Part 2 of 3

"Hello. I must be going!"

-The Mad Hatter (or was it Bugs Bunny, who stole it from Groucho Marx?)

We left each other, in the first installment, posing the question: is Ewart Brown (as some argue) only about Ewart Brown? The answer could look like Yes. And the answer could look like No.You decide for yourself. But it seems to me that it depends to a considerable extent upon what value you place upon determination to succeed and allergy to failure.

For Ewart Brown, failure is not an option. Those vying for his position or intent on removing him might do well to examine themselves, and what they may be doing to Bermuda in the process.

Shadow Finance Minister E.T. "Bob" Richards recently uttered the following criticism of the Government:

"One's attention is caught time and again by references to policies not implemented, recommendations not followed and tasks not completed. Clearly, no one is in charge, no one is demanding results. In the absence of leadership, the civil service appears to be adr.ift."

"Clearly no one is in charge?" "No one is demanding results?"

I have had a particularly rough week: immigration officials behaving more inhumanely than I have ever seen them behave (which is saying a lot), at least two Cabinet Ministers asking me not to write to them about matters coming under their own portfolio of responsibility on the basis that if they haven't been told about it then they don't know and are therefore not responsible.

The overall mentality inside the machinery of Government must surely be making the Bermudian people increasingly angry; it can't just be me.

But I digress. More on that in future columns.

While there is some apparent justification for what Bob Richards is saying, I know a little too much to lay all of the responsibility for this at the feet of Ewart Brown alone. He would have to really be a "dictator" to earn all that blame.

Besides, I know that Ewart Brown would be surprised to hear that "no one" is demanding results. He is always demanding results; as a result of which the knives are always out and, as we can see, they are increasingly pointed in his direction.

Accepting, as we must, that these criticisms cannot co-exist with the allegation that Premier Brown is "dictatorial", where does the truth lie?

If Bob Richards is correct (and it looks like he may well be), is that Dr. Brown's fault, or is this entire colonial political system the true albatross around his neck; or around the neck of any Bermuda Government set up under the current constitutional arrangements? These are very serious questions.

Having said that, and as to my central question, I begin with my reasons for having so strongly supported Ewart Brown in the first place.

I list his work ethic and exemplary discipline, his ability to 'think outside the box', what I understand to be his vision for Bermuda and for ordinary working Bermudians, his obvious conviction that 'failure is not an option', his contempt for colonialism, his even more passionate contempt and implacable enmity towards White Supremacy (again, White Supremacy folks, not white people, but White Supremacy), his courage, his determination to meet set objectives, and his consistency.

Whatever else you may think of this man; these are all quintessential and undeniable Ewart Brown characteristics.

Accept this, as you must: Ewart Brown has very few, if any, equals in Bermuda.

And I know I haven't been alone in my perception of the Premier. The PLP Delegates' conference clearly felt when they elected him that Dr. Brown's leadership of the PLP and Bermuda, if given a real shot, would take Bermuda to that much needed "higher level".

Get rid of him at your peril, PLP.

There was yet another reason for thinking that Dr. Brown deserved "a shot" at leading my party and my country: simple justice.

Many of us felt and continue to feel a true sense of revulsion at the clearly coordinated campaign against Dr. Brown following the BHC investigation. The internet is now literally dr.ipping with undiluted venom. The laws of libel seem to have no place in that murky underground of character assassination. And despite having been exposed as a singularly malevolent attempt at community brainwashing, there are many conspiratorial elements who simply refuse to let this thing go.

Wouldn't you have expected the bombshells to explode just about everywhere following the decision last year of the Privy Council to permit publication of the entire police dossier? Well, they didn't.

Wouldn't you have expected, finally, some real hard evidence? Well, there wasn't.

There was nothing in any of those BHC allegations. Not one cedar beam, not one kickback, not one criminal offence on the part of Dr. Brown or anyone else in elected office, disclosed or established or really even hinted at by admissible and reliable evidence. That is the verdict of an array of superior legal and investigative minds. So let's call it a day, shall we, and move on!

But no. On and on we go with a smear campaign that will not stop until a critical mass of PLP supporters moves to bring Dr. Brown down, or a critical mass of the population manifests its desire to turf the PLP out.

Get rid of Dr. Brown at your peril, Bermuda.

What do we make of the recent avalanche of editorials, venomous internet messages and blog commentary, yellow-journalistic 'news' pieces quoting all manner of "unnamed sources", wildcat and ill-thought-out industrial action and labour unrest, rumours, allegations, innuendos and gossip, all apparently encircling the Premier in particular and his administration in general?

Where is it really coming from?

As politics breeds strange bedfellows, who is now in bed with whom?

We are now hearing about unknown and unnamed "PLP stalwarts" feeding pure misinformation about Dr. Brown's standing to the establishment media, without in most cases having the courage to even identify themselves by name.

To say nothing of charges of "elitism" coming from certain quarters that, it can be recalled, just loved their own elitist positions to death when they held their PLP Cabinet posts before, of course, it became clear that at least some of them were either incompetent or lazy, or both.

The increasing use of the "c" word (i.e. "corruption") is just so reckless; but no one's conscience seems particularly pricked. And, so goes the theory propounded by people of all races, black leaders have corruption hard-wired into their DNA. In the result, the burden of proof almost invariably rests on the black leader to show that he is not corrupt.

So when I speak in terms of giving Dr. Brown's leadership a shot, just what is "a shot"?

Has our Premier been given sufficient opportunity to establish what he can, if given that shot, achieve for Bermuda?

Or are we dealing here with a simple case of "'Hosanna!' today, and 'Crucify him!' tomorrow?"

Ultimately, having regard to some of the jokers that are hanging around waiting for their "turn", one is compelled to ask the simple question: "Is Bermuda governable at all."

There is a concerted campaign afoot aimed at portraying Dr. Brown's stewardship of the political helm as little more than a "dr.ive-by-shooting" on his part, in which he is a callous unfeeling egocentric kleptocrat with "scores to settle, accounts to dr.aw even", gathering and storing for himself -while no one is watching- a vast store of economic chestnuts in the form of ill-gotten gains from capital projects distributed by him to an assortment of cronies?

And how particularly clever it is of him, goes the argument, to use white and Portuguese cronies like Zane DeSilva and Dennis Correia instead of blacks as his administration's key economic and construction partners.

The actual words contained in the recent article in this newspaper claiming, in its headline, that Zane DeSilva was about to earn "a $9 million payout" from the Port Royal Golf Course conversion project alone, did not amount to its headline. But who's looking? Not one word of proof was advanced.

The vastly exaggerated predictions of over 20 Bermudian layoffs in the wake of the Department of Tourism sales and marketing outsourcing was vastly overstated: but who's looking?

The bold and widely distributed allegations suggesting that Premier Brown owns a piece of just about every major contract in which the Government is involved is lacking in one simple thing: evidence.

But, who's looking?

What we need to consider is this question: Does Premier Brown really and truly hold a vision for Bermuda's economic growth and development that will sustain us all throughout most of the 21st century?

I think he does.

But does anyone else? I can't hear you.

If, which is unlikely, you can physically keep up with Ewart Brown as he and his Blackberry glide, as if in perpetual pas de deux, through his excessively long working day, you will see (and find it difficult to keep up with) a man dr.iven by the highest passion and determination for improving the Bermudian product and growing both the economy and economic opportunities for the current and future generations. To the extent that his eyes are constantly on the prize of succeeding in this effort, Ewart Brown is indeed "for" Ewart Brown.

But are you really looking?

It is a small wonder, and no big secret, that Dr. Ewart Brown has a low tolerance for failure to perform or deliver on the part of at least some of his present, and former, Cabinet colleagues. He has already stated, as regards labour relations, that it is his policy to respond, within the bounds of reasonableness, with generosity to pay demands.

But make no mistake about it; Dr. Brown will -in exchange- expect and demand performance. And therein lies the rub. Should not the rest of Team Bermuda -and this includes Cabinet, backbench, the civil service and their trade union, AND the Opposition- not be expected to perform to the highest standards as well?

For the Opposition this will mean occasionally applauding Dr. Brown for doing what they know to be the right thing.

Unthinkable!

But isn't this the least that we should, as a country, be asking for?

So let's just stipulate and agree, shall we, that Ewart Brown doesn't do "the John Swan thing" particularly well. But neither does my dear friend Sir John do "Ewart" particularly well either. If he did, he would have at least seen them coming when they tried to destroy his entire business in the wake of relinquishing the UBP leadership, for the unpardonable crime of pushing for Bermudian Independence.

The truth is that most of the criticisms of Dr. Brown's leadership style and his Government's key decisions reveal that these decisions are susceptible to at least two viewpoints, the short view and the long view.

The short view, if only because it fits in with our habit of intellectual laziness, seems more often than not to prevail.

For example, consider the Music Festival.

The short view has it that spending hundr.eds of thousands, if not a couple million dollars on frontline internationally loved artistes like Beyonce, Alicia Keys (my future second wife, by the way) and the remaining impressive array of performers, is a waste of money and little more than a vulgar exercise in vanity.

On the other hand, as I foresaw 31 years ago when I promoted Summerfest '77 -which incidentally led to my first bankruptcy- there is a much more positive long view: as national host of a major musical and artistic annual event, Bermuda's place on the map can be deemed fully secured for years to come. This could, and probably will, result in a significant re-branding of our island and substantially increased tourism fortunes. This would be the long view.

Take also the difficult decision to outsource the Bermuda Department of Tourism's marketing of our product to our clients in the tourism industry. Either way, the Premier (who is also Minister of Tourism and Transport) would be damned.

In the short view, he would be damned for putting so many career and Bermudian tourism workers out of that particular work.

Who actually listened when he declared that "the sales model for Bermuda tourism (is) decades old" and therefore functionally ineffective?

Who paid attention when he said that "compassionately disrupting the lives of a few, in a plan to better serve the masses, is what good political leadership is all about"?

Good political leadership. Would we recognise it, Bermuda, if we saw it?

According to the long view, there would be substantial savings with a higher probability of stimulating real growth in the Tourism sector. That entire area of activity has changed since the days of Jim Woolridge or Shorty Trimingham in their pink Bermuda shorts, extending good wishes to the world, or at least the eastern seaboard, for a "Bermudaful day".

The world is moving on, folks, even if Bermuda needs to be dr.agged, kicking and screaming, along with it.

And, for heaven's sake, don't get me started about legalised gambling.

Of course, Dr. Brown isn't always right.

And sometimes, as in GPS and the taxis, when he is right, he may also

Continued on Page 19

be wrong. But the bottom line is that he has, more often than not, gotten it right.

Leaders lead, that's what leaders are meant to do.

And so while I know that this may not be the conventional view in Bermuda, it just seems to me morally wrong and indefensible to take a man out, to besmirch his reputation and character, indeed to cause great emotional harm and distress to his family in the process of assassinating his character, on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations lacking in even one scintilla of acceptable and admissible evidence.

If you really want his job, why not get it old fashioned way: why not try to earn it? See if you can handle it. I dare you!

Call me crazy; but I really think that what we are quietly condoning in these systematic attacks on Dr. Brown is simply morally wrong.

As I see it, Dr. Brown had probably already devised his own exit strategy before he took office as Premier. He would have been a fool not to have done so; and this man is no fool. That this is likely arises from the fact that Ewart Brown seems to actually believe in himself.

Those who seek to replace Dr. Brown before he has been given a real shot should ask simply, with what and with whom.

One valium short of a nervous breakdown is how I would describe at least one presumed contender.

As politically deep as a puddle, is how I might describe another.

Ultimately, how do you go about leading, if you don't even believe in yourself?

No greater a defender of democracy than the same Winston Churchill reportedly said that if you want to hear the strongest argument against democracy, just spend a half-hour in conversation with the average voter.

The average voter, you see, is the unwitting and unknowing target of a biased press, of unprincipled journalism, of mass mind games, and of a mentality that blatantly uses the politics of jealousy and envy and the principle that 'misery loves company' to beat down good and determined people. We dr.ove Dr. E F Gordon to an early grave, you know.

Earlier this year, I wrote a three-part series entitled "The Fall of the House that Jack Built", on the rise, decline and (what I still believe to be) imminent fall of the United Bermuda Party.

I said that the UBP should disband, rather than even think about re-branding because the very name itself is in fact a poisoned brand, no longer marketable.

I said also in effect that Bermudians, particularly black Bermudians, have become much more politically sophisticated than Bermudians of old and that the usual well-worn techniques of divide-and-rule just don't [to borrow an old phrase] "play well in Pretoria" any more. I still maintain that, on this issue, I am right.

I also predicted that in Dr. Brown's leadership style, there would be only limited room for doing things "the traditional UBP way" and that the promise of change would, under his leadership if given a chance, evolve into the reality of change; not just for the sake of change but ultimately for the benefit of Bermuda and Bermudians, all of us.

But there was one caveat; I did say something else as well. I said,

"And while I am a member of the PLP and a strong supporter of Premier Brown, I have to admit that the longevity of the PLP is hardly guaranteed. Having regard to its own history of political cannibalism, it will require a hitherto unseen amount of self-discipline and self-restraint on the part of the back-bench (and indeed some of the front bench) to ensure sufficient cohesion to enable the Government to make good on the promises which were made to the Bermudian people in the run-up to the election."

History of cannabilism? The longevity of the PLP is hardly guaranteed? A hitherto unseen amount of self-discipline and self-restraint will be required?

Cannabilism, the kind of which I speak, is not exclusive to the PLP or to black people in general. But both are, it must be said, particularly well-practised. We are just so good at destroying each other; and, in the process, our own cohesion as a group. I prefer the cannabilism analogy to the well-worn "crabs-in-a-barrel" idea. The latter implies that we just pull each other down as we try to get up. The truth is we will eat our own offspring if we perceive this be in our own self-interest; sometimes we will consume each other simply because we want to.

If, as the mostly unsourced pieces of journalism -particularly in The Royal Gazette newspaper- suggest, there is now some groundswell of internal PLP opposition to Dr. Brown's continuing to lead our party and country, then the PLP needs to answer seriously, I say seriously, who and what will replace him. This is not to say that there are not a few very able contenders -both inside and outside the current political front lines- but a simple reminder of one of the principles by which I was brought up needs first to be considered: be careful what you ask for, you may just get it.

In my third and final instalment, I intend to let loose.

Concluded next week