Dear Sir,

I find it surprising in this day of Trumpian attacks on truth and the media that a member of the media would suggest that my point of view should be suppressed when the media itself generally, and The Royal Gazette particularly, struggled to secure its own constitutional right of free speech during one of the Progressive Labour Party’s previous administrations. I also find The Royal Gazette quite slack in not surveying Bermuda’s business point of view with respect to the consequence of this government on the future prospects for their businesses. The Compass beat you to the story.

Perhaps you are not aware of the struggles of business during the PLP’s last 14 years in power. I served on the executive of the Bermuda Employers Council and I can tell you that the PLP government was not much interested in collaboration when it was in power. For example, when Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch was Minister of Home Affairs, the BEC requested a “get to know” meeting with the minister, but we were instructed that we could not bring up the issue of term limits.

This was the PLP’s sacred cow and, despite being of greatest concern to our members, we were not allowed to discuss this. In fact, the colonel chastised the Chamber of Commerce for speaking up on this matter and cautioned that organisation to behave more like the BEC. As an executive of the BEC, I was not proud of the minister’s accolade, as it indicated to me that we were not doing our job as representative of Bermuda’s employers.

Previous to serving on the BEC executive, I stood as spokesman for the Coalition on Long Term Residents, representing the West Indian Association, the Jamaican Association and Vasco Da Gama on behalf of West Indian and Portuguese long-term residents, many of whom still have no rights some 17 years later. At no time during those debates did Paula Cox offer a collaborative discussion with the coalition. The history of public forums, which she led, was very much tainted by the union placing its members in the meetings to intimidate and shout down those that spoke out in support of our long-term residents. Many did not attend because of the antagonistic nature of those forums.

Now that you have raised your complaint, I challenge you to share my responses to the Cayman Compass, not as they may have presented, but as I wrote them. I would also think it timely to survey the business community in Bermuda regarding their concerns going forward. I would be interested whether others have the courage to give their honest point of view without fear of PLP government retribution. I would also challenge you to disprove anything that I wrote to the Cayman Compass below.

Before the 1998 election, I was one of many in the business community that met with PLP leader Dame Jennifer Smith. I also served on a finance committee with then shadow minister Eugene Cox. What was admirable about Dame Jennifer’s lead-up to the 1998 General Election is that she really had an outreach to the business community, which was quite comprehensive.

I have not noted this with David Burt ... but then I am not greatly in the know and no one really cares what I think. I only speak of my experience under the previous PLP administrations and it was not pleasurable from numerous aspects. I am not looking forward to five more years of a PLP government. That is the truth and until recently it was my constitutional right for me to say so.

Just to introduce a little bit more irony into this letter by your assault on my constitutional right to free speech, I direct you to my biography, where you will see that Mr Burt and I are both graduates of George Washington University where I also graduated cum laude. I’ll let you know if the incoming government has any interest in collaborating with me, which you naively suggest they might wish to do.

ROBERT PIRES