There are two events that have occurred recently of which Bermudians should have serious concern.

The first is the constitutional disruption that occurred in The Turks and Caicos Islands recently. The British Government, following an interim report of a Commission of Inquiry which found clear signs of corruption in the dependency's government, sacked The Premier and his cabinet as well as the Leader of the Opposition, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Parliament, the Cabinet Secretary and Members of the Judiciary and Public Service Commission.

I do agree the situation was such that something had to be done. The issue of kickbacks, dubious business dealings, illegal sale of Government land had been rampant for some time.

It was the way the heavy hand of the colonial power moved in and suspended the constitution and took control of the Government and gave all power to run the country to one man, the appointed Governor of the British Government, without first giving the elected government, recently elected in 2007, the opportunity to resolve those matters affecting the country by way of the democratic process. That is not democracy, that is not transparency, that is not the way to promote good governance.

As I understand it, there was an opportunity to permit the elected government to act, and it wanted to act, before The TCI constitution interim amendment order which passed the British Parliament without objection, came into effect.

The Government should have been able to take a vote of no confidence, it should have had the opportunity to respond to the recommendations from the Commission of Inquiry, it should have had the opportunity to investigate and take before the courts those allegedly accused of wrongdoing and it should have the opportunity to elect a new leader and appoint a new cabinet.

Instead, on March 16, the interim report of The Turks and Caicos Commission of Inquiry into possible corruption or other dishonesty in relation to past and present elected members of the Legislature in recent years was made public.

It had been released to the Governor of TCI on February 18, 2009 and an Order in Council was subsequently made and laid before The British Parliament and subsequently passed.

The House of Assembly was dissolved and MPs lost their seats. According to the order passed in The British Parliament the exact date of British restoration of direct rule over The Turks and Caicos Islands depends on the Governor, Gordon Weatherell, acting in his discretion.

Caricom has rightly condemned this action taken by the British Government. Here is an excerpt from their statement: The Caribbean Community (Caricom) said that its members who strongly uphold the exercise of democracy do not "believe that good governance, the rule of law and representative democracy can be ensured or strengthened by the constitution suspension in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) and a return to direct rule by the colonial power through its Governor. Indeed, these provisions threaten the democratic process in the TCI by terminating the existence of the Cabinet and dissolving the elected Legislature, in effect thwarting the will of the people of the TCI".

"Furthermore, the power, duty or function of the Cabinet and the House of Assembly would now be completely exercised by the Governor in his or her discretion without any effective checks and balances or general oversight by the TCI people."

I am fully aware of the very upsetting nature of the interim report with regard to the present governance in the TCI and very conscious of the seriousness of the situation.

However suspending the functioning of the democratic, representative and constitutional institutions of the TCI only weakens the quest to ensure good governance, the ultimate objective of the Commission of Inquiry.

Bermuda, the largest of the Overseas Territories, must keep its guard up. I am one Bermudian who condemns the arrogant way the British Government has handled this matter in Turks and Caicos. I wonder if there are others.

The second matter about which Bermudians should be concerned has to do with our Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his lack of interest in Bermuda.

The Prime Minister led the charge on Tax havens at the recent G20 meetings. He did so, it seems, without any regard as to how this might affect the economies of his Overseas Dependent Territories. Had he been concerned, he had the power to postpone taking any action and getting after the territories to get their houses in order.

Like most Bermudians, I assume there is a line of communications starting with our Governor and through the Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth affairs up to briefing the Prime Minister. If that be true, I would have expected the PM to know that Bermuda is not a tax haven but a low tax jurisdiction.

Had he been properly briefed, he might have fought for us as he obviously did for the Isle of Mann and the Channel Isles who qualify as tax havens much more so than Bermuda ever did. He has since written to the Overseas Territories urging them to clean up their acts before the next G20 meeting in November – why did he not do so before?

And another thing, all the trips that our Prime Minister Brown takes between London and Washington he has never once said, "I think I'll drop in for a couple of days and visit our oldest colony". You have to give Prime Minister Tony Blair credit, he never forgot us, he got to know us.

Prime Minister Brown, next time do a better job protecting our interest.

Quinton Edness is a former Cabinet Minister and was an MP from 1968 to 1980 and from 1983 to 1998.