Dear Sir,

I read the letter authored by Khalid Wasi and recently published. I also note the reference to Eva Hodgson and the assumption that party politics caused division within the black community.

I am 78 years old and I have lived my entire life in Bermuda under “party politics”.

A political party is an organisation of people who share the same vision of the way power should be used in a country or society. The oligarchy or “Forty Thieves” were in fact a political party. They held caucus at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and at the Mid-Ocean Club.

Policies were determined at the venues and formalised at the House of Assembly. The waiters, busboys and bartenders were quiet and attentive.

I can recall a recently deceased United Bermuda Party parliamentarian who attended Central School and who did not even own a punt but was known to boast of his membership at RBYC. When the Progressive Labour Party was formed in 1963, the persons at Alexandrina Hall decided on the name Bermuda Labour Party. They changed that name to the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party when they discovered there was already an organisation with the original choice, even though it was not very active.

Before 1963, there were several parochial political associations, which fit the definition of political party. The existing unfair restrictive franchise compelled these associations to employ “plumping” as a strategy to eke out some representation.

Those who were trampled underfoot at that time knew that in unity there was an opportunity to improve.

There has been some modest improvement, so the motivation for unity has lessened.

Policies and practices of the present government will probably be the catalyst for the desired level of cohesion in the black community.

DEVONIAN