members of the National Committee for Positive Action (NCPA), an activist group that influenced many of the political decisions made by the PLP.

In the 1967 elections, Foulkes was the PLP's candidate for the Grant's Town constituency, and one of his opponents was Sir Orville Turnquest, a friend and former colleague. Sir Orville, a former secretary general of the PLP, was elected to the House as a PLP for the South Central constituency in the 1962 election, but he was one of those who left the party in 1965 along with Paul Adderley to form the National Democratic Party (NDP).

Foulkes emerged the winner for Grant's Town in that historic election, which saw the PLP end centuries of white minority rule in The Bahamas. He was not made a member of the first PLP cabinet, because of a collective decision made by the party's hierarchy for him to continue to direct the party's public relations activities as editor of The Bahamian Times, which was earmarked to be established as a major daily newspaper.

However, following the death of PLP House Member Uriah McPhee, resulting in the PLP calling a general election after being in power for slightly more than a year, Foulkes was re-elected for Grant's Town and was made Minister of Tourism in the new Cabinet. To this day, many people still insist that only Sir Stafford Sands, who was Minister of Tourism under the UBP, was as effective as Foulkes was in this position.

Indeed, there are those who are convinced that because of the excellent job he was doing as Minister of Tourism and his growing popularity nationally that he was perceived to be a threat to the leadership of then Premier Lynden Pindling by some of Pindling's supporters. Consequently, a campaign was mounted to oust him from the Cabinet, which eventually did happen in the latter part of 1969, for "reasons" that were never explained to the Bahamian people.

Foulkes handled that situation with characteristic civility, rather than as an ordinary politician involved in what is generally considered to be a dirty game would have done.

As he celebrates his 80th birthday, he can truly look back over his life and be tremendously proud of the fact that not only has he made tremendous contributions to this country, but he did so with dignity and class. Happy birthday, Sir Arthur. May you live to enjoy many, many more.

Oswald T. Brown is editor and general manager of The Freeport News. oswald@nasguard.com