He describes himself as a "caretaker", but Kulandra Ratneser is eminently qualified to be Bermuda's Director of Public Prosecutions.

Except for the fact that he is over the constitutionally imposed age limit.

Governor Sir John Vereker appointed Mr. Ratneser, 70, acting DPP last week.

The Sri Lankan-born Australian citizen will stay on until the Governor finds a permanent postholder at which point he will return to his full-time job as senior counsel and head of the commercial litigation department of Lynda Milligan-Whyte and Associates which said in a press statement yesterday that it was pleased to assist the Government "in this manner".

Mr. Ratneser had not asked for the job, but having spent most of his legal career as a public servant - including stints as DPP in Fiji and Belize - he could not say no when the call came from Government House.

"All my life I have been working for the Crown, except for the three years with the law firm in Bermuda," he told this newspaper Monday night.

"And when a Governor of a country invites me to do something you don't say no. I want to help Bermuda if I can be of any help. I just couldn't say no. I couldn't possibly say no. And I would do my best for Bermuda."

Khamisi Tokunbo, the incumbent who is about to sue the Government for deciding not to automatically renew his contract, is actually a good friend.

And the fact that the post has become a political football since Government's decision to have a politically appointed Attorney General had no impact whatsoever.

"I don't think any of that is really a consideration in the type of job I'm going to do. And I'd like to feel I'm going to rise above that and not get involved in any distraction from doing my work in a professional way without fear or favour," he said.

In the 1990s when Western Australia decided to have a politically appointed Attorney General, Mr. Ratneser was appointed a senior member of that state's DPP's office. There was no major squabble surrounding the change and no question of any political interference.

"In fact I think we prosecuted two ex-Premiers in the state and they both went to jail. That's how independent that office was. I think we sent a Minister to jail as well."

Much depends on the personality of the post-holder, he said, when asked how the DPP can protect his office from political interference.

"It's not a question of interference. It's more the personality of the person that holds the position - that does not allow his decisions to be coloured by any external circumstances," he told The Royal Gazette.

"That does not mean that you don't talk to the Attorney General... That you don't consult. You don't do this job in a vacuum."

To speak of separating the two offices is, then, really a misnomer.

"Separation is a wrong word. It's a responsibility you carry and you are only answerable to your own conscience in the end," Mr. Ratneser said.

Mr. Ratneser met Mr. Tokunbo and some other key players in the legal fraternity soon after a 1999 trip to Bermuda.

The trip was part of his retirement plans - until local lawyer Lynda Milligan-Whyte offered him a senior post in her firm. He now works for Lynda Milligan-Whyte and Associates

In 2000 when Mr. Tokunbo was appointed DPP, the pair worked together on developing prosecution policy guidelines for the new office.

Asked his view of the controversy over having a politically appointed Attorney General, Mr. Ratneser said: "Bermuda is still in the throes of building some traditions and you are bound to have these differences of opinion for some time."

He pointed to the fact that a number of public offices in Britain are also politically appointed.

"These are all things that will be debated, I'm sure, for a long time. But ultimately a consensus will arrive as to what is good for Bermuda. What is good for England is not necessarily good for Bermuda."