In the wake of what I believe was a crude attempt to frame the Works Minister, Derrick Burgess and Premier Ewart Brown by planting bogus cheques in the Works & Engineering Ministry records intended to suggest members of the Government received what amounted to kick backs from contractors it is clear that Bermuda not only has an ongoing racial divide, but a deepening political divide with a reactionary political element in this country that will stop at nothing to discredit the Progressive Labour Party Government and its political leadership.

Perhaps the perpetrators or conspirators were hoping to spark direct political intervention in the governance of Bermuda similar to that taking place in the Turks & Caicos Islands by the British as a result of allegations of corruption on the part of the leaders of that British Overseas Territory.

Ever since the Progressive Labour Party assumed the reins of government, it has been the subject of a concerted campaign intended to suggest they are corrupt. Even in the wake of Scotland Yard being sent here to investigate allegations of wrongdoings in the affairs of the Bermuda Housing Corporation and their failure to find any such wrongdoins, political detractors have kept up their nefarious smear campaign against the Government.

Their campaign has reached such a level that it could threaten the political stability of this country and this latest act makes this quite clear.

If it is true that bogus cheques were planted in an attempt to discredit the Premier of this country and an outspoken Minister in his Government, then such a scheme can be considered nothing less than an attempt to pull down this Government. Their political detractors would like to win the political debate on corruption charges wth a knock-out blow that would allow them to regain control of the Government.

I recall back during the 1960s when I was a Young Turk in the PLP Youth Wing, we once hatched a plan to disrupt the City Hall elections only to be thwarted in our plans by Dame Lois Browne Evans.

She lectured us on the principles of the democratic process, adding that the PLP was not going to win the Government other than through the ballot box.

So we were prevented from crossing the line in terms of activism. It took the Progressive Labour Party a long time to win the political debate in this country which finally enabled them to win the Government a decade ago.

During all those long years in the political wilderness, the PLP never resorted to false allegations against the then United Bermuda Party Government which held power continuously between 1968 amd 1998.

As far as political corruption is concerned, a great case could have been made against the UBP at that time everything from favouritism to cronyism and using the Government for personal economic advantage.

In the latest edition of The Workers Voice, columnist LaVerne Furbert names United Bermuda Party Government members who enjoyed access to Government contracts for work and services rendered to the Government. No one accused them of using their political positions to gain unfavourable economic benefits and/or corruption. Even on those occasions when the then PLP Opposition brought the issue up on the floor of the House of Assembly, they were soon dismissed and certainly there was no sustained attempts at follow-up on the part of the media in Bermuda.

Despite our often heated political discourse over the years, going back to the days when the Universal Adult Suffrage campaign finally succeeded in making Bermuda a genuine democracy, we never got to the point where there was no longer any question of bridging the political and cultural divides in this country,

But I can cite the example of Jamaica (and this is not to single out my Jamaican brothers and sisters) as an example of a country where the political divide led to quite literal battle lines being drawn between supporters of the two main parties. Jamaican politics was not always a lightning rod for violence but for the last 30 years or so it has been steeped in conflict. Political loyalties have become entrenched to the point that political party supporters could not cross into a rival's political territory without risking actual bodily harm. And Jamaica is by no means the only country where the political landscape has been transformedinto a quite real battleground.

This is not to say that Bermuda has reached this point. But the PLP's political detractors, in their effort to discredit this Government, should be reminded that the governing party does not exist in isolation.

It has its supporters and once you go across the line where it is no longer just a question of winning the political debate by following the rules and you employ other, underhand methods which fall outside normal democratic process, then you run the risk of creating a situation where the political landscape could deteriotate into a battleground. Then the question on everyone's lips would be, "How did we ever allow things to get to this point?'