“To our lost brothers and sisters trapped in the belly of the beast. Our lost prodigal sons and daughters in the OBA … it is time for you to come home.

“The time is drawing near when you won’t be able to come out into the fields and complain about massa and then run back to the porch when he whistles for you to do his bidding.” — Progressive Labour Party MP Jamahl Simmons, Founders’ Day Speech 2015.

By Bryant Trew

I really cannot emphasise enough how critically important it is for every single Bermudian to read the PLP’s Founders’ Day speech.

It’s only by reading every single word that one is able to truly appreciate how paranoid, delusional, dogmatic and divisive their electoral strategy has grown.

In one moment, those blacks who don’t support the PLP are painted as brothers and sisters who are lost in the belly of the beast.

The next moment, those same persons are painted as confused house slaves who are running out of time before some perilous event occurs.

Whites have also been given an ultimatum — join us, or face defeat.

No matter what your skin colour, there are only those who support the PLP, and those who are racist or self-hating anti-Bermudians.

Indeed, this very column will be written off by the staunchest supporters as nothing more than a surrogate responding to his master’s whistle.

This is because the very last thing the PLP’s strategists desire is for the electorate to independently consider current events. Instead, their objective is to bully, guilt and shame those who fail to see the PLP as the key to our collective salvation. Freedom of thought and choice be damned.

Over the past five months alone we’ve learned of criminal complaints being filed over alleged misconduct at Constituency 33; we’ve read the most repugnant, misogynistic comments that were uttered over the airwaves; Parliamentarians have been involved in a physical altercation; the Speaker of the House has filed a criminal complaint over alleged misconduct; and the very engine of our democracy was held ransom by a seemingly illegal act of civil disobedience.

One might have thought that the disrespect shown towards the Senate president would signal Bermuda’s arrival at the bottom of the political barrel. But what a fool the PLP has made of those of us who expect better conduct from our Parliamentarians.

All doubts have been removed, as this speech makes crystal clear that no gutter is too filthy for their objectives. I am therefore compelled to ask seven simple questions:

- Given the kind of divisive and toxic rhetoric throughout this speech, how is the PLP supposed to unite and represent the broad spectrum of Bermudians?

- Given Mr Simmons’s toxic description of the One Bermuda Alliance, why should the OBA pay even the slightest attention to the PLP’s calls for collaboration?

- Given the excessive militant/religious rhetoric in this speech, why should investors think that Bermuda is politically stable?

- Since when did the PLP ascend to such heights of spiritual morality that they are now able to determine who is or isn’t wicked?

- Why does the PLP continue to demonise and ridicule those who have left the party?

- Why does the PLP continue to demonise and ridicule those who might consider joining it?

- Why does Mr Simmons’s overblown defence of “everything PLP” remind me of Iraq’s 2003 Information Minister, Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf?

I actually might have some sympathy for the PLP’s vitriol if it was grounded in genuine grievances. However, more often than not their anger is directed at self-manufactured issues.

Take, for example, the latest PLP allegation that the OBA is enacting policy to allow 50 per cent of jobs at Pink Beach to go to non-Bermudians.

The PLP’s first step was to record a Senate debate and electronically publish a truncated recording of OBA Senator Vic Ball (listeners couldn’t hear the question asked of him, nor could they hear the full extent of his response).

Next, the PLP quoted Mr Ball out of context in order to give the impression that the OBA had allowed Pink Beach to bypass the work permit application process for 50 per cent of their employees.

Finally, the PLP feigned outrage over a completely fictitious work permit change in order to paint the OBA as anti-Bermudian.

In other words, the PLP deliberately sought to misinform and thereby anger the voting public (yet again).

“We may not stoop to the level of the OBA but mark my words … we will not be turning the other cheek.

“If the OBA sews (sic) the wind they will reap the whirlwind. Count on that.”

Here’s the final thing that really perplexes me about the Founders’ Day speech.

We have ordinary, decent Bermudians sitting in their homes, churches, mosques, clubs, and so on, advocating patience, love and tolerance.

Yet, per the quote above, we see this massive disconnect between principle and politics that allows us to support malice, spite, hatred and blatant dishonesty towards others.

Is it not yet obvious that what we have here is not a clear vision for a progressive Bermuda, but a regressive declaration of war?

How on earth can this ideology be supported?

You can e-mail Bryant Trew at bryanttrew@mac.com