When Khalid Wasi urged the UBP to pack it in as it it had no hope of winning last year's general election he was a voice in the wilderness. Many wondered why a party a few hundred votes from power would give up the ghost.

But as the Opposition debates whether to disband in talks that could see its parliamentary party split in two, some are conceding Mr. Wasi was indeed right.

And when the UBP slumped to its third emphatic defeat and lost ground in key seats Mr. Wasi was not at all surprised while those who predicted a close thing were left feeling foolish.

He might have been spot on but he's not gloating.

"I told people before the election my currency would be worth a lot more come December 19. I predicted the election to the man. I am not happy I won my bets.

"I would have been happier if the UBP wouldn't have spent all that money, time and energy chasing an idea that's not going to work; they don't have the demographics any more."

He said the failure of the UBP to realise the game was up was adding to widespread disillusionment.

"But many people in the community realise what I am saying. They are hopelessly lost. It is not going to happen. They are helping the PLP build a dynasty. Because there is no alternative. All the zeal that these guys have amounts to, in my view, political insanity."

A lot of people had told him it was unrealistic for the party to dissolve.

"But I thought one of the ingredients of service was having integrity.

"If people are simply just going to remain in politics to receive a pay cheque when effectively they are just handing the Government to the labour party ¿ just handing it to them just by virtue of them staying there then their stance is immoral, individually and personally."

"What needs to happen is the party itself needs to recognise it is is not just the core PLP supporters that helped the party win, you are talking about a significant number of the swing voters ¿ middle class blacks in order for the PLP to achieve that mandate.

"Which means as bad as they would believe the Government looks, the UBP look infinitely worse in the eyes of many of the middle road people they need to get a mandate."

He said the UBP must recognise Bermuda needed to change. "The only thing the United Bermuda Party is doing is guaranteeing that the PLP will continue to win and almost create a dynasty.

"And the only thing that can beat the PLP is another opposition which is not going to be possible as long as the UBP believes that it has a chance."

He said it would be better for nine or ten people to win seats under a new entity and a new vision that could grow than have 14 UBP-ers carry on without hope of success.

"I know they are not going to do it because they are too blind to recognise where the electorate is. But I have heard there is the potential for a break away group.

"The problem they are going to have is the labour party will dub them as 'a rose by any other name' because they are seen as being exactly the same members, being another segment of the UBP occupying another part of the bench.

"The thought of individuals breaking away from the UBP and trying to form a third entity ¿ one of the main concerns I would have is them being able to shake the reputation of being ex-UBP-ers.

He said the election was extremely partisan.

"The mandate they got was a UBP mandate. On that basis, the ethics would suggest to me it would be better if they resigned their seats."

But if they do stand down and refight their seats in by-elections, they can be recognised as something new said Mr. Wasi.

"If six, seven, eight members of the UBP decided they no longer wanted to be part of the UBP then the UBP should effectively consider it's finished."

But any change could be risky if it is not done right, said Mr. Wasi. In order to become the official Opposition the breakaway group would need at least eight MPs.

Mr. Wasi is not sure if the break away will happen. "If they don't get eight people they will probably sit still."

Some take the view the recent talk is just manouvring by some individuals in the party to move ahead in the party quicker.

"That could easily happen, most individuals don't like to be marginalised. I don't think they have the kind of fibre to stand. If they had a strong vision they would break away anyway but I don't think that is the case."

With both current parties occupying the middle ground and offering very similar platforms at the last election it might seem as if a new group would have little chance of staking out new ground ideologically ¿ unless it veered off into extremist policies which might make it unelectable.

But Mr. Wasi, whose All Bermuda Congress group (ABC) promoted greater rights for ordinary voters, believed there is potential for a grass roots movement.

"The parties are very hierarchical ¿ the UBP and the PLP were formed very much off their history. They tend to want people to follow the order or the legacy.

"But Bermuda is at a different level. What is needed is a party which can capture where Bermudian people are today ¿ how they want to be governed and associate today ¿ with the kind of laws and structure that bring about a sense of fairness and equity that's needed today."

He cited fixed term elections and open planning applications which would remove delays and political interference.

"What is needed is a whole new vision of how to govern in a small country like this. How to make effective citizens out of everyone."

He fears the new group won't offer anything that goes that far but he doesn't regret not putting the ABC platform to the voters.

"We saw very early with all the money that was going into the UBP coffers that it was not going to be any possibility for a third entity to break into this race. We pulled away."

Since the election there have been plenty of PLP MPs urging the UBP to continue on, perhaps out of an eagerness to again fight a foe they are confident of defeating.

But if the UBP was wiped out then the PLP would be on the skids too argues Mr. Wasi who has always believed the current parties are a reaction to each other, take one away and the other flounders.

"If the UBP did not exist then the Progressive Labour Party would have hell to win an election because 70 percent of the black population are not hardcore supporters of the PLP ¿ but it's just that many of them absolutely will not vote for the UBP. But they want fair, good governance and economic empowerment.

"If another party were to stand which had middle of the roads ¿ not the right wing, ultra-conservative element known to the UBP but middle of the road people connected to grass roots blacks, coupled with white support and white politicians they will create an unassailable majority."

He said the opportunity for creating a consensus party to straddle the political divide was there for the taking for a breakaway PLP faction too.

"If people who right now currently were inside the PLP ¿ young professionals ¿ were to stand and form a new organisation it would create an unassailable majority because the white population will never vote PLP.

"There's a strong bunch of de facto PLP supporters who will never vote UBP, who have great integrity, who want good governance and right now that group are concerned that the image that's being spun and the culture that's being created doesn't serve their interest."

In short its time for Bermuda's politics to grow up as far as Mr. Wasi is concerned.

"Bermuda has a very sophisticated economy and a child's brain as far as politics goes. Our politics are so far behind our society.

"If we are able to break the current racial, almost tribal politics, you will intellectually and spiritually liberate people from this kind of low level politics and we can indeed become a more positive society.

"When you have a very low level of politics where principles and ideas are not held high you almost give a licence on the guys on the street at the low level to do just about anything. Self interest, theft, corruption becomes the order of the day.

"There's nihilism where people think 'why aspire to anything?' If you destroy that and put in morality and integrity where people can respect each other for what they bring to the table as opposed to the colour of their skins and where they come from then I think Bermuda will flourish.

"People would want to be here, they would feel happier about working here, living here and investing here. The feel-good factor in a society is very, very important. That is something we are losing right now.

"I don't think you want drivers looking in the rear view mirror backwards to justify how things are today. We need to step up a bit.

"That's what a new brand of politics would do, bring a sort of transcendence, to transcend personal issues of race and to get on with something better."