Dear Sir,

Special moments solve extraordinary affairs at times. There was only once in the entire history of Bermuda that the people elected the governor and that was in the somewhat unsettling period of 1649 when John Trimingham was elected for a short period.

Believe it or not, the closest thing to that occurrence happened 363 years later in 2012 when approximately one thousand people converged at the Southampton Princess and, as a scarcely established group, elected Craig Cannonier as the leader of the One Bermuda Alliance.

Baffling to most political pundits, that election was the trigger that propelled the OBA to surprisingly win the General Election, unseating the Progressive Labour Party.

However, just like after that one and only 1649 gubernatorial election and thereafter, the ranks closed and the system of appointing governors and normalcy kicked right back in with company selections and later the Crown’s.

Similarly, after the election of Cannonier, the constitutional constructs and policies of succession deemed all to follow the party rules, including formats for any challengers. We can naturally appreciate the need for order, but what happens if the true dynamic is in the special occasion, such as that occasion when people were engaged in an open vote, by what was then almost a matter of who showed up with an interest in choosing who should lead the new direction? Because in that opportune moment, those attending felt the wheel of destiny and a new direction was in their hands. Perhaps, true change is hinged to the creation of such moments.

People exhibit short memories, but it would not escape a few people’s minds that I stood sincerely and offered that the United Bermuda Party should fold its tent and allow a new contemporaneous organisation with an inclusive agenda to emerge.

Bermuda needed it and their participation towards the evolution of what Bermuda needed meant closing their books and excepting the best of their role in history.

I have one more thing to say that the OBA pundits may be wise to consider. The same process done at Southampton Princess needs doing all over again, for the sake of the country and lastly for themselves.

They should understand the power in their beginnings and how hope converged one evening to make that unique moment.

The country will always need those special moments and, in a year or two, they just may be the only organisation, however remote the thought, to provide it.

The true challenge is to cast aside useless constitutionality and gain the ability to adapt to a direction propelled by a popular movement and establish a fresh plebiscite to express the sentiments of the people. Populism at times can be good thing.

The problem of loyalty to systems and constructs is that the culture of the parties prevails and they follow patterns too familiar, just like cats will miaow and dogs will bark.

So it becomes an imperative that the parties use a formula that protects them and the country from the worst aspects of themselves. By opening to a broader plebiscite, they may just do that.

KHALID WASI