End conscription, but not now

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Public Safety Minister Michael Dunkley in today’s paper says he supports doing away with conscription — music, no doubt, to the ears of many a young man in Bermuda.

But is it the right time to go down that route? Question: What are some of the major challenges facing society today? Answer, youth unemployment, gang crime and education.

Turning around those three things alone are huge. The One Bermuda Alliance in a pre-election press conference said it believed that the youth unemployment figure in Bermuda was four in ten. In addition, the party said Bermuda’s youth were suffering the highest level of underemployment.

So what have we got that already exists to help? Well, some might say, the Regiment — and conscription.

Mr Dunkley says today: “I support doing away with conscription, it’s something that we are investigating and I would hope that we can make it happen. I’d like to make sure that it’s done in a practical way because I understand the importance of the Bermuda Regiment. I understand the role they play, I understand the role needs to change in the coming years.”

As far as this newspaper is concerned, the key phrases here are “practical way” and “coming years”.

It may seem strange to some that a newspaper that condones the decriminalisation of possession of a small amount of cannabis one day comes out the next and says it does not believe in ending conscription. It does — but at least not now.

Being in an environment that demands discipline, obedience to one’s superiors and physical exercise, that teaches new skills while at the same time helping to teach respect for each other through teamwork is not a bad thing, if the alternative for some is to sit on the proverbial wall.

Perhaps the “practical” way’ is to slowly wind down in the “coming years” the number that are conscripted while simultaneously pumping up measures to improve education and to clamp down on crime.

Keeping conscription in the short to medium-term is not a fix by itself, but it may just save a few of Bermuda’s young men from a much worse fate than having to go on a forced march.

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