Sacked Cabinet Minister Wayne Perinchief believes his progressive stance on gay rights and race relations helped get him the boot.

Premier Ewart Brown dropped Mr. Perinchief as Community and Cultural Affairs Minister after the PLP's third election win last month.

But Mr. Perinchief said he knew the writing was on the wall long before then — although he vehemently denied rumours he was involved in an anti-Brown plot with his brother Phil Perinchief who was also sacked as Attorney General.

The plain-speaking former top Policeman told The Royal Gazette he had been undermined by the Premier in both his Cabinet work and in constituency issues which potentially could have harmed his re-election chances in Pembroke Central.

Mr. Perinchief believes he had done a fair job in Community and Cultural Affairs by stabilising it after arriving to find key directors were not in place and then by championing the Workforce Equity Bill which he said would give the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality (CURE) teeth.

"But you more or less get a sense you are not being welcomed as much as you could be. It's more instinctive than anything.

"I am pretty firm on Human Rights issues. I noticed when I was pushing on the review of the Human Rights Act to get my platform in the manifesto to me there seemed to be a bit of reluctance to accept my incentive to have it reviewed and make that an issue," he said.

Dr. Brown never said specifically why that pledge was killed said Mr Perinchief, who added: "It might have been a touchy issue. The gay rights issue is always pretty touchy. That would have been a part of the review.

"Plus I wanted to bring about some parity between the races and do some outreach with CURE in particular to heal the rift between black and white. I feel I was moving along in that area. I had pretty much good crossover appeal."

He believes his increased majority in Pembroke Central indicated he had picked up white votes given that around 300 blacks didn't vote.

"I believe there is a racial divide in this country. I am not altogether certain the Big Conversation as it is now applied is going to bring about 'healing'. I see the big conversation initially as to be shock therapy, to shock people out of their denial that there is a problem. It had that effect.

"But going forward we must have the conversation about how we see the fault lines, how we see the rift and what do we do to heal that up, to get people together.

"Now that should be the next phase. I would have thought I would have the opportunity to work with CURE in the Community and Cultural Affairs to bring about that transition.

"I put it to Cabinet and personally to Dr. Brown and the Candidates Committee. There wasn't an actual refusal but you know that when you don't get support or comment you have struck the wrong chord."

He said CURE had been put together by the UBP to bring harmony to the races and redress any racial or human rights infringements but it wasn't given legislation to back it up.

"So when I went into the Ministry I very rapidly set about making CURE an organisation that had teeth and sanction in order to bring about this legislative change instead of just goodwill — companies complying if they felt like it.

"But I don't think Cabinet and the Premier really felt that CURE had changed that much. But it actually had changed. That's another indicator that I was perhaps moving in another direction."

There were also other signs he had displeased Dr. Brown said Mr. Perinchief — oddly when he completed a project way before the deadline.

He said just before the election he was asked to compile a student registry to alert employers about educated potential recruits to make sure Bermudian students could get ahead.

"It was promised for June next year but we delivered it at the end of November. That surprised the Premier quite a bit and the Cabinet. They said why are you providing it now? We said because it is ready now, we are ahead of the deadline.

"I got some pushback, name changes etc. I got from that interaction there was some 'unhappiness' I had been so efficient. I was really ahead of the curve on that one, so was my department. There was some subtle indicators I was rocking the boat and unsettling people."

Asked why the Premier, who cultivates an image of action, would be annoyed about a Minister achieving results he said: "For me the Premier very much likes to be in control. Sometimes he will reach into a Ministry if he feels he wants to direct a certain initiative.

"In this issue he didn't have the opportunity to with this particular project. I had managed it with my technical people from beginning to end operating on the mandate given to me by him.

"I am the type of person if you give me a mission I will carry it out as efficiently as I can."

And Mr. Perinchief said he was kept in the dark about matters in his own constituency, despite being in the heart of Government.

He said: "I think I made my leadership a bit uncomfortable with my position on the development of Pembroke Central. Particularly with the efforts by the Minister of Planning to push the two-storey car park for the First Church of God. I fought that issue.

"They went over my head."

And he said he was blindsided with the Belco redevelopment with two new power plants planned.

"They put in the application about two weeks before the election. That certainly was the contentious issue and will remain so. It could very well have derailed my candidacy.

"Again I was blindsided there. There was a presentation at Cabinet on the Tuesday and the application went in, I believe, on the Thursday for Belco to do that massive build out. I am working with that to try to mediate between Belco, Government and my constituents which will be a long-term process.

"I didn't get much of a heads up at all from my own Government. It is something I thought I would have. Those were indicators to me that perhaps I wasn't going to return to Cabinet. Let's put it this way — they are not all that subtle.

"I had basically packed up the day before the election, said goodbye to everyone. Told them how nice it was working with them and I didn't really believe I was going to be returned to Cabinet."

He denies a sense of disillusionment with Dr. Brown, despite sticking his neck out when he was a Cabinet Minister under Alex Scott and backing Dr. Brown's leadership bid.

"He is a very progressive leader and has the capability of taking this country forward. It is really up to him about who he picks.

"But having said that I believe I could have been and still can be a valuable member of that team. I particularly thought going forward I could have looked at something like Public Safety and Transport — I had good ideas along those lines.

"Even though Dr. Brown moves pretty rapidly I thought there was an outside chance that in order to maintain continuity there might have been an opportunity for the Cabinet to stay intact for a period of time and then have a transition."

But he said he had been around too long to harbour feelings of resentment over his ousting.

Quizzed about rumours he and his brother Phil Perinchief had been plotting to oust the Premier he said: "There is absolutely no legs to that. This rumour is spurious but it would have been put out there by people looking for a rationale for dropping two people who had been appointed fairly recently to Cabinet. I had only done two years."

He said his brother had been far too busy to do anything like that and as one Dr. Brown's biggest supporters would not have the motivation.

Already there is speculation within the party that Dr. Brown will not take the party into the next election and could even bow out at the next scheduled leadership election in 2010.

Mr. Perinchief said he wasn't in on Dr. Brown's plans.

But he added: "I know Dr. Brown is a man on a mission. He appears to believe in change at any cost — at any cost to allegiance, to friendships, to anything that may have existed before. He's not one for sentiment or ceremony. That is the type of person he is, he gets things done.

"Certainly he has bigger fish to fry. Bermuda I believe may very well be a bit small for Dr. Brown in his scheme of things. He's very mobile. He moves around a lot — Bermuda, Turks and Caicos, California, Martha's Vineyard. He has become a very global individual.

"I see him as an influential person in this region. The Caribbean in particular."