Sir John Swan has praised Premier Alex Scott's pro-Bermudian stance over the appointment of the Chief Justice.

He said Mr. Scott was right to favour naturalised Bermudian Norma Wade-Miller over Englishman Richard Ground.

And he said the row had shown weaknesses in Bermuda's system of Government.

"Decisions being made behind closed doors and thrust upon the public are becoming more and more of an anachronism in our society.

"What you are seeing is the results of this process playing itself out which has been going on for a long time.

"The public's right to know and understand has also been growing.

"You have a situation now where the Governor in exercising his powers even with the consultation of the Premier, which he's supposed to do under the constitution, found himself in a difficult position because Bermuda has emerged as an advanced democracy but still with these historical anachronisms thus the process of conflict becomes more pronounced.

"Therefore you have a Premier who has to deal with the day to day realities of Bermuda and the political process whose principle is that Bermudians should be given a chance.

"We should not evolve a system that is geared on hypothesis that dictates we should choose someone because of what might happen as opposed to choosing someone who's had a greater kinship with the cultural dynamics of Bermuda.

"I believe that's where the Premier built his rationalisation from and rightly took his position."

He said cultural dynamics as well as qualifications should be taken into account when selecting a judge.

"Maybe there might be faults in our system in that you need to have a commercial branch of your judicial system to deal with a case which might be complicated and evolved and generally distracting from a judge who has to deal with dynamics of the local economy."

He said the solution would be to have one or two judges dedicated to commercial cases.

"I think the time will come when the matter needs reviewing. I am in favour of a transparent system.

He cited the example of the Senate ratifying or rejecting the President's choice of judicial appointments. "I think eventually we have to get to the same level."

He said Governors came and went but the consequences of the judicial appointments were long lasting and problems were caused by the Governor having executive powers.

Bermuda's battle with Britain over the appointment had prompted Mr. Scott and others to drop hints over the issue of Independence.

Sir John said he believed Mr. Scott would have better luck moving his Government in that direction than his owned doomed bid in 1995.

"People within the UBP saw the Governor and being under the British was something they enjoyed, I think there's a fundamental view in the PLP which I admire that is that one of these days Bermuda has to grow up and take on its own responsibilities and PLP don't have a fear about Bermuda's future.

"In my case, which I don't think the present Premier will experience, the whole thing became a political process. It had nothing to do with whether people wanted independence or did not. It became a process that within my own party people had their own ambitions.

"Within the PLP there were people who felt rightfully so that it they could just give it to John Swan we could win the election.

"Unfortunately there were people within my party who had their own ambitions it gave comfort to the PLP with some of their actions. They hooked up with the PLP, aligned themselves with the PLP to scuttle the referendum.

"If you want to point a finger the UBP's demise was directly related to the decision by certain people within my own party to hook up with the PLP, even though some of them voted in favour within caucus and within the cabinet they at the same time hooked up with the PLP to be against it.

"The UBP lost its moral authority in that process and it was the beginning of the end of the UBP."

He said Mr. Scott had been right to back Norma Wade-Miller.