Sir John Swan recently proposed Bermuda convene a round table of political, corporate and community leaders to determine common approaches to the common problems now confronting our economy and society.

The Island’s long-time former leader made the point there are times when Bermudians must set aside minor difference to be allies — if only allies of convenience — in the face of those menaces with the potential to disrupt all of our lives.

And this is certainly one of those times.

“We need a national conversation on where Bermuda needs to be — reducing debt, growing Gross Domestic Product, creating jobs and providing the services and goods the world has need of,” he said.

Sir John added: “I call on the Government, the Opposition, members of the Bermuda community and community leaders to have conversation about what we must do to make Bermuda a place that is in the real world competing and able to do the things that are necessary. At the moment we’re doing neither in an effective and functioning way.

“The country must step forward and stop thinking of self-interest and think of the national interest and thus serve the greater good of its people.”

A similar initiative was launched by former Premier Ewart Brown in 2009: Bermuda First was a gilt-edged public-private think tank which included the leaders of both political parties, trade unionists, off-shore business chieftains and local movers and shakers from the commercial, public, and charitable sectors.

Unfortunately, this well-intentioned undertaking in consensus-building, one which reflected all shades of local opinion and had input from all of the Island’s major constituencies, did not survive Dr. Brown’s premiership.

More’s the pity.

Set up in the early days of the precipitous recession which continues to bedevil our community, our quality of life and the very viability of our economic model, Bermuda First was a serious attempt to meet the many challenges — and take advantage of the few opportunities — facing us in a post-slump world.

A Government advisory council boasting cross-community expertise, one with a mandate to formulate collaborative and comprehensive approaches to regrowing our economy, retrenching our massively expensive (and ultimately unsustainable) public sector and restabilising our social structure, is more necessary now than ever before.

We urgently need to embark on the type of community-wide dialogue which Sir John is proposing and which Bermuda First once provided a forum for.

Because the unavoidable reality is that Bermuda literally cannot afford to live in the past any longer. We cannot afford to waste any more time reflecting on former glories, any more money maintaining a bloated, surplus-to-requirement white elephant bureaucracy or any more opportunities to make Bermuda an efficient, business-friendly environment for the overseas investors all of our livelihoods depend on.

Working together for the common cause against the common enemy — economic stagnation — should be a moral and political imperative for all those who are interested in creating jobs, reducing debt and attracting leading-edge businesses to Bermuda.

At this time of ongoing economic uncertainty and social stress, we must acknowledge our mutual interests and our mutual dependence upon one another. When it comes to finding solutions to these increasingly pressing woes, initiative, innovation and increased cooperation are required, not further invective and acrimony.

For too long the rancorous public debate surrounding Bermuda’s seven-year economic contraction has brought to mind the old Chinese proverb: “There is a great deal of shouting on the stairs but no one comes into the room.”

Now is the time for all of us to enter the room, to sit down with one another and to reason together.

As Sir John said, people of good will and good faith must step forward and start putting the public interest ahead of their own self-interest.